Bias


Risk Literacy


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"Hysterical female? Just anxious? Or heart attack?"
https://myheartsisters.org/2016/03/27/hysterical-female-just-anxious-or-heart-attack/

QuoteI waited because I felt shamed into feeling like an hysterical female, shamed into feeling like I was just anxious. JUST anxious. Like anxiety itself is something that isn't real when we know that it is. Like anxiety is something to be ashamed of or embarrassed by. When our lives, bodies, souls, are in distress, anxiety is a likely outcome. Wear it proudly. It might save your life one day, and it can be treated, too.

He is not the first doctor to do this, and it is not always men, either.

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"Do listen, and stop being mean"
http://66roses.blogspot.com/2016/01/do-listen-and-stop-being-mean.html

QuoteThere's not a person reading this who hasn't had some sort of interaction with the healthcare system, being on the receiving end, the patient side, who hasn't felt judged or labeled or misunderstood by the person providing the care - being labeled (formally or otherwise) as a difficult patient/parent, being non-compliant, having a mental health issue because we simply don't agree. How do we change that stigma, make patients feel more like partners, going in to consult with a subject matter expert but being of equal importance in what they bring to the table, their experience.

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"What not to say to a child with mental health issues"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/guide-parents-say-child-mental-health-crisis-1.3569848

QuoteParents can now turn to a new resource to help them navigate through what they should and shouldn't say if their kids are depressed or are faced with mental health issues.

QuoteThe young people said phrases like, 'it's just a phase or you'll get over it,' or 'don't worry so much you are only a kid,' aren't helpful.

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"Allergy's High Anxiety: How to Tame Kids' Fears of Food Reactions"
http://allergicliving.com/2016/05/02/allergys-high-anxiety-how-to-tame-kids-fears-of-food-reactions/

QuoteSo a huge question for allergy practices has become, not just how to test, find accurate diagnoses, and counsel food avoidance, but how to assist patients and parents so they don't become captives to anxiety, and can learn to live well with the disease. Some large U.S. and European food allergy clinics are bringing psychologists such as Herbert on board to help families achieve that emotionally healthy state through modern techniques, which range from extremely frank discussion to wellness and cognitive behavioral approaches.

the British psychological society 'living with severe food  allergy'

QuoteIn this interview BPS Associate Fellow Dr. Khadija Rouf consultant clinical psychologist from North and West Oxfordshire Adult Mental Health Team, Nuffield Health Centre discusses her research into the psychological challenges for children and parents living with a severe food allergy.

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Tweeted by @ElaineSchattner

Quoteouch. Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee Uses #Schizophrenia As A Slur, Gets It Wrong, by @ejwillingham - onforb.es/1HCCOk1 @Forbes

Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee Uses Schizophrenia As A Slur, Gets It Wrong
http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywillingham/2015/07/03/presidential-candidate-mike-huckabee-uses-schizophrenia-as-a-slur-gets-it-wrong/

QuoteMischaracterizing schizophrenia and attempting to use it as a slight, as Huckabee did in his remarks, does nothing to diminish either the misunderstanding or the stigma

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Tweeted by @HeartSisters

Support patients emotionally to foster full recovery aka "Hope: the Original"
https://tdahlborg.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/support-patients-emotionally-to-foster-full-recovery/

QuoteHe didn't ask if I was scared. He didn't ask if I was anxious or depressed about this news or the prospect of brain surgery to fix it. He gave me the facts.

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Managing the Emotional Impact of Living with a Food Allergy
Speaker: Jeanne Herzog, PhD
6/17/15 FARE Webinar

http://www.foodallergy.org/tools-and-resources/webinars

(Once they archive it, I can put the direct link.)


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KFA

FREE Webinar: Coping with Food Allergy Anxiety:
Back to School and More

August 11, 2015 at 1 pm Eastern | 10 am Pacific

http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/page/webinars.aspx

QuoteChildren with food allergies may experience anxiety. Worries and fears can come up for many reasons.

QuoteJoin Dr. Gianine D. Rosenblum and Kids With Food Allergies to learn about anxiety coping strategies. Dr. Rosenblum, a psychologist, specializes in the treatment of trauma. She is also the mom of a teenager with food allergies.

Well, seeing is believing.  I honestly think that even gurus don't see these patients all that often.  DD is, by our allergist's admission, one of the two lowest-threshold kids he's ever seen-- and he trained at Sinai.

So she's not only in the 1%, but probably more like the 0,1% or maybe even 0,01%.

The reason why those kids seem like they might be more common if you hang around HERE is probably two-fold:

1.  Most people with higher thresholds don't stick around here even if they initially come looking-- because once they figure out HOW to live life with a FA, they adjust and don't struggle all that much.  KWIM?

