I have been noticing in my patients the incredible capacity for fear to "lock in" and perpetuate that which one is afraid of. For example, fear of falling (poor balance) makes balance much worse and makes falling more likely. It is a cruel but very common paradox. A patient has an intense and prolonged fear of not sleeping and indeed, his sleep is disturbed and inadequate for him. My friend has a fear of becoming disabled although she is one of the more capable and "solid" people that I know. Many seniors become overwhelmed with fear of Alzheimer's disease at the slightest sign of normal forgetting. The angst generated by this awareness seems to exacerbate the problem. The old saying, "What you resist, persists" seems particularly applicable and foreshadowing. So, what to do? In my experience, the remedy for this conundrum has 3 parts. First, acknowledging and becoming aware of the fear is a necessity. This is often uncomfortable and difficult to tal
A medical challenge is an opportunity to heal.