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by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.
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Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

Don't Confuse Risk Reduction With Self-Management

Saturday May 5, 2001

Have you noticed the extent to which some medical practitioners, large corporations, and other institutions claim they are promoting self-management (a mindset for personal excellence, for rising above "normalcy," and for having more fun and meaning in life via the perspective of personal responsibility and self-determination, among other positive qualities) when in fact they offer only disease and injury-avoidance counsel and activities? The latter are focused on risk reduction, medical self-care, preachy health education, and/or holistic nonsense.

The lesson that applies to this situation is one I learned from a professor I had for a science course at George Washington University years ago -- I think it was sometime during the Paleozoic era. The good professor used the dialogue method to get us to think for ourselves. He once asked, "How many legs does a dog have, if you call a tail a leg?" Someone ventured, five?" "No," said our professor, "Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it so."

Just so in this case. Calling risk reduction a wellness initiative does not make it so. Communications and supportive courses, materials and training efforts to promote self-management can be so much more than simply telling people about the hazards of tobacco and alcohol, sedentary living, and all of that. Don't you think most people know about those risks by now, including teen-agers? I do. Genuine wellness programs of a self-management nature can demonstrate that the alternatives to high risk behaviors can constitute a richer way to be alive, everyday, and that healthy choices are more likely to support the kind of life most really want than sliding along in mediocrity, or worse.

I'm reminded of the glorious words uttered by Frances McDormand, playing "Elaine", Mother of a precious child of about 12 on the road with the band "Stillwater" in the truly delightful movie "Almost Famous." During a long distance call with the band's leader named Russell, she concludes a withering diatribe about how he must look after her son with these gentle but kind words that put a positive spin on her serious admonitions, "Now go and do the right thing. Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aide. (Goethe) It's not too late for you to become a person of substance. Russell. I'm glad we spoke."

This in turn leads me to recall a line in a book entitled The Meaning of Life (by Jonathan Gabay, Virgin Publishers, 1995) that contains this line, "Life is meaningless, but it is wonderful. Where would we be without it? You're dead right we would."

Which is almost as memorable as the immortal words from one of those wacky Monty Python Flying Circus people, "There are many people in this country who, through no fault of their own, are sane."

One sure way to distinguish the wellness message from the medically-oriented risk reduction message is that the former will always be a lot more fun.

Please stay well and do try to always look on the bright side of life.

Domain: physical
Subdomain: lifestyle habits

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