The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim

I contacted Park Se-sun to ask when she’d be available to talk.

Park Se-sun called me back shortly.

“Hello, Doctor. What’s the occasion for calling first?”

“What do you mean, occasion!”

I got straight to the point. What was this about giving the prescribed pills to a friend?

If it was the pills I prescribed for her, they were for weight loss.

After Park Se-sun returned to Seoul, she wanted an additional prescription to prevent yo-yo effect, so I sent her pills for easy dose adjustment. I told her to start with about 20 pills, then gradually reduce to 15, then 10.

Isn’t it inconvenient to split decoctions?

I thought she had finished her diet successfully by taking them as instructed, but now her friend had taken them and had problems?

‘I emphasized so much that medicine is medicine!’

Of course, I had ranted at her cousin Park Seon-yun, but isn’t it common sense that custom-made medicine shouldn’t be taken by others?

“I’m sorry. I saw herbal pills being traded on secondhand sites sometimes, so I thought it would be okay.”

“That’s all illegal! You don’t need to apologize to me, but is your friend alright? What happened?”

If it was just temporary constipation or insomnia, which I had warned about as common side effects, and it got better as soon as they stopped taking the medicine, Park Seon-yun probably wouldn’t have been worried enough to tell me.

“Well, the truth is, that friend has panic disorder?”

“…I see.”

“She said her panic symptoms got worse. Not just her heart racing a bit, but feeling like she couldn’t breathe… Haha, I never experienced anything like that…”

Truly reckless.

Panic disorder is fundamentally related to sympathetic nervous system hyperactivity.

Excessive stress, fear, and anxiety continuously activate the sympathetic nervous system, while the parasympathetic nervous system, which acts as a brake, weakens and can’t calm things down, leading to panic attack symptoms.

Of course there would be problems if she took ephedra, which stimulates the sympathetic nervous system!

“Of course that would happen. It’s medicine to boost metabolism tailored to your body, Se-sun. Basically, it can be poison for people with high blood pressure or cardiac autonomic dysfunction.”

“I guess so…”

“How is she now? Would it be difficult for her to visit the clinic since she’s in Seoul?”

“I actually talked to her yesterday. She probably doesn’t have any schedules for a while, so it should be okay. Sigh, I’m sorry. I absolutely shouldn’t have given it to her.”

Park Se-sun was very apologetic. Hearing the story, it seemed her friend had begged quite a bit, so I ended the call without scolding her too much.

Three days later.

“Hello~!”

Actress Hyun Ju-mi visited the clinic.

She’s also a celebrity, so to avoid looking completely clueless, I had asked Park Se-sun for her name and looked her up in advance.

She seemed to be an actress who had transitioned from an idol group, faced significant criticism for her acting skills early on, and still had quite a lot of anti-fans.

‘Hmm… Did she develop panic disorder from the stress of malicious comments?’

I had said we could see her after hours if she was uncomfortable with exposure, but Hyun Ju-mi said she didn’t need special treatment.

She entered the clinic wearing a very eye-catching orange dress.

“Oh, could it be…”

“Hello! I’m Ju-mi~”

She didn’t mind at all giving autographs or taking photos with patients sitting in the waiting room.

“Hehe, I’m sorry. I caused trouble, didn’t I? It was all my fault for taking it without permission, so please don’t scold Se-sun-unni~!”

As soon as she entered the consultation room, Hyun Ju-mi clasped her hands together, made a pleading gesture, and winked.

“Hello, Hyun Ju-mi-nim. I heard from Park Se-sun-nim. Don’t worry, I didn’t scold her.”

“Okay, that’s a relief!”

She flipped her permed hair that reached her waist and smiled brightly.

At least on the surface, she didn’t look like someone with a mental illness at all.

Amid all sorts of controversies about her clumsy acting, poor dancing, thick thighs, or strange taste in men, the word ‘panic disorder’ never appeared.

“Why did you take that medicine? You don’t look like you need to diet at all.”

I asked Hyun Ju-mi.

There is such a thing as skinny obesity where someone looks thin but has high body fat, but Hyun Ju-mi didn’t even fit that category.

If anything, wasn’t she underweight? Her arms and legs were so thin they were practically just bone, and her waist was slender. Of course, her face had no extra fat at all.

“Ahaha, right? I foolishly searched for movie reviews and got suddenly obsessed with dieting.”

“You acted impulsively after seeing negative comments about your body?”

“Yes! There were some revealing scenes in my last project that showed my thighs, and that’s my complex!”

Hyun Ju-mi lifted her skirt to show her thighs.

…Those are muscles?

From a martial artist’s perspective, the importance of thigh muscles goes without saying, but even trying hard to look at it from an entertainer’s standards, losing that would be far more detrimental.

Forcibly reducing thigh muscles would actually slow metabolism and lead to weight gain, wouldn’t it?

Regardless of my shock, Hyun Ju-mi smiled brightly and began her story.

