Having a difficult time making decisions? Are there too many options on the table?
When approaching a problem or supporting a client with making a choice many aim to make the "perfect" choice; a surplus of choices can lead to decision avoidance.
Clinically, clients may have to make treatment decisions from a variety of choices, all with variable benefits and risks.
As science and medicine evolve and access to information evolves, clients have decision fatigue, over choice and information overload. Have you ever sat at a restaurant with a large menu and find it impossible to make a decision? Now apply that to life, health and longevity.
Over 40 years ago, Alvin Toffler predicted the damaging effects of this overload of choices in the book, Future Shock. He wrote, "Ironically, the people of the future may suffer not from an absence of choice, but from a paralyzing surfeit of it. They may turn out to be the victims of that peculiar super-industrial dilemma: ‘Overchoice.'"
As a Provider
In healthcare, these decisions can become paralyzing. Having a provider that has a firm understanding of treatment options and the ability to sift through options with clarity can help clients make decisions. Consumer Reports conducted an investigative review in 2010 of the cognitive psychology literature around messaging related to “What Not to Do,” a literature review and white paper intended to improve the communication to consumers about decision making. Consumer Reports carried out a survey showing that large numbers of consumers were enduring inefficient heart disease screening while rarely receiving valuable explanations from physicians about why they were getting these tests.
Choosing Wisely is a campaign aimed at supporting conversations between physicians and patients about what care is absolutely necessary. Research shows there was a large gap between physicians’ objectives and their actual behavior was different. When asked how physicians would behave in specific situations, 36% said they would accommodate a patient who badly wanted a test, even if the they knew it was unnecessary (Campbell EG, Regan S, Gruen RL, et al, 2007). Addressing this gap between aspirations and actual professional behaviors served as one of the guiding aims when constructing the Choosing Wisely campaign.
As A Consumer
This atmosphere of over choice translates into the application of a weighted decisional balance in which the evaluation of our comparison to what we have and what we ought to have creates indecision. Each time happiness comes to question, we feel a sense of emptiness, or find fault in a choice we have made, we are informed that the other choices exist. One can begin to believe that these alternatives may suggest a solution to our predicaments. Like grabbing the fries off your husbands plate after you ordered the salad.
Learn to consume less once a decision is made and love the moment you are in.
Campbell EG, Regan S, Gruen RL, et al. Professionalism in medicine: Results of a national survey of physicians. Ann Intern Med. 2007;147:795–802
Medical Professionalism Project: American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation, American College of Physicians–American Society of Internal Medicine Foundation, and European Federation of Internal Medicine. Medical professionalism in the new millennium: A physician charter. Ann Intern Med. 2002;136:243–246