All normal people... All normal people... All normal people

In this article we will talk about “normal people”. Can each of you consider yourself normal? Who is this normal person anyway?

It is believed that normal people experience positive emotions most of the time.

If they are sad, they do not do it without a good reason - maybe a loved one has passed away, or a big trouble has occurred.

A “normal person” is not subject to irrational worries and does not feel inexplicable fear. All his mental activity is rational and balanced. He is always full of energy, clearly knows what he wants from life, rarely doubts and always has a ready-made solution for everything.

Most of us want to be “normal.” And in our thoughts we often compare ourselves with some abstract “healthy”, “normal” person.

You often hear:

“Such thoughts cannot occur to a normal person”

“Since I feel sad for no reason, something is wrong with me.”

In this article I will prove that there is nothing normal about the so-called “normal person”. That, probably, there are no normal people at all!

The image of a “normal” person was formed due to the development popular culture with its idealized, glossy characters, and also due to the influence of certain views in psychology.

Most schools of psychology are based on a mechanistic philosophy. This philosophy views a person as a kind of mechanism with different, separated parts. She believes that some parts of our psyche are “wrong”, “pathological”. From her point of view, there are memories, emotions, thoughts, states of consciousness that are “problematic”, “abnormal” and therefore must be corrected or deleted.

“You know which people never doubt anything? These are the ones who wrap themselves in explosives and blow themselves up in crowded places!”

Penetrating into public consciousness, such a way of thinking gives rise to ideas about “undesirable” emotions, “bad” thoughts, and forms the image of “normal” and “abnormal” people.

Another possible reason for this perception of “normality” is the activity of the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry. Drug manufacturers benefit from maintaining the belief that some aspects of our psyche are pathological. Coupled with the lack of available information about natural methods of dealing with anxiety, insomnia, and bad mood, this belief receives great reinforcement.

But can many of our thoughts and feelings really be considered painful deviations from the norm, which prevail only among a few? Let's try to figure this out.

“Bad thoughts” only come to the minds of abnormal people

Canadian psychologist Stanley Rathman conducted a study on students who were considered “healthy” by all indicators. It turned out that almost each of the subjects from time to time had thoughts about sexual violence, perversion, as well as blasphemous ideas, pictures of violence against old people or animals.

Other studies have demonstrated that 50% of all people seriously consider suicide at least once in their lives (Kessler, 2005).

Where are all these “normal people”? After all, it is believed that negative thoughts are not normal! But everyone has them.

Anxiety is something abnormal!

Anxiety is a natural evolutionary mechanism. An anxious expectation of danger (even where there is none), panic that manifests itself in involuntary moments, more than once saved a person in the jungles and deserts of antiquity, full of threats and dangers.

“…about a third of all people (but most likely more) have at some time suffered from what is called a “mental illness”…”

Why then do some people tend to be overly anxious and some people don’t? American psychotherapist David Carbonell, again, refers us to evolutionary psychology, arguing that in each tribe, in the interests of everyone's survival, there had to be both people with an increased propensity for risk and people who were overly anxious. The first type of people supported the tribe in hunting and wars, where uncompromising courage was required. The second type helped the tribe survive by anticipating threats and preventing unnecessary risks.

Of course, excessive anxiety does not always lead to anxiety disorders, although it may become one of the prerequisites for the occurrence of this problem. But this is not something “abnormal” or rare.

According to statistics, up to 30% of people experience anxiety disorders at any time in their lives! 12 percent of humanity suffers from specific phobias, and 10 percent suffer from social anxiety. And in the USA and Europe these numbers are even higher!

Depression and other illnesses

Statistics on depression in different countries is different. For example, in Japan the percentage of people who experience chronic sadness is 7%. And in France – 21% (!). Approximately 8% of people experience eating disorders - anorexia and bulimia.

4 percent of adults have attention deficit disorder. But I believe that due to the very vague diagnostic criteria and controversy surrounding this diagnosis, these numbers may be underestimated. It seems to me that if we take into account the modern pace of life, then there are many more people with poor concentration, uncontrolled motor activity, impulsiveness, and constant haste.

Constant happiness is the “normal human state”

A normal person supposedly always experiences positive emotions.

But if we look at the data I cited above, it turns out that about a third of all people (but most likely more) have at some time suffered from what is called “mental illness”!

