Poised and ready to enjoy!
This week I thought I would share what I learned from my patients regarding important attributes for a successful recovery.
Of course, all my patients are heroes and heroines in my eyes, whether they successfully achieve their goal of coming off their medications or not. After all, there is an unpredictable element to every healing journey.
However, I feel that these top three attributes play such an important role in successful healing that I look for them in new patients who want help with medication withdrawal. Without these attributes, even when I do my best, the patient is unlikely to succeed.
Read on to find out what the top three attributes are.
Three Essential Attributes of Successful Patients
How to Heal Enough to Stop Being a Patient
My most amazing and miraculous healing experience in all my years as a holistic psychiatrist was with an accountant who looked a little like the drawings of Dr. Dolitte. Check out his perspective on my website here under "Successful Antipsychotic (Abilify) Withdrawal After 22 Years of Schizophrenia."
He was in his 50's when he came to see me, and he had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He had called seven psychiatrists before he called me, trying to find a doctor who would agree to help him safely withdraw from a small amount of antipsychotic medication. Every doctor refused. When he talked with me, I refused too, but he told me that he didn't care if we failed in the attempt. He just wanted a chance to try. Given his willingness to take the risk of a relapse, I decided to give it a try.
Ever since his diagnosis, he suffered from frequent auditory hallucinations of people berating him, even when taking medications. As we started him on nutritional supplements, he was able to slowly reduce his medications and eventually, about six months after he stopped his medication, the voices became less frequent, quieted down, and then disappeared for the first time in his life. He never had to go back on medication even when he experienced increased stress right before his father died of a series of strokes. We increased his supplements during that time and reduced it after the stress decreased. At this time, I have not needed to see him for years.
He was a great example of the top three qualities every patient needs for success: courage, humility, and perseverance.
Courage: It is not easy to lower one's medication when the risk may lead to decreased mental functioning. But every one of my patients who has ever succeeded in coming off their medications had to have that level of courage and to demonstrate it repeatedly. It is the kind of courage that allows someone to rush out of their bunker and into the battlefield, knowing that doing so would risk injury or death. It is especially difficult if the patient is experiencing symptoms that suggest they may need to increase rather than decrease their medication. When that happens, not only does the patient need to be courageous, but also have great faith in my judgment.
Humility: Patients who succeed are always open to learning new approaches and take their homework seriously. They really are the ones whom if asked to jump, they ask, "How high?" When given a complicated nutritional regimen, they take their supplements dutifully and are conscientious about following directions. They don't pick and choose what they will or won't do or try to direct treatment. Instead, they work with me to implement the treatment to the best of their ability. Patients who tell me on the phone that they already know everything about their nutritional needs and ask whether they have to take the supplements I recommend are waving a big red flag that says, "not a good candidate for healing!"
Perseverance: The healing process is a marathon, not a sprint. Just as my Dr. DoLittle patient persevered in calling psychiatrist after psychiatrist to help him get off his medication, he persevered with treatment. He persevered with his gluten and dairy free diet. He persevered with taking his nutritional supplements. He persevered with his follow-up appointments until he no longer needed to have further follow-ups. In fact, despite decades of being constantly berated through his auditory hallucinations, he never gave up hope that one day he would be well.
Because of the nature of my practice, I am privileged to meet many courageous patients whose humble journeys lead them through extraordinary healing as they persevere. I honor them for their faith in their ability to achieve the impossible and for the hard work they put into their healing processes.