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Mette Maja Mouritsen
Mette Maja Mouritsen

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Evidence


Evidence is sometimes like the childhood story of the stork that brings the baby. In the beginning, we believe in it, until we know better. Why do we refer to evidence, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of referring to evidence?

We use evidence when we want to emphasize our statements like: “It is proven that.. " However evidence is not a fact. If the assumptions are changed in the opposite direction, so is the evidence. Like the diet pyramid has been turned upside down.

So what is the basis of evidence? In medicine the assumption is, that doctors and patients believe that studies made on a group of people can be used on the individual life situation. Although we have the same organs, our well-being right down to the unique individual organ depends on our life situation and our surroundings in a given moment in our life. The group of people who participated in the research, which the evidence refers to have their own story, and their life situation has changed since the research took place, and by this their individual well-being and also the original test results.

Why do we then use evidence? Could it be a question of conventional thinking and responsibility? By referring to evidence we can easily let go of responsibility and forget to ask and find the answers in ourselves. After all, we are mostly in our own body, and we can learn to feel what is good and what feels less good, if we have forgotten it in our efforts to find the answers out there in the evidence. The symptom that arises in our body, has not been put into us, and very rarely it begins like a thunderbolt from the blue. There is a history before the symptom shows up, although we may have forgotten to listen to our inner state of being in our busyness. The body simply responds with a symptom, to direct our attention towards something which has to be changed in our lives, so that we can live properly again in a new way without or with the original symptom.

To understand our bodily symptoms as messengers requires, a change in our conventional way of thinking a bit like turning the diet pyramid upside down, in the sense that it is not the evidence, the doctor, the test result, who knows how we feel, and what we need. However we still need a doctor or someone else to help us to understand our habits, thought patterns and emotions, as they appear in our bodily expressions, and if needed to undergo appropriate tests and temporary treatments, which make sense for us, so that we can work on what has to be changed in our life, in the interior as well as the exterior.

So what is the benefit of evidence? It is the feeling of "I am not alone“. There are others who feel just like me, and "there is someone who knows and take responsibility. " This provides some peace of mind, it is useful for a while.

It can be scary to know that the doctor, teacher etc. don’t know the truth and so it might be good to lean on others in the same situation. However, it is untenable to lean on evidence, as it does not provide the same direct emotional relief as when we are seen, understood, loved and hugged. All which truly provides peace in a human being.

Evidence could be used in this way in a medical practice: When a man meets up with a sore back, it's good to have in mind that there are some rare symptoms that may require emergency action. To uncover this the doctor uses evidence. Entirely treating the symptoms from the bag on the basis of the evidence of what ameliorates the symptom does not remove the cause of the symptom. The doctor can explore behind the evidence, behind the symptom and ask about the individual burdens such as work situation, economics, accidents, housing, family and relationships etc. The doctor can’t of course handle these situations, and he may feel powerless, and in his powerless the doctor tend to treat and make examination of the patient and in this way the doctor and the patient may easily "dance around" the reason for the symptom which is inside the patient and in his life circumstances. It is not enough to diagnose and treat the physiological changes in the body by scans and medication. It is just as necessary to clarify the cause, otherwise the patient return again and again eventually with new symptoms, which pops up due to the same or new burdens. It also provides a pressure on the health care system and a dissatisfied patient. And patients are not what they used to be like the originally meaning of the word “patient”; “to be patient”. They no longer want to be or remain patients. Their patience are gone.

Therefore, it is also necessary to understand: Why we are attached to different habits like why we smoke, drink, over- eat, over- work, in fact abuse each other and ourselves? It cannot be treated with medication, although at best it may soothe and distract us for a while.

Evidence can provide some peace and background knowledge to ask the right questions to clarify our present life situation, and it can also take the responsibility and the focus away from ourselves, where the key to true well-being is hidden. So use aunty evidence carefully and remember always to ask the inner child for advice.

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