“...for some reason, the number of people suffering from mental disorders is growing at the same pace as the development of the pharmaceutical industry!”

If we talk about deviations not in a clinical, but in an everyday context, then we can emphasize that almost all people from time to time are visited by uncontrollable, irrational thoughts, “unreasonable” changes in mood, fears and doubts.

It is a myth that a “normal” person never doubts! Do you know which people never doubt anything? These are the ones who wrap themselves in explosives and blow themselves up in crowded places! They are always confident in everything and do not experience great pains of choice.

As psychologist Joseph Ciarocci said: “Mentally ill, abnormal - these are just words from the human language. No one should be considered sick or healthy. We are all in the same human boat."

Life in general is a complicated thing, as British psychotherapist Russ Harris says: “It’s unlikely that anyone will ever say to me: “My life is too easy, there aren’t enough difficulties in life!”

And Buddha generally said that “all existence is permeated with suffering.”

Life is full of difficult trials, tragic events, stress, torment, pain, aging, death. And these things accompany all people, regardless of their status, material well-being, or health.

Mental suffering is an indispensable part of our lives, and not a shameful exception to the rule, not a shameful deviation.

Pain, sadness, despondency are normal!

And a person will learn to cope with this suffering only when he stops being ashamed of it, strenuously hiding it, suppressing it and suppressing it.

We've been taught to look at it as a "thing that shouldn't exist" in our "normal world." We do not recognize what does not correspond to the image " normal person“We are trying with all our might to push this out of our everyday existence.

Therefore, according to statistics, half or most people with mental problems do not seek timely help: they are embarrassed, afraid, or do not admit it at all, or believe that it is not for them (“only crazy people resort to psychological help!”).

Therefore, when unpleasant emotions or thoughts come, people try hard to suppress them. Stop feeling. Stop thinking. Surely each of us has been repeatedly given advice: “Don’t be afraid!”, “Just don’t think about it!” Rave! It has been proven that attempts to suppress emotions or get thoughts out of your head paradoxically lead to the opposite result: there are even more unwanted emotions and thoughts.

Therefore, for many people it has become the norm to take pills for every reason: after all, anxiety, sadness, irritation are not normal! This shouldn't happen! But for some reason, the number of people suffering from mental disorders is growing at the same pace as the development of the pharmaceutical industry!

And I want to give one more quote from Joseph Ciarocci:

“In Western culture, it is common to suppress bad emotions and focus on good ones. Many self-help and popular psychology books claim that if you have a positive outlook on the world, you can do anything: earn millions of dollars, beat cancer, and eliminate stress from your life.

Parents often tell boys that they "shouldn't" feel fear and girls that they "shouldn't" feel anger. Adults pretend that everything in their lives is perfect. Although, we know that in fact, many people have a surprising high level depression, anxiety and anger.

Perhaps the words of Henry Thoreau are true: “most people live lives of quiet desperation.” We are faced with a paradox: We as a society have been trying to become happier for decades, but there is still no evidence that we are actually becoming happier."

~My translation of the quote from the book “CBT Practitioner’s Guide to ACT”

The quote is only gloomy at first glance. It doesn’t mean that happiness is impossible. She simply states the fact that the practice of avoiding (or even tabooing) negative emotions and trying to “think positively” in Western culture does not justify itself. It seems that the more we try to live without unpleasant emotions, stress, negative experiences, the more unhappy we become.

And maybe it’s time to change tactics, since it’s not working? Maybe it's time to move towards recognizing unpleasant emotions as a fair part of life? Make friends with your sadness, anxiety, anger! No, don’t indulge them at all, but simply pay attention to them, stop denying them, convincing yourself that we “shouldn’t experience them.” Just learn to accept them as natural properties of human nature, as temporary phenomena, as natural phenomena inner world, as an integral attribute of life, which goes through both joys, successes, and through sorrows and suffering. Accept and let go.

In conclusion, I would like to make an interesting note about the so-called “shamanic disease”. This is an example of how the concept of “norm” differs across cultures.

Obsessive delirium or shamanic disease?

This example is taken from the book by E.A. Torchinov "Religions of the world and the experience of the beyond."

In cultures where shamanism is developed, there is such a thing as “shamanic disease.” What it is? This is a whole set of different symptoms: constant headaches, anxiety, nightmares, auditory and visual hallucinations that some members of the tribe experience.

