Originally Posted by
taai gihk yahn
when ur leg is broke, u need the crutch until it gets better; some people "need" their system augmented in a certain way in order to get to where they "need" to be; as far as addiction, some use chemicals, others use needles - and in this case I mean acupuncture needles - there is a whole syndrome of acupuncture addiction that is well-documented in China!
my point is that, if one uses a crutch when appropriate, it's a "good" thing; when one no longer "needs" it, then using it is a "bad" thing; MOST people know when to stop using the crutch (or at least when told by their doc when they are allowed full-weight bearing); however, some find that, for whatever reason, they don't want to get back to "normal" and use their crutch - real or metaphorical, to beat others over the head with; for example, many patients I have treated who have fibromyalgia / chronic myofascial pain, when I would treat them too aggressively, they would get upset - not because they hurt worse, but because they stopped hurting altogether (meaning they would walk out of the office pretty much without any complaints) - and they then felt completely at a loss! - they no longer had their pain as an excuse for pretty much everything: couldn't hold their families at bay, beg off work, etc. bec. of pain - in other words, they no longer had the power of their crutch! so they would find a way to fair themselves up or just stop coming or find new things to complain about - you name it, they did it!
so if someone uses a crutch "inappropriately", the trick is how to ween them off of it in a way that they can handle without totally falling to pieces - that is, if they sincerely do want to get rid of it...and when they do, it's not so hard, really - I've been lucky enough to work with a number of clients with long-standing unresolved pain that really DO want to get better - and this is a lot of fun actually, because if you have the right tools, you can really create an amazing positive impact along with them!
I think that there should be a similar "profession" of mushroom managers - I nominate Uki for Head of the Order...