I’ve struggled to explain this concept before. This is my second Post on the same topic, and it is probably the most important topic you need to think about when it comes to health. I feel that I should continue to post about it, even if it gets repetitive, as my thinking evolves about the concept. Please bear with me.
If you’ve got a chronic health problem, no one on this planet should be more committed to fixing it than you. No one. Not your parents. Not your spouse. Definitely not your doctor.
Your doctor should be there to guide you on your way back to health. Show you the pitfalls that are possible. The dangers that hide behind corners. You should be charting your own route.
For that, you need a map. And map reading skills. A sense of adventure and curiosity. If you’re filled with fear and screwing your eyes shut, you’ll never get to the place where you were meant to reach. You’ll end up being carried bodily. You’ll not benefit from the journey. You might get taken to places you don’t wish to get to. You might get robbed on the way. You’ll not see the path that has taken you to the new place, so the next time you get lost, you’ll have no knowledge to make your journey easier/safer/faster
Or, you could get carried away by over confidence and little knowledge, not listen to the guide that’s trying to show you the safest way through and blunder your way off a cliff.
Obviously, there is a balance to be achieved here.
How much responsibility do you hand over to the guide? How much of the final decision at each step should be yours? Who decides the way points? If you’re making the decisions, do you know enough to make them? Are you knowledgeable enough to disagree with your guide? Is your guide open to discussion? Does your guide think you know enough about the journey to make them? What have you demonstrated so far, to increase your guide’s confidence in your knowledge and decision making skills?
Hope the metaphor helped. Hope you find your answers. I’m going to keep chipping away at this.