A scotoma is a mental situation in which one locks on to one idea and excludes all others – known as the “lock on lock out” principle. We all do it – it’s our human way of avoiding overwhelm when faced with too many choices. However, a scotoma can get you into trouble as we shall explore here.

In a Spongebob Squarepants cartoon, Spongebob gets up one morning and thinks he’ll create a fantastic dessert for himself. Unfortunately, his choice of ingredients cause him to have horrific halitosis (bad breath). Spongebob proceeds to go outside, where he meets several people, all of whom scream and run away from him as soon as he opens his mouth and says, “Hello.”

His conclusion – “I must be terribly ugly!”
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Doctors could benefit from support to help them cope with the trauma of patient death, says a psychologist speaking at the Death, Dying & Disposal conference organized by the University of Bath in the UK.

In a preliminary study, Dr Elaine Kasket from London Metropolitan University carried out detailed interviews with eight US physicians about their experiences of death. Half of those she spoke to wept as they recounted stories of traumatic death they had experienced as physicians, even though some of these events had occurred as much as 30 years ago.

“There is an unwritten rule for doctors that suggests it is not wise or possible for them to feel emotions over a patient’s death because there is always another patient to help,” said Dr Kasket.

“Whilst this detachment might help when presented with a patient with a severe injury, I question how well it serves them in the longer term.

“This emotional detachment is socially ingrained through medical school, and the cultures in both the UK and US medical establishments would see a physician’s emotional response to death as a sign of weakness and even incompetence.

“It feeds into this popular image of the physician as some kind of superhuman ultimate rescuer of human life; unable to do his or her job if they give in to or even acknowledge their emotions.

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Success or failure – it’s all in the perspective.

A troubled man made an appointment with a rabbi. He was a wise and gentle rabbi. “Rabbi,” said the man, wringing his hands, “I’m a failure. More than half the time I do not succeed in doing what I know I must.”

“Oh,” murmured the rabbi.

“Please say something wise, rabbi,” pleaded the man. After much pondering, the rabbi replied, “Ah, my son, I give you this bit of wisdom: Go and look on page 930 of The New York Times Almanac for the year 1970, and maybe you will find peace of mind.”

Confused by such strange advice, the troubled man went to the library to look up the source. And this is what he found – the lifetime batting averages for the world’s greatest baseball players. Ty Cobb, the greatest slugger of them all, had a lifetime average of .367. Even the King of Swat, Babe Ruth, didn’t do that well.

So the man returned to the rabbi and questioned, “Ty Cobb, .367. That’s it?”

“Correct,” countered the rabbi. “Ty Cobb, .367. He got a hit once out of every three times at bat. He did’t even hit .500. So what do you expect already?”

“Aha,” said the man, who thought he was a wretched failure because he succeeded only half the time at what he must do.

Author unknown

So you have a fear and it’s consuming your life. Maybe you’re afraid to ask for that raise you deserve; or you’re scared to death to face your spouse about his hurtful behavior; or maybe you’re afraid you’ll catch the Bird Flu. Whatever it is you’re scared to death about, this little trick may help.

1. Imagine your fear – bring it up in your mind full force as best you can. If you prefer, you can actually come face-to-face with the object of your fear (at a comfortable, yet anxious distance – enough to scare you a little rather than a lot)
2. Notice – where in your body do you FEEL this fear? Take a physical inventory of your bodily sensations. This is the key – keep it physical.
3. Measure – apply the SUD scale to your sensations: 0 = no sensation ~ 10 = unbearable sensation.
4. Imagine a large tube or cylinder of water out in front of your body, filled with water to the level representative of the level of your SUD scale. Imagine how the tube of water feels (hot, cold, turbulent, soft, etc.); what it looks like, including color (tall, short, thin, fat, wooden, glass, metal, etc.); notice any sound it makes; make it as sensory real as you can in your imagination.
5. Now imagine you could reach out and remove the bottom of the tube and release ALL the water in a sudden rush out the bottom – letting gravity do its job. Whoosh!!
6. Repeat the entire process from step 1 above. You’ll probably notice a substantial drop in SUD level. Continue this process until there is NO water in the tube at step 4.
7. Most important step – imagine you could PLUG UP the top and bottom of the tube so no water can reenter the tube.

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Every year, I catch at least one cold. Usually it's not serious – but it can deprive me of a day or two of activity and leave me feeling weak and vulnerable. I prefer to feel strong and capable so when a study comes out that shows me how I can increase my chances of staying healthy through cold season, I'm all over it. Here's what they're saying:

"Taking the herbal product echinacea could reduce the chances of catching a cold by 58%, conclude authors of a Review published Online and in the July edition of The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The Review also states echinacea could reduce the duration of colds by an average of 1·4 days. It was authored by Dr Craig Coleman, University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, Hartford Hospital, Connecticut, USA, and colleagues. They conducted a meta-analysis (a study which combines the results of previous trials) of 14 studies into the use of echinacea to relieve/protect against catching a cold.

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