What would we do with such a person? They would immediately treat him, trying to eliminate any symptoms of this disease, and isolate the “sick” person from society. But for shamanic cultures, this is not a problem that requires immediate resolution, not a disease that is “treated.” This is a guarantee of a person’s chosenness, evidence of his future destiny.

It is the one who has encountered the “shamanic disease” who will become the future shaman. The most interesting thing is that all these unpleasant symptoms disappear after shamanic initiation. But during the initiation itself, on the contrary, they become greatly aggravated.

Indeed, during initiation, the future shaman is immersed in a trance with the help of rhythmic chants, ceremonies and psychoactive substances. He experiences deep transpersonal experiences, which can sometimes be very frightening. Many survivors talk about unknown, terrible entities that tear the shaman’s body into pieces and then put it back together.

But after the ceremony, the future shaman, taking on his role, gets rid of frightening symptoms. He feels incredible relief, a kind of spiritual renewal. And this is where his torment ends.

The interesting thing here is that, unlike Western culture, they do not try to suppress hallucinations, drown them out with “inhibiting” drugs. On the contrary, they try to strengthen them as much as possible, to bring them to the extreme during the ceremony. Trying to plunge a person into the very pool of his hidden fears and manias.

I'm not trying to say that our culture's approach to treating schizophrenia is necessarily bad or wrong, or that shamans are actually right. I just wanted to demonstrate how conditional and relative the concepts of “norm” and “deviations” can be.

Although, let me highlight here my own assumption regarding the shamanic disease. If we discard all mysticism, then the meaning of all these ceremonies may be as follows.

It is quite possible that the shaman does not have any magical abilities(I do not deny them, but simply put them outside the brackets of these arguments). It’s just that, as a rule, this is a rather sensitive person who has a very close connection with his unconscious. And in it rest all the archaic images, pictures of demonic and divine battles, concepts about spirits and ancestors, which a person, having become a spellcaster, already transmits to his fellow tribesmen through his rituals.

And it is very likely that such a person may experience certain problems and incomprehensible symptoms during adolescence (mental illnesses often occur in “sensitive” people). And when he is selected for initiation, he will be subjected to, one might say, exposure (a practice that is used in many psychotherapeutic methods and consists in the fact that a person is exposed to contact with the subject of his phobias) within the framework of these rituals. And through cathartic experiences, through meeting his own fears, the shaman is freed from these hallucinations.

And even if the symptoms persist, it is much easier for a person to accept them, because he is not told that he is “sick” and “abnormal.”

What do you think about the phenomenon of shamanic disease? I would be glad if you share this in the comments. I'm very interested in discussing this issue.

The mayor of Gdansk, Poland, invited a Russian family whose car was stoned by unknown assailants. He apologized to them.

This is wonderful. A real man's act, proving that normal people exist everywhere. An act of strength, not weakness. Our respect. pic.twitter.com/ActsFH4Lau

“Behind every great man there is a great woman” - and the success story of the Irish UFC fighter Conor McGregor confirms this rule. He became a champion in two weight categories at once, and now his fortune is measured in millions. However, after the historic victory, Conor said in an interview that all this success would never have happened if not for the support of his beloved.

“For me, “to be like all normal people,” as the average person, the bourgeois, imagines it, is, of course, the highest insult. To be different is your right. Your right to preserve yourself the way you want to be. And If it is not related to molestation or violence, no one has the right to dictate what you should be. If you defend yourself, your right to be yourself in this cruel and terrible world, of course, you are a winner. I have often faced and continue to face rejection of myself - as soon as they didn’t call me! I perceive any desire to correct or trim me as violence against myself and, of course, I desperately resist.

I do not accept any homophobia, any segregation, any racism, because these are all links in the same chain. When you stand up for your right to be who you are, you stand up for the rights of all minorities and all people who are different from “normal.”

The norm for me is the highest insult."

A good reputation usually pays too much: oneself.
Friedrich Nietzsche
This phrase was preserved in his drafts and sketches of the summer of 1882 (F. Nietzsche, Complete Works in 13 volumes, vol. 10, p. 46. (Cultural Revolution, 2010).