2.  It's the internet-- the people who need this place most (lowest threshold, severe reactions, other extenuating circumstances)-- tend to congregate here.

  If one were to hang out at KWA, it'd be just as easy to imagine that a eosinophilic disorders are WAY more common than they actually are.

People who are actually capable of reacting to the amounts of material which are present in the ambient air in spaces with normal methods of aerosolization (that is, mechanical means other than industrial mixing of fine powders, or thermal aerosolization, both of which put a LOT of protein into the air) are VERY RARE.

But it's not psychosomatic.  The mental gymnastics that I have to do in order to make that 'fit' what we've seen firsthand with our DD is an order of magnitude greater than accepting that she reacts to ultratrace quantities that have been aerosolized.

Occam's Razor.

I do not subscribe to the hypothesis that she can react to the "smell" of peanut butter.  Not the same thing at all.  Scent molecules tend to be volatile organic compounds-- often aromatic ring structures.  PROTEINS, on the other hand, are not like that chemically at all. 

Quote from: CMdeux on December 28, 2013, 02:43:54 PM
When she was five, her allergist espoused the opinion that sending her to school would be "work, but feasible."  He simply didn't believe in aerosol-provocation of systemic reactions.  I knew that he was wrong in DD's case, but no amount of MY opinion was going to budge him.  So I bided my time, and let him SEE that I wasn't crazy or over-reactive.  I graciously told him that we'd have to agree to disagree, because I knew what I'd seen.  We did reach common ground in that he conceded that any environment which was THAT contaminated was probably an unacceptably high risk for eventual inadvertent ingestion anyway, and so it was a good sign to "vacate the location" even if he didn't think that inhalation was a real "risk."  In and of itself, I mean.    I must say that my DH's skepticism a year before that hadn't done much to help my relationship with the allergist at that point in time, either.  Another story, that one.   

After four years of immunotherapy injections, he and his office staff had seen enough weird and impossible things from her that they believed me.    Completely.  Of course, I think that it also has helped that he now has had the personal, delightful experience of turning over a kid with about three times DD's threshold to a school setting, too... so he gets it now in a way that he seriously just couldn't wrap his head around previously.

CM,

Thought of you when I saw this.

Tweeted by @IgECPD

Quote.@DrDougMackMD now leading discussion surrounding false belief of 'airborne' peanut allergen from peanut butter causing reactions #CSACI

Curious what your thoughts are.

Tweeted by @Annakwood

"Don't Worry Your Pretty Little Head"
http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/ok-this-really-has-to-stop.html?spref=fb

Quote
OK, this really has to stop.

I've written countless articles about the failure of doctors to listen to their patients. Whether that failure comes from judgement (they're "just" an addict, they're "just" depressed, they're "just" malingering) or from arrogance (I know best, what would they know, I have the medical degree) I honestly believe it is the single most dangerous factor in our healthcare system.

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Tweeted by @HealthcareWen

"MD slang not just disrespectful, it can kill"
http://www.thesudburystar.com/2014/10/11/md-slang-not-just-disrespectful-it-can-kill

QuoteMental health patients are more likely to be misdiagnosed, less likely to be screened for cancer and diabetes, more likely to die and to die at a younger age because their problems are undetected or neglected.

Quoteconversations have to take place even if they are uncomfortable.

"I believe from honest talk comes good things," said Goldman.

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Tweeted by @Farzad_MD

"Doctors Tell All—and It's Bad
A crop of books by disillusioned physicians reveals a corrosive doctor-patient relationship at the heart of our health-care crisis."
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/11/doctors-tell-all-and-its-bad/380785/

Quotewhy it has become so difficult for so many doctors and patients to communicate with each other

QuoteEven the most frustrated patient will come away with respect for how difficult doctors' work is.

The Day I Stopped Judging Parents of Children With Food Allergies


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"Paralyzed By Doubt? Here's A Guide For The Worrier In Us All"
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/05/27/409792775/paralyzed-by-doubt-heres-a-guide-for-the-worrier-in-us-all?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=health&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews

QuoteCorrell often tackles mental illness in her comics, including a detailed explanation of panic attacks and a sardonic take on those ubiquitous "Keep Calm" posters: "I can't keep calm and carry on because I have an anxiety disorder."

A Worrier's Guide makes light of serious mental health issues as well as the everyday angst that affects us all.

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Feisty advice to patients: "Get down off your cross!"
http://myheartsisters.org/2014/10/05/debra-jarvis-get-down-off-your-cross/

Quoteanything that brings us undue pain including abandonment, betrayal, rejection, being misunderstood, loss, and even a life-threatening illness.

QuoteShe's quick to point out, by the way, that she is NOT talking about occasional venting or processing of difficult emotions, which each of us absolutely must do once in a while for the sake of our mental health.

