There's one other passage in the podcast that deserves to be repeated because I think it eloquently explains why the problem goes far beyond GET/CBT and lies within the fear-avoidance model itself. Patients do not necessarily have to follow GET/CBT or even have contact with a doctor who believes and promotes his model. Simply to have this model accepted by the medical community, is enough to harm patients. Friends and family will look up info on the internet and will look at patients differently.
Starts at minute 26.30:
John Peters: “One of the worst things is that it’s making the patient an unreliable witness to their own body. That’s a terrible thing. It means that their friends, their family, the people that would normally support them, their doctors, look at them differently. And that is impossible to escape. It’s going to do that.
"If you’re told that your, in my case, 30 year old son who slumping morosely around the house, not saying hello to anybody, just sitting there before the TV, sleeping or staying in bed all morning, getting out to watch TV and then going back to bed, not taking part in family life at all etc.
"And if you’re then told why that this person is behaving that way and that he has the ability within him to get better, to change the way he thinks and increase its activity levels and so recover. If you’re told that by the medical profession, you’re going to look at him differently. It’s unavoidable.
"So it’s creating a barrier between the patient and the people the patient would normally look to for support. I think that is one of the most horrible things. And as I say, it’s making them unreliable witnesses, so that everybody’s opinion is better than that of the patients. The patients do not know what’s best for them, so you can come along and tell them. And I think that’s terrible. It’s really deeply painful. I think that’s a horrible thing to do."