For the sake of a “correct” reputation, you have to adapt to others, do what others think is right. That is, to assent to time. Only for this you often pay with your own essence. I would rather choose my conscience than such a reputation. I would like to live without succumbing to the hustle and bustle, without adapting to some format (I hate this concept). For me, the criterion of a person’s depth has never been external indicators. Amount of money. Success is a very modern, vile word that says nothing about the essence of a person. Whether he is smart or stupid, kind or evil - if he is “successful” it does not matter at all. I try to resist the general opinion, but I live in this time, and conflicts with it are inevitable.

Novikov L.B., Apatity, 2014

USA and Western Europe raised new fascists in Ukraine! To get rid of them, they all must be expelled to the West, and those who are caught must be tried in a public court with a list of all the atrocities they have committed. Let Europe know whom it has warmed “on its chest”!
The US burned Vietnamese people with napalm. Now, with the hands of fascists, they are burning Ukrainians. Any normal person should not agree with this!

P.s.: Today, 05/07/2014, Euronuws announced that the United States and the European Union have given the Kyiv ruling junta the full right to destroy all those who do not agree with its regime, including residents of South-Eastern Ukraine. Consequently, the West has approved the physical destruction of people fighting modern Ukrainian neo-fascism.
05/08/2014 USA - bitches from bitches all over the world: excited civil war in Syria because poisonous gases were stored there, and immediately allowed the Kyiv junta to use gases against those who disagree with it! It is imperative to check whether the gas used by the Kyiv fascists is not of Syrian origin!

Ecology of life: According to legend, they live among us. They have many faces, each of which reminds us of its own imperfection. All normal people know what they want and how to achieve it. All normal people know how to find mutual language with others. All...

According to legend, they live among us. They have many faces, each of which reminds us of its own imperfection.

All normal people know what they want and how to achieve it.
All normal people know how to find a common language with others.
All normal people create normal families and live happily.

The legend about normal people is rooted in childhood, in your mother’s lamentations over your torn jacket and broken knees:

All normal children are calm and diligent.
All normal children know when to stop.
All normal children go to other parents.

And you swear not to run anymore, not to fall, not to quarrel, not to fight, to do homework without reminders, to finally fall in love with boiled broccoli... You honestly try to become like all normal children - so that your mother feels like a normal mother, no worse than others. After all, for a person, for a normal person, even a small one, nothing is impossible: it’s written in the book, books don’t lie, especially to children.

All normal children read books.
All normal children quickly learn to play by the rules.
All normal children are open to the world.

Unnoticed by yourself, you begin to believe in the legend of normality, correlate your thoughts and actions with it, and divide people into normal and abnormal.

In my opinion, she is not entirely normal.
- Certainly! Any normal person would think first and then speak. All normal people do this...

There comes a time when “all normal people” get into your head and start living your life instead of you. They choose friends instead of you, buy you clothes instead, download torrents according to their taste: “Every normal person should watch this.” You feel more and more normal and less and less like yourself.

All normal people make decisions based on their own choices.
All normal people are confident in themselves.
All normal people think positively.

“Normal people” mentor and evaluate. The part of you that is still yours tries to rebel, to knock your shoes, but any forms of hazing are strictly suppressed:

Are you going to miss this great opportunity? Are you crazy?

Abnormality, like your worst nightmare, follows on your heels and will certainly overtake you if you violate the agreement on normality. Didn't sign any agreements? That’s the funny thing: the agreement on normality was signed for you by “all normal people” who took root in your mind.

All normal people realize that they are normal.

All normal people doubt their own normality.
All normal people They strive to protect themselves from everything abnormal.

Abnormal means expelled from the polis, thrown from a cliff. Inadequate, inappropriate. Some rules of "normal" behavior have become law. For example: normal people don't steal or kill other normal people. You steal and kill - that means you are a criminal, a thief and a murderer. A thief should be in prison, a murderer in the electric chair. The desire of a thief to steal and the need of a murderer to kill have less weight for society than the rights of people not to be robbed and killed.

All normal people follow the law.

All normal people are responsible for their words and actions.
All normal people have read Crime and Punishment.

In addition to law, there are social norms of varying degrees of formalization:

All normal people respect their elders and give them a seat in transport.
All normal people consider human life to be the highest value.
All normal people live according to their conscience.

If you don’t consider human life to be the highest value, you fall out of the normal range. But at the same time you live according to your conscience - is it still normal? Is it possible to be half normal? Yes or no?

