Looking Over the Fence. A look at Psychiatry from Another Discipline

This process maybe imprinted or genetic, I am not the one to ask on this. But I have learned that frequently a small challenge to the typical question ‘how are you’ when seeing a pain-patient for the first time can prove helpful. By challenge I mean to ask them to justify their automatic response. Some may respond well to ‘if you’re ok, why did you come!!?’ Most will not of course and the approach must be less direct and gentler – such as those well known to most.