I can relate to this in a weird way. "Anxiety" has been framed as a state to be avoided and that it is harmful. Likewise, as a kid growing up with severe/profound deafness, I was always framed as having a severely limiting disability. These expectations absolutely had an impact on my worldview for a long time -- a Nocebo effect where our belief in the harm will elicit the harm.
Telling someone with Anxiety that what their experiencing is bad will absolutely feed the unwanted consequences of a nocebo. When I stopped believing the label of "bad, awful, pitiful" that was assigned to my disability, I was able to start leveraging and benefiting from the positive elements of my hearing condition -- accepting it for its strengths and focusing less on the disadvantages. I believe we should help folks recognize the potential of their experiences and not just the damage.
Early in my career, I stumbled on the concept of Iatrogenesis and I think your post really reinforces my learning from that. As always, I'm grateful for your writing!
I can relate to this in a weird way. "Anxiety" has been framed as a state to be avoided and that it is harmful. Likewise, as a kid growing up with severe/profound deafness, I was always framed as having a severely limiting disability. These expectations absolutely had an impact on my worldview for a long time -- a Nocebo effect where our belief in the harm will elicit the harm.
Telling someone with Anxiety that what their experiencing is bad will absolutely feed the unwanted consequences of a nocebo. When I stopped believing the label of "bad, awful, pitiful" that was assigned to my disability, I was able to start leveraging and benefiting from the positive elements of my hearing condition -- accepting it for its strengths and focusing less on the disadvantages. I believe we should help folks recognize the potential of their experiences and not just the damage.
Early in my career, I stumbled on the concept of Iatrogenesis and I think your post really reinforces my learning from that. As always, I'm grateful for your writing!
thanks for being so comfortable disclosing details about your life.
so with you as I am simply obsessed with tradeoffs and its disappointing when people don't know that this is true with every condition.
It all comes back to the Dosing issue (which includes our attitudes about things).