Our Personalities and its Effect on our Foot Care

     The doctor patient relationship is a very sacred thing. When there is a joining of spirits between these two individuals, healing has an easier route to go. A good relationship can be very challenging to find, and I hope both sides work at seeing the various problems that present from the patients' or the doctors' perspective. 

     The above image is merely one representation on how we view the world, and thus affects how we understand issues that involve us. Both the Patient and the Doctor can have the same or different lens that they view the world. This will affect any relationship that they engage in. I will limit this to the Patient's lens that they perceive the doctor patient relationship. There will always be both the good and bad of any perspective. 

     Patients can be very Body centered, which gets them into treatment earlier, but can have them too focused on their illness. But, this is why doctors, family, and friends can be so helpful to allow us (if we grant them permission) to see things differently at times. My body centered patients are probably my best patients at following instructions. They have an incredible drive to heal this body of theirs.

     Patients can be Mind centered. They can present with a problem, and already have read every available article on the topic. This can lead to both a cure, and a lot of confusion. They can both over-think issues, and come up with good conclusions. They have probably taught me the most, since they have tried from their research various gadgets or techniques. They can be so much in their head, that they forget the heart and soul of the matter (and undervalue other's opinions). They can also take the longest to see a doctor, as they typically ignore their bodies and the warning signals it produces. 

     Patients can be Spirit centered which can also detach them from their bodies. They can be over emotional, but also not attached to their problems. They have a hard time with body issues or problems. Since they are also not in their heads, they can be the most trustworthy of patients wanting to give their problem completely over to you. They can also have great perspectives on healing, at least in terms of the length of time it takes to heal.

     Finally, Patients can be Soul centered. How is this different from Spirit centered? Perhaps it is best explained but what it is and is not. The soul is who you are. The soul is not emotional, but greatly affected when the "who we are" is disturbed by injury. Soul centered patients can be the best patients when their injuries affect the very nature of who they are, but also not really care if they feel no threat to their being. 

     Let us take an example of these for approaches to the same injury. The patient sprained their right ankle and will miss 6 weeks of college basketball practice, games and perhaps playoffs. Here is how each of these personality types behave:

• Body Centered---will follow the treatment plan to the fullest
• Mind Centered---will read everything about the injury which may help immensely, but may get in trouble believing something other then prescribed, may go doctor shopping
• Spirit Centered---could be an emotional roller coaster, since not connected to the body may have trouble doing what is prescribed, if they stay positive they can be the easiest patient to help
• Soul Centered---in this case, this college athlete's being has been threatened, therefore, they will be early for each PT visit, and may ask you for an MRI now, even if you wanted to wait for a month

     

Are You an Athletic Personality?

 Are You an Athletic Personality?

     There are many ways to analyze personalities. Are you extroverted or introverted, etc.? But one way to group people that I find very fascinating categorizes people into four personality types.

They are:

1.     Social People (Spirit)

2.     Emotional People (Soul)

3.     Intellectual People (Mind)

4.     Athletic People (Body)

     Of course, we are all made up of all these parts, but one personality trait dominates and can define our relationships in every thing we do or don't do. When a patient has had injury, they will predominately see the injury from one of these perspectives. That perspective can help with injury rehabilitation and can get in the way of that rehabilitative process. There are positives and negatives to each of these perspectives. 

     Based on this classification, you have one primary focus/life force that comes easily to you. You are a natural at it, and you need to work hard at the other three areas to develop them. If you think of your friends or family members, you should be able, with a little thought, to know what type they are. I am an Intellectual Personality, my wife is a Social Personality, one co-worker is an Emotional Personality, and my sister-in-law Kathy is an Athletic Personality. We all have to work really hard at being well-rounded, developing the sides of us that do not come as easily. It is easy for me to sit here thinking and writing due to my personality, but I have to work harder at good physical health habits, being social, and expressing my emotions. See how this works? So, what is your basic personality type?

     Each of my patients come into the office with a different perspective on their injury. I have to get a feel for their attitude on their injury, based on their personality, and work with them from their center, not mine. If I approach all patients with my intellectual focus, I may not totally meet their needs. It is one of the dilemmas in medicine in general (or the people who write manuals on putting things you buy together!!)

     I try to approach an injury from all four aspects, at least until I know the patient well. When you approach an injury from these four personality types, you can achieve more success, since the patients will work with you. What is the social environment of their injury and rehabilitation? What emotions have been caused by their injury? What is their intellectual approach to this injury? What is their athletic approach to this injury? Here are more questions or considerations to help you assess your patients.

