This is probably gonna get me skewered, but I'm gonna say it anyway....
I can think back to when I was young and doctors routinely recommended kids have their tonsils removed if they had more than a couple of sore throats. Sore throat? Snip, snip, there ya go. All fixed. Then for some reason that treatment faded from popularity.
Later, when my children were young, a couple of bouts with an ear ache would surely result in "tubes" inserted in the kid's ear(s). Then, as quickly as that procedure gained favor, it faded.
Now we have dentists sending us junk mail and advertising on TV and radio telling us about all sorts of awful things that are churning in our mouth right this second, but fortunately, using their revolutionary new laser gun or whatever, they can cure it. Praise God!
Yes, I understand there are still real instances where tonsils need to be removed, ears need tubes inserted, and teeth need special treatment, but they are probably rare occurrences and not a one-size-fits-all fix.
This is the one I expect will get me skewered:
Grief counseling. It seems the news regularly reports horrible traffic accidents where kids were driving wild and crazy, or sadly, drinking, and they crash resulting in multiple fatalities. Immediately a team of "grief counselors" is dispatched to the kid's school in case any of the kid's classmates need help coping.
How did we or our parents or our kids survive without grief counselors? (Isn't that what ministers do?) Yes, I've had friends die suddenly or in some tragic accident, and somehow I accepted it, attended their funeral, celebrated their life, and moved on.
What does a grief counselor say? "I'm sorry your friend is gone. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. We don't know why. They just do." If they died doing something dumb (and all bullet-proof kids inevitably do dumb things), remind them this is what can happen. Learn from their friend. Life goes on.
I've never been to see a "grief counselor", and I might be totally wrong here, but it just seems to me like university psychology departments have invented a whole new speciality and reason to exist. I mean, let's be honest....there are only so many burgers psychology majors can flip.
I wonder if this is just another in a long line of "treatment's" we're being sold?
S
well, I agree with you. according to the mental health people we're all just a bunch of walking disorders. americans are such wimps, unless, of course, we have our semi- and automatic weapons and drone bombers.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many people actually talk to the grief counselor? Do they just pat you on the shoulder and hand you some pamphlets? Hmmm, maybe I'll pose this question to another blogger who is a shrink.
ReplyDeleteHmmm - I had my tonsils out AND tubes in my ears. I wonder now if they were necessary? Well, I do remember getting LOTS of earaches & not being able to hear well sometimes, and then that went away so maybe I did need them (but I'm not really sure). My brother on the other hand had strep throat about once a month until they took HIS tonsils out, so I think his was necessary.
ReplyDeleteYou're probably right about the grief counseling, but I'm still thinking about it...
I so have your back on this one! The kids need counceling because they see themselves as the victim for everything including a friends death.
ReplyDeleteTHere is a time and place for counciling, but many times I thing they make things worse.
Life was simpler in the days of our youth, even with those darned tonsil surgeries (and an emergency appendectomy in my case). I can't remember getting grief counselling from a minister either. Seems like our parents handled all that sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteYou might be right about this. On a related note, I took my mother to see her doctor a few years ago and the doctor told her she was one angry woman who had never forgiven her husband for dying. (Dad passed unexpectedly five years ago.) I remember thinking, wow, this doctor nailed my mother's problem in ten minutes. Unfortunately, Mom refused to go to a grief counselor.
ReplyDeleteOn one side, I agree with you that a lot of problems go away or shrink in importance with a healthy dose of "grin and bear it" or disregard.
ReplyDeleteBut recently my husband started a new hobby - reading old newspaper articles. We are talking about scanned archives from the late 1800's to the mid-1900's. You know, the "good old days." Back then, newspapers weren't so ... well, discreet. It was eye opening how many people committed suicide after tragic events, for example. Or how many people went bankrupt because the head of the family drank. I don't have the answer, but I wonder if some of these tragedies might have been avoided if modern medicine (drugs or counseling) had been available.
Never been to a Grief Counselor myself, so what they say or do I cannot say, I know there are people who need help but a one size fits all and sending in a team with every tragedy seems to be overkill to me.
ReplyDelete