To confront a problem, you first need to identify it. Although this may appear to be the obvious first step, it is a step that many people fail to take, and, once attempted, it is a step that often proves more difficult to take than people think.
As an example, suppose you are frustrated because you are having difficulty removing lids from jars. It may be that the physical act of removing the lids is your problem, but consider that this is easily remedied by calling upon other people to help you or by purchasing an assistive device. If you ask for and obtain assistance from someone else or if you purchase an assistive device and are pleased with the results, then the physical act was the problem, and it has been solved. If using these appliances or asking for assistance makes you feel dependent and helpless, however, the problem is not your inability to remove the jar lids but your response to the need to seek assistance with а task that formerly you could perform easily on your own. In that case, identifying the problem becomes more difficult.
Before you can address it, you must recognize that a problem exists. Before you can solve a problem, you must properly identify it. Solving each of the problems identified above requires different coping strategies. As a general guideline, recognize that there will be times when you will need to think carefully about your own feelings to identify the problem properly.
Assessing a problem is a different matter, in that assessment can best be carried out when you are as informed as possible about factual matters related to the problem. Being informed is particularly important if a physical limitation becomes a major problem, and that is one reason we recommend that you learn as much as you can about arthritis and its possible complications.
Consider this scenario: You have numbness in your fingers that wakes you up at night. Consequently, your sleep is disturbed, and you are constantly fatigued. If you think that feeling sleepy is your major problem, you are mistaken. Instead, numbness-the cause of your restless nights- is the origin of your difficulties. Rather than resorting to taking sleeping pills, a better course would be to pause to identify the problem properly and then to assess it. Seek more information. Dig deep. If you do, you will learn that inflammation in the wrists sometimes causes carpal tunnel syndrome, and you will also learn that wearing a wrist splint at night or taking an injection of a corticosteroid can make the numbness disappear, allowing more restful sleep. The combination of proper identification and appropriate information, then, can often lead to proper treatment and resolution of a problem.
There will definitely be times when you’ll need to consult more than one source of information to assess a problem. When you are consulting a physician, for example, you may want to obtain an opinion from a different physician (a second opinion) to satisfy yourself that you have enough information to assess and address the problem. Sometimes you’ll want to talk with someone else just to get a fresh perspective on the problem. These are fine strategies, but a word of caution is in order here: It is important to avoid over-intellectualizing a problem. If you spend all of your energy analyzing a problem, you will not move any closer to addressing it or solving it. Reading every available book and article on a subject or consulting numerous physicians (doctor shopping) is an exaggerated version of a healthy analysis of your arthritis.
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