Do You Know?

Do You Know?

Do you know what to do? I'll bet you do. Then why don't you do it?

If you can answer that, you deserve a Nobel prize. Unfortunately, when there is the freedom to choose, then you can count on a willy-nilly pattern of behavior in human beings. Knowledge does not automatically predict and/or lead to behavior, good or bad.

Some will do it right (for the right or wrong reason), some will do it wrong (for the right or wrong reason) and the vast majority will be somewhere in the middle (once again, for the right or wrong reason).

Psychiatrists, psychologists, thoughtful people as a whole, your best friends and parents have all tried to help you and me and everyone else decide what is the best—proper behavior for ourselves. In all honesty, most of us know "the right" answer most of the time, but we just don't do it. We will not repeat ourselves with the proverbial "Why?".

As each one of us has had a multiplicity of prior experiences, as each one of us has been variably affected by those prior experiences, as each one of us has many genetic tendencies, as each one of us has multiple factors of psychological, and physiological and external origins, and as this occurs in us at a particular point in time (politically, geographically, religiously, racially, historico-culturally, etc.) then each one of us has a multiplicity of potential responses at any given point in time for any given question or stimulus.

None of this is terribly helpful, and it all points out the somewhat complex and seemingly random nature with a pattern of sorts that we tend to respond in-to.

This can-should just be a help to you to begin to understand-work on-get all the help you can in doing what you clearly know is right.

Quite simply you'll just have to push ahead until in the (distant) future there is further understanding of how human behavior begins and continues. Push as best possible for others and yourself to make it be as joyous an experience as possible. Turn that which is negative to a positive. Good luck and may your God be with you.

If you'd like further information to figure out what is right, if you'd like further help with motivation, then contact the Preventive Medicine Center, 1000 Asylum Ave., Hartford, CT 06105 or phone 549-3444.

H. Robert Silverstein, MD
Hartford, CT