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Posted by Alex Lickerman on June 20th, 2010  Print  Email to a friend  Photo: Photos8.com Eating right, exercising, avoiding the sun or using sunscreen, moderating alcohol consumption, abstaining from tobacco use, getting mammograms, Pap smears, colonoscopies—almost every measure we’re asked to take to safeguard our future health is difficult. It’s a strange paradox that we have to work in some way, to expend energy, and experience discomfort of some kind in order to gain benefit in life. Wouldn’t it be nice if the most pleasurable things also produced long-term benefit? Continue reading…
Posted by Alex Lickerman on June 13th, 2010 Print Email to a friend  Photo: simminch Once while I was jogging along Lake Michigan, I came upon a large crowd surrounding a middle-aged man lying supine on the ground. I stopped to assess the scene and saw the man wasn’t moving—at all. Two people were bending over him and trying to shake him awake.
“What happened?” I asked.
“He fell,” someone, a woman, said. Continue reading…
Posted by Alex Lickerman on June 6th, 2010 Print Email to a friend  Photo: Steve Keys Email, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Delicious, Digg, LinkedIn, blogs (of course), and scores of others—all part of the new and wonderful ways we can now connect with one another electronically, each with its own culture and unique set of rules. In one sense, the planet has never been more interconnected. And yet, this interconnectedness, while wonderful, hasn’t come without cost. Continue reading…
Posted by Alex Lickerman on May 30th, 2010 Print Email to a friend  Photo: ctsnow The other week while my wife and I were out jogging we watched a couple in front of us walk across the street against a red light, blissfully unconcerned as two cars had to screech to a halt in front of them. To our amazement, the couple continued on without even a break in their conversation, as if the cars had somehow forfeited their right of way because the couple had decided they wished to cross the street at that exact moment. Continue reading…
Posted by Alex Lickerman on May 23rd, 2010 Print Email to a friend  Photo: LaPrimaDonna How many patients have I known over the years who’ve found themselves caught in the quicksand that is caring for a chronically ill loved one? Too many to count, so I’ll recount just one. Mrs. S is an elderly woman married to a retired university law professor, who has been slowly losing a battle with dementia. Once a witty, intelligent, and self-deprecating delight of a man, over the years I’ve been caring for him, he’s gradually changed into a cantankerous, vitriolic, shell of his former self, now barely able to remember the day or month, much less the year. Continue reading…
Posted by Alex Lickerman on May 16th, 2010 Print Email to a friend  After meeting with an attending physician in a Physical Diagnosis class when I was a second-year medical student, I remember thinking how impossible it seemed that my brain would ever contain as much medical knowledge as his. And even if somehow one day it did, how would I ever be able to call on it, manipulate it, twist it, bend it, and turn it upside down with the same apparent ease as he? Continue reading…
Posted by Alex Lickerman on May 8th, 2010 Print Email to a friend  A patient who held an upper-level management position in his company once told me the following story: he was interviewing a candidate for a mid-level management position and thought, on the surface, the candidate was a star: enthusiastic, mature, intelligent, articulate, prepared, experienced, and visionary. After consulting with his other upper-level management peers who also interviewed the candidate, hiring him seemed a no-brainer. And yet, my patient told me, something made him hesitate. Something about the candidate—he still couldn’t explain what—just “rubbed him the wrong way.” Continue reading…
Posted by Alex Lickerman on May 2nd, 2010 Print Email to a friend  When I was a child, I was afraid to go to summer camp. Most kids found the prospect exciting and the experience fun, but I dreaded it. What would the activities be like? Who would my counselors be? What other kids were going? Would I be made to swim if I didn’t want to?
After a few days, the camp routine became just that—routine—and I settled down. But transition periods remained challenging for me throughout my adolescence. As adults, many of us still struggle with change—even good change, like starting a new job, moving to a nicer house, or getting married. Just what is it about transition periods we find so challenging and how can we get through them with less stress? Continue reading…
Posted by Alex Lickerman on April 25th, 2010 Print Email to a friend  Though I’ve never lost a friend or family member to suicide, I have lost a patient (who I wrote about in a previous post, The True Cause Of Depression). I have known a number of people left behind by the suicide of someone close to them, however. Given how much losing my patient affected me, I’ve only been able to guess at the devastation these people have experienced. Pain mixed with guilt, anger, and regret makes for a bitter drink, the taste of which I’ve seen take many months or even years to wash out of some mouths. Continue reading…
Posted by Alex Lickerman on April 18th, 2010 Print Email to a friend  “He was just…” My patient groped for the right words. “…pretty great.”
She was talking about her boyfriend—or rather, her ex-boyfriend. He’d recently ended their relationship, and she’d come to me now, several months later, unable to shake herself out of the funk in which she’d been left by his leaving.
Surprisingly, she harbored no ill feelings toward him for breaking up with her. Continue reading…
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