Hi, I am Dr Milind Pimprikar. And you are watching fighting fit Fridays with Dr. Pimprikar. today we are going to speak about a unique concept called as “your disease your friend”.
Over the years of practicing medicine for odd 25 years there are certain observations regarding an individual’s response to a diseased state. I feel it is not only the physical suffering or pain which plays a role in a disease but, it is the mental state of human which plays a major role in this combat with the disease.
The thought process plays an extremely role and whatever it may be if you have contracted a disease, you have. You can’t revert the clock and say no this has not happened to me. And hence I started working on a principle of accepting this disease and personifying it as your friend.
When you utter the word friend, and remember one, you have a gush of positive feelings inside you and at the same time you only and only remember good old days which you spent with them. There are hardly any negative emotion playing at this point of time. Therefore, thought of accepting one’s disease as a friend excites me tremendously and from the beginning it establishes a very positive approach towards the unpleasant feeling of being ill.
So, what is a friend? it is a special bond shared with someone without any blood relation, cast, creed, sex and financial position with gains. It is the purest relationship which has unconditional acceptance of one’s existence. For many years wall of my hostel room was engraved with a saying “count your blessings by number of friends you have made” So, if you consider your disease as your friend, you would be in sync with it and although it may not have cure you probably will be healed psychologically.
We as human beings are born and born to suffer. Those who undergo sufferings with a smiling face and come to the terms with it leads an evolved and spiritually healed life. To expand this further,Let us take a scenario, you are sitting at home on a weekend and you have planned for an evening movie with the family. Suddenly the doorbell rings and you find your college days best buddy at the door. when a friend comes to your house unexpectedly you are shocked with happiness, you are overwhelmed, you might cancel all your commitments to accommodate him/her. You might utter few unparliamentary ‘F’ words unknowingly. But,What if it is a disease? your reaction is again the same. You would do all those things which you did for your friend except the difference is your shock here is filled with despair and agony. This is exactly we need to change and that is response to…. arrival of a disease.
It is very easily said than done but you can do it. It is not impossible. This will need a lot of thinking and other paraphernalia to achieve the desired goal. Like positive approach, family support, social support so on and so forth.
The moment you are diagnosed with any kind of disease, the natural reaction is that of DABDA described by (Kübler-Ross, E. and Kessler, D., 2005) way back in 1969. Which means the first reaction is denial of existence of disease. Then comes aggression, bargaining, depression and finally the acceptance.
It is our job to cut short this journey of denial to acceptance. The shorter this transition is, more healed one would be, the coping mechanisms would be better. Rational would prevail nobody is immortal in this mortal world and… despair of being diseased should not hold you back from enjoying this beautiful journey called life.
