Lifestyle Choices

Psychological approaches work best for persons who are able and willing to describe their thoughts and feelings. In other words, they must be reasonably verbal about their problems. Many patients are so preoccupied with physical symptoms that they are unwilling to discuss their thoughts and emotions. Some are obviously anxious and or sad but deny experiencing these emotions. They will be less likely to benefit from psychological therapies. (more…)

A great many of my patients do not really know what stress actually is. They think that it’s an outside force causing them to feel tense. But that’s not stress — that’s a stressor. Stress is a person’s negative reaction to a stressor.

For the most part, people have a negative reaction to stressors when they feel that their stressors are greater than their ability to deal with them. When they feel like this, they see their stressors as threats. On the other hand, if they think they can handle their stressors, they usually see them as challenges and generally enjoy grappling with them.

If you now feel as if your life is full of threats, instead of challenges, you are experiencing stress. If your degree of stress is severe, it’s going to be quite difficult for you to live a balanced, healthy lifestyle free from compulsion, including the compulsion to overeat. (more…)

Seeking and Complying with Medical Advice

Some people purposely avoid seeking the advice of a physician because they fear that something may be wrong. This occurs in spite of the evidence that delay in treatment greatly increases the risk of death for many diseases that can be cured or controlled. In addition to medical readiness exams for those beginning exercise (see Concept 4), regular preventive medical exams are important. After age forty, a yearly preventive exam is recommended for all people. Young adults probably need a regular medical examination less often, but a regular examination is important for all people to help in the early diagnosis of problems. Regular self- examination for breast (females) and testicular (males) cancer are recommended, as are periodic mammograms and PAP tests for females (especially after age forty), and a prostate test for males. Other important behaviors that should be considered are listed as follows:

• Be familiar with the symptoms of the most common medical problems in our culture.
• If symptoms are present, seek medical help. Many deaths could be prevented if the early warning signs of medical problems were heeded.

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