We walked yesterday and saw three bunnies down the road. Then we realized that there was a young one right by us on the verge. We froze, except for the cameras, and this little one munched leaves and grass. Delightful! A bird finally sounded a warning and our friend hopped into the bushes.
No one gets angry at rabbits for being scared or shy. Why do we put so much pressure on children and on people for these emotions? Why do we label some emotions as “bad”? Fear and shyness help the young bunny survive and humans have these emotions too for the same reasons.
My daughter would not talk to strangers for years. She considered everyone strangers even if I knew them. It was not enough to have me introduce her. She would not speak. At two she would observe new day care staff for two weeks before she would speak to them. And I did not try to change her, because maybe… maybe that is more sensible than we adults want to admit. Not all people are nice or kind or ethical. And children need to know that as they grow. Caution will help this small bunny survive.
KO Rural Mad As Hell Blog 
Excellent point, and so important to allow kids to be themselves and trust themselves. Maybe it would reduce my work, which would be a good thing (I’m a family doc turned somatic/trauma psychotherapist).
Saw a similarly sized baby bunny on my run this morning–it hopped quickly into sheltering bushes!
thank you…
Have you written about the transition from family medicine to somatic/trauma psychotherapy? How interesting! I work with depression/anxiety/PTSD a lot in clinic…
Not directly in this blog. There’s a little written about it on my professional website at StephanieSmythe.com. As you recognize there is so much depression, anxiety, PTSD in daily life, and I also found that a lot of those vexing somatic symptoms that traditional medicine does so poorly with relate to those above diagnoses. Finding a different way to address them was a big driver of my switch, along with the general madness of the current medical model (insurers and drug companies running practices).
Ok, I am grinning here. I went across the country as a “mad as hell doc” in 2009 doing programs for single payer. And I run my own very small clinic because 10, 15, 20 minutes is not enough to do good medicine. I use ACE scores a lot to help people understand WHY they might have somatic symptoms or WHY they would be predisposed to chronic fatigue or chronic pain. A multidisciplinary approach, and the most important component is time to listen and time to explain.
Exactly! Drove me bats in my FP group practice–your patients love you, Steph, you see my wife, mother, sister, aunt, etc. But “you’re not productive enough, you’re spending too much time with patients” And they couldn’t/wouldn’t connect the dots.
Grinning back atcha!
Hooray for rebellion and old time doctoring and fighting back against the money machines…
check out stressillness.com, an OHSU GI doc’s site and book. I think there is a slow healing movement as physicians respond to the information from the ACE score study and the integration of mind/body/heart — emotions are a part of us and are about survival….
Will do