Instead, she's talking about not "feeding your emotions so you stay stuck".

@HeartSisters   

Tweeted by @6s_EQ

"Tips for Emotional Mastery (Eventually!)"
http://www.6seconds.org/2014/04/26/tips-for-emotional-mastery/

Quote2. Every emotion has a purpose.  They give us messages about opportunities and threats.  The "Emotoscope" offers many examples of the purpose of feelings.

yeah, emotions can be tough ... I sometimes catch myself yelling at dd w/ADHD ... I know this is not constructive or helpful ...  but the frustration on occasion gets the better of me.

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Tweeted by @HeartSisters

"When being a woman is an impediment to medical care: Dysautonomia"
http://bobisdysautonomia.blogspot.com/2014/11/when-being-woman-is-impediment-to.html?spref=tw

QuoteThe problem is two fold. Misattributing physiological symptoms to mental health diagnoses, further stigmatises those with psychological issues.

QuoteSecondly, this misattribution means that manageable, and potentially treatable, diagnoses may be overlooked and diagnosis delayed.

&

"Study Suggests Compassion Is Associated With A Better Doctor"
http://americanlivewire.com/2015-02-28-study-suggests-compassion-associated-better-doctor/

QuoteDoes physician compassion influence patients' anxiety levels?

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Tweeted by @ElaineSchattner

"Medicating Women's Feelings"
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/opinion/sunday/medicating-womens-feelings.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2

QuoteWOMEN are moody. By evolutionary design, we are hard-wired to be sensitive to our environments, empathic to our children's needs and intuitive of our partners' intentions.

QuoteWe have been taught to apologize for our tears, to suppress our anger and to fear being called hysterical.

QuotePeople who don't really need these drugs are trying to medicate a normal reaction to an unnatural set of stressors

Yup!      That would be people like my DH and myself. 

Most of my friends and family have learned that I can come up with a temporary solution to nearly anything-- and I don't even carry a large purse with me.  I'm just that  person.  Like MacGyver.   

Tweeted by @99u

"The Upside of Pessimism"
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/09/dont-think-positively/379993/

Quotepeople imagine worst-case scenarios in order to manage their anxiety. But what defensive pessimists do next is key: They come up with strategies to avoid having all of those bad things happen, thus ending up better-prepared and less anxious in the long-run.

"Stress test vs flipping a coin: which is more accurate?"
http://myheartsisters.org/2014/03/01/stress-test-vs-flipping-a-coin/

QuoteOne of the most serious concerns about tests that are commonly used despite  important diagnostic accuracy issues is that an initial "normal" test may lead to misdiagnosis. No further tests will be ordered. Doctors like Duke University's Dr. Pamela Douglas call this phenomenon "verification bias".

"How do you know when a hypochondriac is really sick?"
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2014/09/know-hypochondriac-really-sick.html

QuoteSo how do you know when a hypochondriac is really sick?

Quote
the only way you're going to know that is to keep open the lines of communication with them

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"Don't let our desire to be respected get in the way of our oaths"
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2014/12/dont-let-desire-respected-get-way-oaths.html

QuoteOur hard-wired tendency to prejudge is unavoidable, so we need to recognize it in order for it not to control us.

QuoteWe cannot be too proud or stubborn to admit when our first thought is wrong. We have to keep listening.

"Emergency Departments Implement New Triage Form to Screen Patients for Actual Disease"
http://www.gomerblog.com/2014/07/triage/

QuoteThe decision tool is called AYAS (Are You Actually Sick)

QuoteDoes the patient have >2 medical allergies?

http://www.gomerblog.com/disclaimer/

QuoteGomerblog.com is strictly a satirical and fake news blog site.

but satire can be a powerful way to illustrate attitudes.

"When the stigma of a disease makes its diagnosis even worse"
http://ethicalnag.org/2012/06/14/stigma-of-a-disease-makes-diagnosis-worse/

QuoteThe question of which diagnoses are associated with social stigma is interesting to me

QuoteMayo Clinic experts explain:

"Based on stereotypes, stigma is a negative judgment based on a personal trait— in this case, having a mental health condition.

"A cruel paradox when it comes to mental disorders"
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2014/08/cruel-paradox-comes-mental-disorders.html?utm_content=bufferb2bbc&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

QuoteBut there is a cruel paradox when it comes to mental disorders. While we chase the receding holy grail of future basic science breakthrough, we are shamefully neglecting the needs of patients who are suffering right now.

Reminds me of the quote

QuoteJust because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you

let's build off of that ...

QuoteJust because you're anxious doesn't mean your food allergy isn't real or dangerous.

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Martin,

I hope that you are getting allergy help from an allergist & help with the anxiety from a mental health professional.