The legend about normal people is passed on by word of mouth and has a high citation index. Professional storytellers supplement it with more and more new details, supposedly speaking on behalf of those same normal people.

We normal people don't want to be taken away by aliens.
We normal people...

You normal people - who are you? Do you really exist?

Task for field research: you observe relatives, acquaintances, colleagues in the office, characters in movies and deputies in a box. You determine which specific ones are normal, and paint the faces of abstract “normal people” with living colors.

Svetka/Igor Vladimirovich/The Pope is a normal person, completely on topic.

Normal means your own. Abnormal - stranger. By showing signs of abnormality, you break yourself. A guideline comes to the rescue: Svetka/Igor Vladimirovich/The Pope would have acted exactly this way, which means this is the way it should be. Oops! A step back, everything was the other way around: a breakthrough into abnormality looked like sabotage in order to reclaim one’s territory from the “normal people” who settled it.

Normality is no longer forced, but as if it were a choice, not a prison, but a home. You feel good there: you walk in formation, sing in chorus, smile on command. You're not afraid of anything. All normal people turn fear into faith. As a normal person, you believe that after death you will go to heaven for normal people, because in life you were normal. All normal people are judges, saints, righteous people. Normality is your refuge and salvation. Abnormality is an internal hell: boiling cauldrons and devils with horns.

The question remains: are all normal people equally normal or is everyone normal in their own way? Since we live in a world of normal people and are normal ourselves, why shouldn’t everyone choose their own form of normality - so as not to blend in? (This is a normal motive of a normal person). We are quite adequate, we won’t go crazy from unexpected freedom. Or are there still risks?

All normal people have the right to an authentic existence.
All normal people are capable of enjoying a walk in an area of ​​two square meters.

Vlad Tsyplukhin checks his health

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The site's product director, Vlad Tsyplukhin, spat in a test tube, and a few months later he went to a clinic for a health check - to look at himself from the inside, listen to smart people and tell others. Not about himself, but about modern medicine, which he understands nothing about.

The material was written with the support of the Atlas Clinic

One more year and I'll be thirty

Dramatic pause.

I think we can already move into the camp of people who gather on Fridays in quiet cafes over a glass of wine and spend the whole evening discussing how they used to be able to “from Wednesday to Sunday - and whatever,” but now “oh, one day it’s a blast - the next swiped horizontally." In fact, I have already switched. But I don’t like talking about how it was. They give the impression that parties are the most important thing in life. And it’s as if life starts counting down after thirty – which, as we know, is a big misconception.

Talking about health is worse than reflecting on the past. Who doesn’t dream of seeing less often friends who constantly whine about their illnesses? Who even likes to talk about them? Strangers spoil your mood, and then you make things up for yourself. Being young, up to a certain age, we prefer to live according to the concept “if you don’t think about health, don’t think about doctors, then there won’t be any problems.” And this happens until, as they say, such a bell rings that you cannot wait it out on the couch, and which you cannot deal with without the participation of a doctor.

My bell rang last fall: out of the blue, I started having panic attacks with an obsession that my health was deteriorating sharply, in all places at once. I didn’t experience any sharp pain, but there were very strange sensations in my stomach and terrible fear with suspicion, no joke, of imminent death. It was then that I turned into a whiner, who, out of fear, began to say at every meeting with friends that I had “serious problems.” It’s difficult to describe in words: I couldn’t concentrate on anything other than the thoughts that “I’ve finally got it,” “it’s time to pay for everything.” Several doctors in St. Petersburg, after conducting superficial examinations, told me that “everything seems to be fine.” But who will be satisfied with such an answer when an obsession is already hanging in your head, and the fear is only intensifying?

As a result, panic led me to be examined at a gastroenterology clinic in Israel, which specializes in complex cases. I’m sitting in a small room, the doctor comes out to me, asks what happened, and I immediately tell him: “I have serious problems. And it hurts here. And here there are strange sensations. And here I hear clicks when pressed. I'm getting worse every day." The doctor turns pale, calls a nurse, they switch me off under general anesthesia and do a full examination.

When I woke up, the first person I saw was a smiling, I would even say laughing, doctor, who, in as much English as he could, said something like “Yuar panic man.” They didn’t find anything on me except the banal Helicobacter, which they don’t even consider to be a disease, and many people live with it all their lives and don’t suspect anything. They fed me, gave me pills and sent me back.

