Helping our patients pivot from the “fight or flight response” to the “acceptance and assertiveness response”

Over the years, I have seen fellow colleagues including Registrars, experienced much pain or dread when they see patients suffer emotionally.

This can of course, impact our own mental health.

So how can we reframe that?

Whenever appropriate, I try to remind myself that when people hit rock bottom or close to it, they are much closer than others to shift towards acceptance and post traumatic growth.

Once adequately validated and safety achieved, we can see it as an opportunity to pivot from the “hopelessness” around their fight or flight responses, to more emotional acceptance and assertiveness towards a value driven life.

So we can frame it as using the pain and suffering, as catalysts to transform the hopelessness around the “old ways”, into hopefulness with the “new ways”.