Medical appointments are short, high-stakes, and often anxiety-provoking. That combination reliably produces a set of communication failures that leave patients without the information or care they came for. This article, written by a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who works with anxiety and communication patterns in clinical settings, breaks down the most common ways people undermine their own care through how they communicate with physicians, and offers practical guidance on advocating for yourself more effectively.
Self-Help
How to Swim with the “Difficult Sharks” in our Lives
No one wants to swim with sharks. Yet difficult people are, by their very nature, sharks: Aggressive, territorial, and tribal. When we unexpectedly find ourselves dealing with a difficult person, we often give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they will “play fair”. In our desire to “get along with others”, we often just make the situation worse. The hard truth is that we must learn how to identify and respond assertively to difficult people without being “eaten alive”.