Two Patients Face Painful Truths
"How have you been doing, Mark," she asked. Tears began to roll down his cheeks. The group gave him a moment to collect himself.
"I can't stand what this is doing to my mother," he finally said, looking down into his lap.
"Stephen, I want for you to sit behind Mark. We'll pretend that you are him. Mark, why don't you talk to us about how you think the cancer has effected your mother's life."
This therapy was meant to help patients to be able to release his feelings of self-anger about the pain that he was causing others. They sat back-to-back in wheelchairs.
Mark took a deep breath.
"Mark, I don't know what to do about you anymore. I know that you are going to die and go through a lot of pain. What am I supposed to do to make it better? I am your mother. I am not supposed to outlive you. Your father is gone. What am I going to do without you?"
Mark's tears began to flow again.
"Now, Stephen how do you think Mark's mother would respond to these thoughts?"
Stephen didn't know what to do. He had never thought of how his own illness had affected the others in his life. Stephen also looked down into his lap and began to cry. He didn't want to die the way Mark was dying. Stephen felt sorry for the patients in the room. Maybe, cancer wasn't his diagnosis after all.
****
Stephen's tests came back negative. He finally agreed to go through cognitive therapy. Deciding to learn as much as possible how his hypochondriasis had taken its toll on his life and those around him was a giant step for him. Through his studies, he learned that feeling sick all of the time wasn't accomplishing anything for him. There was a long way to go, but after being in that group therapy room, he realized that he was in need of help. Even with a long way to go, he was taking his first vital step.
_____ If by reading either of these patient's case studies, you realize that you fit into the scope of needing help due to true illness or due to needing help because you are obsessed with a nonexistent illness, we encourage you to seek out the truth. Finding out the truth about your health, whether physical or mental, will be the key to your finding true health
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