What my patients taught me.

“Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself”:- FDR

I had a patient tonight, an 11 year old boy, who is very afraid to swallow pills. We work on it with him every night, and little by little he's been able to do it.

Tonight i came in with his pills, sat down with him, and handed him his first pill..... he put it in his mouth and drank a little too fast, and started coughing and panicking. After he had calmed down, he went to take his second pill and started to cry. He kept crying "but i'm afraid, i'm going to choke, i'm afraid!"

Me, melting when kids cry, and trying to avoid any further choking incidents, automatically took the pills and headed to the door to go crush them. But his grandfather stopped me and said "No Ben, your going to try again"

"Let me ask you something, do you remember who said "“ The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself”?" And to my amazement, Ben knew. Ben then said, "so you mean i'm only afraid because i'm making myself afraid?"

Imagine that. Fear. We create it. It is all in our head.
It's something i have never even acknowledged.

He thought about it, and took the pills, and did great.

If only i had someone to coach me through my fears every time i encountered them..........