Newspaper Page Text
THE ISLANDER, APRIL 27, 2009, PAGE 7
(News to Q-CeCv
The Best is Yet to Be
By Clark Gillespie M.D.,
Professor Emeritus, the University of Arkansas
Anxiety - Today and Always
In the eyes of many historical observ
ers of our human travail, the profound
state of man (and I suppose, as well, of
our beloved women) regularly harbors
inconstancy, boredom, and anxiety.
Accepting that philosophical harboring,
and disregarding a zillion other of our
brain’s docking sights - some of which
we may have already and forever been
entangled with - we only have room
here and now to explore one of these
named mental cargoes - anxiety. And
even at that, only certain anxieties.
The anxiety emotion is provided
to us as a great protective shield - a
shield that we personally recognize
as fear. For instance, when we walk a
dark alley alone at night the anxiety
force heightens all of our protective and
guardian senses in order to help keep
us from harm - and hopefully getting
us the hell back out of there. But that
guardianship normally recedes when
the risk is past and, like an armament
is, for the time, put aside.
Unfortunately, that is not always
so - particularly amongst us seniors.
While the current political and finan
cial state of our lives is drenched in
anxious turmoil and instability, and
while our senior years are alone, in the
best of times, fraught with dark alleys
of illness, frailty, and separation - in
all these times chronic anxiety - fear
- can only add to such torments instead
of serving us in the proper role as a
guardian.
It is certain then, that chronic anxi
ety states tend to cloud senior life,
health, and well-being. Genetic history
and family heritage may both play a
role in chronic anxiety development,
but whatever the source, such a state
abounds in negative beliefs. We are
negative about our personal life and
well-being, about our future, our loved
ones future, and about the operations
of the world around us - negative and
constantly worried about it all.
Inevitably, depression often grows
out of such anxious environments.
Seniors who are forever anxiety-
involved share two compartments.
First, and most commonly, Generalized
Anxiety Disorders (GAD), and then
Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). The
second and most uncommon condition
- SAD - embraces anxiety present only
when social and any inter-personal
activity looms or actually occurs.
GAD, on the other hand, is with
its bearers always - even during sleep
- which itself is often here difficult
and perverse. We are further burdened
with hardships in task-focusing, with
disorganization, and with easy dis-
tractibility which itself forces concen
tration loss.
Such a chronically disassembled
mental lifestyle has, as well, signifi
cant damaging potentials on our gen
eral systemic health and physical well
being.
As with almost every health condi
tion afflicting us, exercise and medita
tion resources are high on the healing
arm - and that is their proper position.
Many other individual activities are
also available to assist us in returning
anxiety to its proper post, (see helpme-
withanxiety.com) but very often profes
sional help and guidance may be the
way we have to go.
Specific medications have been mar
keted which are compounded to deal
with depression and anxiety. When
these drugs are successful they may be
all that our bodies need to control our
private mental assaults. In other situ
ations, however, further consultation
and care with a psychiatrist are the
very best way to go.
These physicians have, in their
armamentarium, a relatively recent
approach known as “cognitive therapy”
which, amongst its many attributes,
may be the best way to rid us of GAD.
Here is a jumbled summary about
how this humble doctor thinks that
cognitive therapy works:
Basically, it involves a deep col
laboration between the bearer and the
psychiatrist in order to identify and
change that bearer’s basic dysfunction
al thinking, behavior, and emotional
responses. It holds that our thoughts
cause our feelings and behavior, and
not external things, people, events and
situations.
The benefit of this apparent fact is
that we can change the way we think
in order to ultimately feel and act bet
ter - even if the situations and events
do not change. Such a basic thought
revolution requires the psychiatrist’s
direction to re-enforce this dramatic
change of our primary thinking and
our eventual evolution into a new and
sanguine thought-style.
Such fundamental thought re-evalu-
ations are generally resisted by us in
initial therapeutic sessions, and it is
the therapists prime work to help us
overcome that strong dalliance of ours
in our old destructive thoughts, so that
the new cognitive processes may be
harvested and absorbed into our daily
being.
Fear, as we need to understand, is
Orthopaedic surgeons at the
Southeast Georgia Health System
Brunswick Campus were among
the first in the country to perform
MAKOplasty®, a minimally invasive
partial knee resurfacing procedure
used to treat early to mid-stage osteo
arthritis of the knee. Now they are
utilizing the next generation of the
robotic arm system by MAKO Sur
gical Corp., the new RIO™ Robotic
Arm Interactive Orthopaedic Sys
tem.
With RIO™ and the new knee
implants designed specifically for use
with the system, the minimally inva
sive MAKOplasty® procedure is now
available to a larger pool of patients.
Previously, the procedure was avail
able to treat only the inner portion
of the knee. The RIO™ System now
makes possible resurfacing of the
inner (medial), top (patellofemoral)
an important survival tool. It guides
us and helps us make decisions that
protect our lives and well-being. It
spares us from pain, potential injury
and death.
We are actually more strongly moti
vated to avoid pain than pursue plea
sure - that may ring a bell! Anyway,
I believe we may now see that a pro
longed fear state has the potential to
overwhelm us and its role in chronic
anxiety is certainly itself overwhelm
ing. Thus it behooves us to get out of
that larceny as quickly as possible.
Mark Twain described the feelings
of us anxiety sufferers very well when
he proclaimed - “I have been through
some terrible things in my life - some of
which actually happened.” “I
or both components of the knee.
During the procedure, the surgeon
uses the robotic arm, which provides
tactile, acoustic and visual feedback,
to limit the bone preparation to the
diseased areas. This provides opti
mal implant placement. The goal of
this minimally invasive procedure
is to restore the patient’s natural
knee motion with as little bone cut
ting and tissue trauma as possible,
for a more natural feeling knee post
operatively and a rapid recovery.
Also performing the surgery at the
Brunswick Campus are orthopaedic
surgeons Denny Carter, MD, J. Mel
vin Deese, MD, and J. Kevin Brooks,
MD.
For information about the RIO™
System or to make an appointment,
call Drs. Deese, Carter, or Sasser at
912-262-9961 or Dr. Brooks at 912-
265-9006. □
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