Killer Stress: Its Grip on Healthcare
/Howard Benson of the Benson-Henry Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital has said that up to 90% of all medical office visits in this country are stress-related or stress-exacerbated (https://www.bensonhenryinstitute.org/mission-history/). This is indeed a public health crisis. Since the statistics come from so many different reporting groups (cardiology, oncology, gynecology/obstetrics, urology, neurology), we don’t see what is central to all of these patients - the way stress works in modern life.
Because our nervous systems were built for another time, we generate fight-or-flight responses to psychological versus physical threats, like it was designed. Instead of running for our lives form predators, we are generating the same circuitry to worry about a collegial relationship, how to pay for college, global warming, international terrorism, etc. We are being triggered repeatedly with limited means and modest values to prevent or repair the damage.
A little while ago, I got the flu and got it bad. Since I have a robust relationship with migraines, the sinus headache went there. I was clearly dehydrated and my doctor sent me to the Emergency Room for treatment. The stress all around me was overwhelming. From the den of pain, I could see:
prisoners being brought in with police escort,
a nun whose fellow sister needed a psych consult,
a boy whose father was on the phone as he waited his turn to be seen,
a man getting so very sick in a bag without any help, support or even a sip of water,
a person who became violent and brought police racing.
It struck me as an incredibly unlikely place to get well. We waited for over 8 hours to be called, only to be seen on a gurney in the hallway. The apathy that we faced throughout this experience was the only way you could work in such a high stress environment. I can’t imagine what it is like to have the day off - to walk in nature, to be at ease, and then to have to face a shift there.
And for those who are well, like my husband, a terrible place to find help for the ones they love. My husband didn’t eat all day because we were in the ER. He didn’t dare leave me in case we were called. I was in no position to advocate for myself. The only food options were highly processed bags of junk food and highly sugared or highly caffeinated drinks. At one point, I was on IVs getting what I needed and he asked to go to the cafeteria. He came back as quickly as he could because the caregivers really do have to direct your care. They have to remember what the nurse or physician look like and try to grab them as they whiz by. Only then could we get answers.
In the end, I don’t know what was more stressful - to be that sick so suddenly and deeply, or to have to go to the ER with its myriad of TV and sports shows on, and lack of real compassion.