Few of us are short of advice. Most of us get plenty, but by and large the problem is quality, not quantity.

Distinguishing the good advice from the bad is not always easy, but I always find it useful to consider two questions about the person giving advice:

• 1  What is his/her level of expertise in the field he/she is advising me on?
• 2  How well does he/she understand my problem(s), my personal situation, and my desires/aims? (When advice is given without any questions being asked first, the usual answer to this is “not at all”.)

Recently, however, I’ve been given conflicting advice from two well-qualified people:

Firstly, I saw an osteopath (who has a wide medical background) about my back problems; he knows me well, I’ve been seeing him for years. He noticed that I sounded tired and depressed, asked a few questions and commented that it was unsurprising that I was not in a good place, given my back problems (which mean I move inefficiently and use a large amount of energy to do small things) and the fact that I’d had three different courses of antibiotics in the last 5-6 weeks. His view was that I should improve over the next months, as the weather warms up, and my insides recover from the excess of antibiotics. Just stick with gentle exercise and go easy on the drink for the next month or so.

Secondly, I saw a GP – not “my GP”, just one who was available at the practice I attend. His view was that I needed to cut out caffeine and alcohol, and go for yet another blood test and an ECG, and cut out daytime sleeping. He was unaware that I’d been off the drink for 4 weeks already, and it had not led to any improvement beyond my shedding a few pounds. Or that I can barely function in the morning without a good caffeine blast, and quality leaf tea is one of my diminishing number of daily pleasures.  

I’ve no reason to doubt the competence of the GP I saw, but I can’t help wondering if he would have given me the same advice if I’d been a regular patient of his for years.

Now I am really wondering whether it’s worth doing more medical tests, or whether it’s time for a bit of “Que Sera, Sera” and a lot less worrying?

Do you have any thoughts? 

Over to you!

Best regards

Oldie but Goldie

A Moodscope member