“We know people like that, go to bed, hospital”

When I returned to St. Petersburg, my stomach, of course, stopped hurting. But now “unpleasant sensations” arose in the neck, and then in the joints - and it started again. After a few more rounds of doctors who said they couldn't find anything, I finally thought I'd started with the wrong doctor. This was also indicated by the fact that as soon as one of the doctors told me that “everything is fine, but you better check this area,” something began to hurt in that same area.

Yes, as you probably already guessed, at the age of 28, I, who always laughed at “weaklings who can’t pull themselves together,” find myself in a shrink’s chair. First my friend took me to the real one mental asylum, because her friend is the manager. I walked along the corridors of this hospital and could not believe that I was there. I walk into an old Soviet office and my grandfather greets me:

- Tell me.
“I started inventing illnesses for myself. It probably shouldn't be this way.
- What are you doing?
- I work on the Internet.
- It's clear. We know such people. Go to the hospital for a week. Let's do an encephalogram of your brain. You'll take the pills.
-Are you putting me in the hospital? Do you think it's that bad?
– You want to be cured?
- Give me time to think.

With a quick step - rather, almost running - I walked through the inner garden of this hospital, looked at the outer gates and thought that they would now close and they would leave me there forever. I jumped into my friend’s car, who brought me there, as in the best American films - with the words “Press the pedal. Let's get out of here."

As a result, through friends I was recommended a psychotherapist who seems to specialize in fools like me - diagnosing neuroses and anxiety-depressive disorders. He gave me some kind of diagnosis, the complex name of which I don’t remember, but keyword there was "anxiety" there. The visit to the psychotherapist was accompanied by very interesting sensations that I had not experienced until that moment. You sit in a comfortable leather chair, and there are napkins on the table in front of you:

– Do you think I’ll cry?
– Well, we’ll see now.

This joke alone made me feel better. Without any pills, in two sessions he brought me back to life and explained what I needed to pay attention to and what to follow. It turned out that all this leapfrog was due to the fact that I was simply overheated.

But the bell has already rung

Life seemed to be getting better, everything went as usual. True, all this time the thought did not leave me that it would be nice to find out in what state my body as a whole is now, so that if not completely healthy image life, then at least understand where it can come from. And then two months ago a medical center came to us with a request for sponsorship material.

According to their idea, one of our employees had to undergo a full medical check-up and write about their impressions. A prerequisite is passing. There are only three of us who have passed the test in the company - two editors-in-chief and I (we received these tests as a gift last year). The editors-in-chief live in St. Petersburg, so:

Having been examined by some doctors whose names I don’t even want to remember, I often thought that native advertising had never come so close to me.

The examination begins with a conversation with a therapist - he listens carefully to your story, while your blood is taken and other tests are taken, an electrocardiogram is taken, and then, depending on the results of the initial examination and your complaints, he prescribes the procedure for consultations with specialized doctors. By the way, I visited a therapist for the first time in my life. Until this moment, I had consulted specialized doctors, although I could have guessed that neck pain is not always associated with an ENT specialist. But specialized doctors always found something to treat me for, once I was in trouble. In general, I could have guessed a lot of things: during the examination it turned out that I knew absolutely nothing about my body and the principles of its operation. The program that I completed became more educational for me: all the doctors in the Atlas have poppies, and in them there are books, films, 3D models of organs.

Don’t be alarmed, in this picture I’m just breathing into a tube: a gastroenterologist is conducting a breath test for Helicobacter, which I was diagnosed with in Israel. And at this moment she shows me cartoons about the history of this bacterium, how it spreads and damages the body. He watches these cartoons with me, and also pays attention and smiles at his favorite episodes. And just so you understand, it’s not just me who is served this way: at the end of most consultations, I asked if they knew that I was going to write an article about them. Only managers and two doctors were in the know.

In between consultations, I went out to sit at the reception. After the examinations, which are done on an empty stomach, a light snack is given.

I felt a little uncomfortable because I had to go to the reception in a robe, where other people were sitting. It seems that they are all healthy, and I am already sick. But they honestly asked me in advance what would be more comfortable for me: to dress up every time or just to be in a robe. My complexes are my complexes.

