“It’s quite remarkable how the illnesses that are increasing at the moment are not the big, killer diseases, grounded in real, physical pathology,” says David Wainwright. “It’s the subjective problems of everyday life that are becoming medicalised, where there’s no actual evidence of any physical illness. “Even hassles at work are interpreted through the medicalised category of work stress rather than political or industrial relations issues” – a practice that Wainwright says is promoted by government agencies. “Health policy is promoting this belief that we’re all at risk from absolutely everything we come into contact with, and that just encourages us to feel more vulnerable and to interpret our normal experiences as health problems. It’s all just amplifying this epidemic of non-specific illness, which has incredibly disabling effects on people.”
It is good that there is so much awareness about this among these psychologists.
Wow- Thank you so much for posting. Intuitively I have been really careful about what doctors I see. I really dont like the ones who have the style that contributes to the nocebo affect.
I emailed some of the researchers to tell them about TMS. One of them replied that he had never heard of it but was fascinated and was off to google it!
We need to keep pushing the information out like this.
Interesting article in The Financial Times
Posted - 04/29/2009 : 15:15:24
