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sgibbs's picture

Illness

Submitted by sgibbs on Fri, 09/19/2008 - 3:21pm.

Laura -

Your comments about your personal experience of the term "illness" made me think about another group of clients I have dealt with...substance abusers and addicts. Many therapeutic approaches to treating these clients shun the use of the term "illness" for just the reason you state - it can lead to feelings of powerlessness and reluctance to accept personal responsibility. To some extent I agree, but I don't think using the term illness necessarily leds to complacency - I certainly have not observed that in my clients with schizophrenia, for example.

 By analogy, if I get ill with a cold, I might feel like it "happened" to me, but I might also admit that maybe I've been working too hard, and I'm still gonna go buy some cough syrup!

Sarah

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