Social (Spirit)

• Does their injury affect them socially due to the pain?
• Do they work out alone or with groups better? 
• Does the workout affect them socially because of their physical benefits?
• How has their injury affected them psychologically?

Emotional (Soul)

• What emotional stresses does the injury produce?
• What is their emotional reserve to handle the injury?
• How do emotions play in their view of the injury?
• How do emotions play in their attempt to get better?
• Are they too scared to do things in rehabilitation to their detriment?

Intellectual (Mind)

• How much research are they doing to help themselves get better?
• How much are they analyzing what is working and what is not helping?
• How well are they logically progressing in their rehabilitation, or are they letting their emotions get in the way and ignoring pain?
• Are they over-thinking their injury?
• Are they not doing their rehab since they are spending so much time researching?
• How influenced are they by current fads?

Athletic (Body)

• How well do they understand good versus bad pain?
• Are they cross-training well when one activity is prohibited due to their injury?
• Are they allowing their knowledge base of their body to help in their rehabilitation?
• Are they exercising too much?

      Health care practitioners and patients need to look at injuries from different angles to speed rehabilitation. With many injuries, patients develop a team, each working from these different angles. A commonly seen team approach is when the physician takes the intellectual side, the physical therapist/personal trainer takes the athletic side, the patient takes the emotional side, and the patient’s friends, spouse, and teammates all take the social side. Success is on its way!!

This was an excerpt from my book "Secrets To Keep Moving: A Guide from a Podiatrist".

Enneagram: The Sacred 9 Types. Which one are you?

Personality typing has been used for centuries and for many purposes. The best one I have ever found and used is called the Enneagram, or 9 Types. It was relatively unknown as a oral tradition until first written down in the 1950s.

What has this to do with a Podiatry blog? Your personality influences greatly how you exercise, how you respond to a doctor telling you what it wrong and what to do, how you deal with your injury, how you deal with others around your injury, etc.

It is actually hard to tell what number you are. Your close friends and family can tell easier. The number describes what your basic drive deep inside is (I realized how superficial I really was/am when first reading about it). It is part of a journey into healing yourself (we are all wounded to some degree), and it is helpful dealing with others.

I like the concept that if you had 9 people in a room with a single goal, if all 9 were a different personality type, all 9 would come up with a different opinion. So, if I tell 9 people with 9 different personality types the exact same thing, I will get at least 9 different responses. This has always been called the Art of Medicine, and the Enneagram can at least give you piece of mind that difference is fine. It is okay when some of my patients do not agree with what I say. People process what they hear, see, read, etc so differently.

So, what are the basics.

A) The Person is actually part spirit, body, and soul.
B) The 9 Types deal with the basic drive of the Soul (our deepest drive in life!!)
C) The Soul is divided into Mind, Will, and Emotion (Heart)
D) The 9 Types have 3 Mind Drives, 3 Will Drives, and 3 Heart Drives
E) These drives are us at our core, we can not change it if we tried
F) Each basic drive of personality has pros and cons
G) We grow as an individual by looking at these pros and cons and developing the ones, and suppressing the bad ones.

What are the 9 Types?
1 is The Perfectionist or Reformer (Will)
2 is the Giver or Helper (Heart)
3 is the Achiever or Success Driven (Heart)
4 is the Romantic or Individualist (Heart)
5 is the Teacher or Observer (Mind)
6 is the Loyalist or Trooper (Mind)
7 is the Epicure or Zest for Life (Mind)
8 is the Boss, Challenger or Leader (Will)
9 is the Mediator or Peacemaker (Will)

2 psychologists, who use the Enneagram solely in their practices, last year independently said I was 100% a 9. I always thought I wanted to be a 2 (great for medicine), or that I was a 5, but as I have read more and more, they are right and I am a 9. As you learn your number, you can see how the positive side and negative side affects your life. Without any further reading, look at the 9 numbers above. Can you think how each of these drives could make you great or break you down.

Can you see yourself, your friends or family, or colleagues as predominately one number?
This really has helped me in dealing with groups of people to see that there will be differences in opinion that are equally valid as mine.