A complete list of doctors and areas that are included in the examination can be found at the medical center - I was examined by about seven doctors. I don’t want to dwell on this in detail, adding only that if I understood the therapist correctly, then the list of examinations can be varied: if you have recently visited an ophthalmologist, then it is better to visit another doctor. For example, on the contrary, I wanted to talk with an ophthalmologist: I asked her many questions about how safe it is to do vision correction today. We went over the model of the eye with her, talked about what exactly happens there when such an operation is performed and what the risks are for me personally.

What nature gave

At my next appointment I had a detailed conversation with a geneticist. Have you ever had something like this? Me too. The results of my DNA were interpreted to me for a whole hour. There is no unscientific magic in style. I was told honestly which studies were statistically supported and which were insignificant. Each conclusion is supported by reference to Scientific research for those who want to study the issue in more detail.

Through all the conversations with the doctors of the Atlas Medical Center (including the main one - I met him in the corridor and spoke for only 30 seconds), one common line runs through: they want to build a clinic that will allow patients to learn more about themselves than can be learned in other Russian institutions. A genetic test does not make a diagnosis, but is used to navigate necessary analyzes and examinations. For example, my test said that I have problems absorbing vitamin D, and a blood test confirmed that the problem actually exists now, and this affects something. I counted about four similar coincidences with the tests, in addition to some general things - like the fact that, for example, the gentest indicates a low probability of developing a migraine, but I never have a headache, even after parties.

The use of a full genetic test is the main difference between personalized medicine and conventional medicine. With this approach, doctors' actions are based on the genetic differences of patients. This allows you to create an individual plan for examination, nutrition, training and other recommendations.

First of all, a geneticist checks for the presence of serious mutations that cause hereditary diseases. These mutations were not detected in me, but on average a person has from one to ten. Non-dangerous mutations are also checked. They will not necessarily manifest themselves in the form of a disease - as they explained to me, the likelihood depends on lifestyle and many other factors.

These studies are more often used for family planning: if a couple has the same predispositions, then it is better to play it safe and try to reduce the risks of having a sick child. The geneticist with whom I spoke just complained that couples often turn to the doctor after a sick child is born.

I remember that I took a DNA test only once, and now, as some research appears, conclusions that could be drawn specifically in relation to me will be uploaded to my personal account. After all, who doesn’t want to simply learn about their origins and trace on a map how their ancestors moved? Or, for example, find out what famous people You are most genetically similar to the Gaelo-Norse commander Somerled and the actor Tom Hanks.

In general, meet geneticist Irina Zhegulina, who looks like she came to the appointment straight from the filming of some TV series about doctors, wonderful assistant Olga, and me in the role of the patient:

Here's your folder, good luck, hang in there

A noticeable advantage of treatment in Atlas is that you do not have to forcefully force out the results of your examinations that you lost or did not receive. They all appear the very next day in personal account Online.

Exactly in the same place where the results of my genetic test with recommendations are stored. You can imagine that I suddenly have to see a doctor from another clinic, he will once again ask me about the availability of some tests, and instead of throwing up my hands, I will simply go into my personal account.

After all the examinations, I again found myself at the final consultation with my attending physician Olga Gennadievna. She recorded the results, identified risk areas and made recommendations, setting priorities and proposing a plan of action. I have some work to do. There is no need to rush - the main thing is that I was tested for most known diseases, although, of course, no one can give one hundred percent guarantees.

I have friends who, inspired by the cool guys from the Valley, have gone so deep into the topic of healthy lifestyle that they take blood tests every week, recording the results in a table and tracking the dynamics of the composition. This allows them to adjust their diet and live in the hope of the moment when people will become immortal. I have not yet been infected with this idea, but I am grateful to the Atlas clinic, which, albeit for advertising purposes, gave me peace of mind.

Such a health check costs 28,000 rubles. I don’t presume to judge the high cost, because I’m not familiar with the market. Personally, since last fall I have spent much more in search of people who can explain everything to me. The genetic test, which the clinic doctors recommend taking for a more detailed study of the body, costs 29,900 rubles. It is not mandatory - you can go through check-in without it.

For those who have read my medical history, Vitya Babichev, the person who ordered this text, offered to give a 10% discount using a special promotional code. He even allowed me to choose its name myself. Let it be zvonochek– you can use it when ordering a test through the website or by calling it over the phone when ordering a medical check-up.