Awww, isn’t it cute? Psychiatrists have found a new word, and are all abuzz with the possibilities. What’s all this about mutuality? Let’s have a look:
“We’ve learned from our [patients] they do best when we let them take charge of themselves,” Dr. Elpers says. “Medications are helpful but only helpful when the client understands how to take them. We need to teach patients how to manage symptoms, give them the freedom to adjust them. In this way the physician becomes a consultant for the patient.” (my bold).
And many physicians are moving beyond “compliance” to “concordance” or “aiming for agreement,” Dr. Sachs says. “We are mapping out together, asking patients, ‘How do we get here?’ The key is to formulate a menu of choices for the patient and then negotiate.”
But sometimes there’s a disconnect, and what physicians are saying isn’t what patients are hearing.
One has to ask if what patients are saying is quite what physicians are hearing, but one is not necessarily convinced patients say much of anything substantive in these transactions to begin with, beyond the general shucking and yessah, I will, whatever you say sir. And then do what we do with our pills and both doc and pt. know it’s a sham and to participate knowingly in a sham is insane. Nice set-up beyotches.
It’s like this: What is is. Except when I go to the psychiatrist’s office, where I leave the reality based world behind and act out teh charade, but only when entering the domain I must enter because my reality-testing has been found lacking. A disconnect you say? Pshaw!
No more nonsense about compliance and non-compliance. This is straight from the horse’s ass mouth. Concordance: arrow meet quiver.
Writhe Safely 
Concordance is a felony in Virginia.
Sheeyit, back to the drawing board! If you want me I’ll be feasting on the antipsychiatry frenzy, in concordance with the war on not feasting.
Sounds like the Australian Liberal government’s policy for the unemployed called “Mutual Obligation”.
“You sign this form to say you will turn up whenever and wherever we tell you to, and you agree not to be homeless and live hand to mouth or under a bridge.”
Great deal! Where do I sign?
“we let them take charge of themselves” freedom for the slaves? ohmygod they might free the slaves!
“Ten or 15 years ago it was thought it came from bad parenting, childhood trauma,” says Jair C. Soares, MD, psychiatry professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.
“But now research suggests subtle changes in the brains of people with bipolar.” Q….and how the fuck does that happen?
A. See first sentence of the quote.
I have an arrangement with my psychiatrist in which she prescribes an amount of pills (except the xanax) which exceeds what I might actually take in a month. For example, she prescribes three Effexor a day with the understanding that I can take anywhere from one to three. There are some other meds (e.g. Lamictal) which are set in stone, but it’s nice to have some flexibility with certain meds which can clamp down too hard or push me too high.
Language cannot mask the basic stance, the attitude of dominance the doctor feels is justly held.
Ask me if I would rather lap my poison from a blue bowl or a red one and when I refuse to drink, force me, tie me down and pour the poison down my throat, shaking your head sadly saying I was too confused to see how I was given choice.