We are One Number at our core, but each number has 2 strong wings that we can develop to get stronger or weaker (our choice). We can not pick our wings, as we can not chose our Basic Number. They are what they are. We can just grow with them. We could grow emotionally and perfect the good qualities of our 3 numbers.  See we can possibly be 1/3rd perfect people. LOL

Wings for Each Number are:
1 (Perfectionist) has 7 (Zest for Life) and 4 (Romantic)
2 (Giver) has 8 (Boss) and 4 (Romantic)
3 (Achiever) has 9 (Mediator) and 6 (Loyalist)
4 (Romantic) has 1 (Perfectionist) and 2 (Giver)
5 (Teacher) has 7 (Zest for Life) and 8 (Boss)
6 (Loyalist) has 9 (Mediator) and 3 (Achiever)
7 (Zest for life) has 1 (Perfectionist) and 5 (Teacher)
8 (Boss) has 5 (Teacher) and 2 (Giver)
9 (Mediator) has 6 (Loyalist) and 3 (Achiever)


The video below is a good start if you want to learn more. They tell you where to take a test, but I would check out some easy books (not too psychologically based) describing this topic. The video below had some other helpful descriptions.

Type 1 Perfectionist has beauty through organization, with slight stiffness
Type 2 Giver is friendly and pleasing
Type 3 Achiever reaches for the sunshine, strives for recognition through successs
Type 4 Romantic is unique, experiences richness in relationships, artist expression can be easy
Type 5 Teacher is passionate in pursuit of knowledge, finds identity in understanding
Type 6 Loyalist believes in overcoming fear by strength, and feels safer in groups
Type 7 Epicure appears passionate and lively, loves to fly high and look towards pleasures to come
Type 8 Boss is an attention grabber, prepared to face all competitors
Type 9 Mediator is happy and restful

 I sure hope this simple introduction was interesting enough to have you look into the topic more. As a good Type 9 I feel happy to bring this info to you, and to satisfy my personality wings, I feel great that I achieved this goal (Type 3) and supported by blog readers (Type 6). Have a great day!! Rich

Are you an Athletic Personality??

There are many ways to analyze personalities. Are you extroverted or introverted, etc? But one way to group people that I find very fascinating categorizes people into 4 personality types. They are:




• Social People
• Emotional People
• Intellectual People
• Athletic People

Based on this classification you have one primary focus/life force that comes easy to you, you are a natural at it, and you need to work hard at the other 3 areas to develop them. If you think of your friends or family members, you should be able with a little thought to know what type they are. I am an Athletic Personality, my wife a Social Personality, my boss at work an Intellectual Personality, and my sister-in-law Kathy an Athletic Personality. We all therefore have to work real hard at being well-rounded, developing the sides of us that do not come easy. It is easy for me to go to the gym due to my personality, but I have to work harder at studying/learning, being social, and expressing my emotions. See how this works. What is your basic personality type?

Why am I discussing this in a blog on podiatry? Each of my patients is coming into the office with a different perspective on their injuries. I have to get a feel for their attitude on their injury, based on their personality, and work with them from their center, not mine. If I approach all patients with my Athletic focus, I may not totally meet their needs.

I try to approach an injury from all 4 aspects at least until I know the patient well. When you approach an injury from these 4 personality types, you can achieve more success, since the patients will work with you. What is the social environment of their injury and rehabilitation? What emotions do they have caused by their injury? What is their intellectual approach to this injury? What is their athletic approach to this injury? Here are more questions to help you assess the patient.

Social
• Does their injury affect them socially due to the pain?
• Do they work out alone or with groups they like?
• Does the workout affect them socially because of their physical benefits?

Emotional
• What emotional stresses does the injury produce?
• What is their emotional reserve to handle the injury?
• How do emotions play in the view of the injury?
• How do emotions play in their attempt to get better?

Intellectual
• How much research are they doing to help themselves get better?
• How much are they analyzing what is working and what is not helping?
• How well are they logically progressing in their rehabilitation, or are they letting their emotions get in the way and ignoring pain?

Athletic
• How well do they understand good versus bad pain?
• Are they cross-training well when one activity is prohibited due to their injury?
• Are they allowing their knowledge base of their body to help in their rehabilitation?


I hope that this post touches a few chords with each reader. Health care practitioners and patients need to look at injuries from different angles to speed rehabilitation. With many injuries, patients develop a team, each working from these different angles. A commonly seen team approach is when the physician takes the intellectual side, the physical therapist/personal trainer takes the athletic side, the patient takes the emotional side, and the patients friends, spouses,and teammates all take the social side. Success is on its way!!!