When I was a 4th year student at the faculty of medicine (as an intern doctor), I kept shifts with my friends in the general surgery intensive care unit. The intensive care unit was a place where life and death intersected. While one of the two possibilities was to hold on to life, the other was to face the absolute truth. Generally, patients were followed up after surgery. The assistant doctor in charge would routinely ask us the following question in every evaluation he made during the day: "Did the patient pass gas or stool?" This question, which we would laugh at in daily life, was of vital importance for the intensive care patient. When the answer to the question was "yes", it was known that the patient would have a positive course and recover. One of the intern doctor's primary duties was to get under the armpit of patients who could partially stand up and mobilize the patient (make them walk) and perform rectal tapping (stimulating bowel movements) in accordance with the instructions given by the assistant. There was only one goal: to ensure the passage of gas and stool.
Today, as a psychiatrist, I am surprised to see the expectations of some parents: "my child should never cry", "the young man should never get angry". Could the absence of crying and anger, which are expressions of emotion, be better? Is the child who does not cry at the death of his mother at the funeral home, or the young man who does not get angry when he is treated unfairly, healthier?
Just as the patient shows vitality by passing gas and stool after the surgical operation, let your children cry and get angry in the appropriate place and time. Because "it is good to cry and get angry" in appropriate situations.
Read: 0