◆◇◆◇◆

Hyun Ju-mi was born with an optimistic and bright personality.

With her appealing looks and friendly nature, she was popular with both boys and girls during her school days.

Then one day, she was street-cast by a famous entertainment company.

“Wow, an idol? I’d love that!”

The agency staff showered her with praise. They said she was pretty, had a lovely personality, and sang well. That’s how she joined an idol group about to debut.

Debuting as the youngest member after only a short trainee period.

She faced the coldness of the world for the first time in her life.

Why give her so much screen time when she can’t even sing? She talks too much. She’s too forward. Her double eyelids are uneven. Her philtrum is long. What kind of skirt is that? Cover up those thighs.

At a young age, Hyun Ju-mi was stabbed by countless knives.

“It can’t be helped since the preparation period was short! I was much luckier than waiting for years, so I have to endure! If I work hard, they’ll recognize me!”

But the people who had developed a taste for criticizing her wouldn’t let go easily.

She played the role of punching bag until the group disbanded, and after transitioning to acting, she became the target of concentrated fire from fans of her male co-stars.

How could they film love scenes with such a vulgar girl? Did you see her picking perilla leaves off him at the afterparty? Do we have to see her on TV too, ruining the whole show? I can’t stand the sight of her.

“Haha, this is nothing! I’m used to it~ It’s like an initiation that everyone goes through when transitioning!”

The agency worried about her a lot, but Hyun Ju-mi was truly fine.

Apart from the acting controversy, her debut work did quite well.

The same was true for her next work, and the one after that. There was controversy every time, but the results were good.

Fans cheered, and money steadily piled up in her bank account.

Anti-fans? Stars are supposed to drive both lovers and haters crazy!

Hyun Ju-mi sincerely thought that way.

“Huh!”

So when she was diagnosed with panic disorder, she couldn’t believe it at all.

“Me? There’s no one more positive and bright than me! I don’t care what anyone says!”

It wasn’t that she was pretending to be cheerful.

Everything was going well with her work, and she had never felt anything like depression in her life.

She checked ‘No’ for all the items about depression, anxiety, and fear on the hundreds of questionnaire items.

“The fact that you remember those comments means you are bothered by them. You should rest for a while, and it’s best not to look at the internet at all.”

But the psychiatrist was firm in his diagnosis.

She decided not to schedule any additional work to rest as the doctor said.

She disconnected from the internet and took the prescribed medication.

There wasn’t much change. Hyun Ju-mi really had never felt depressed or anxious! She enjoyed her daily life, traveling around.

Whether it was thanks to the medicine or the lack of external stimuli, she didn’t have any panic attacks for a while.

Then the movie she had filmed was released.

The response seemed quite good.

So she thoughtlessly opened some reviews.

“…Have I gained that much weight?”

She looked in the mirror. She wasn’t very pleased with her body. All sorts of comments she had heard over the years flashed through her mind.

“Liposuction?”

The thought of plastic surgery came first.

But if she suddenly reduced only certain areas, she’d be criticized for that too.

“Something more natural… Ah! Didn’t Se-sun-unni say herbal diet was good?”

She visited a nearby Korean medicine clinic.

But she was refused.

They said there was nothing to lose, and it could have negative effects while treating panic disorder.

Instead, the Korean medicine doctor recommended a tonic.

“Unni, Unni! Can’t I just try a little bit?”

“Of course not.”

“I’m just curious if I can handle it! Just a little!”

If Unni takes 15 pills, wouldn’t 10 pills be okay?

Hyun Ju-mi snatched and swallowed the medicine from Park Se-sun.

“Hey! Do you think this is some digestive medicine?”

Park Se-sun nagged, but Hyun Ju-mi brushed it off with her characteristic cute smile.

She just wanted to do something, anything.

“Huff, huff…!”

That night, Hyun Ju-mi couldn’t sleep.

Was it because she read the reviews? Because she took medicine that didn’t suit her? Or was this just how the illness had always been?

She couldn’t pinpoint the cause.

She had difficulty breathing, and a terror of impending death struck her.

The attack ended after 30 minutes, but anxious that it might start again at any moment, she spent the night wide awake.

“Unni… What should I do?”

Hyun Ju-mi confided everything to Park Se-sun, her trusted sunbae.

And three days later, she came down to Busan.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Ahaha, but I’m fine now! I haven’t had an attack since that day. So I was debating whether to come or not…”

“Of course you should come!”

I scolded Hyun Ju-mi as she scratched her head.

It was far too casual an attitude towards her health, not to mention the drug misuse.

How can a panic disorder patient have so little anticipatory anxiety?

Originally, many panic disorder patients suffer more from the fear of not knowing when an attack might occur, rather than the attacks themselves which subside within tens of minutes.

But because she thought of herself as naturally optimistic, she seemed to lack insight into her condition.

“Just to be sure, you didn’t come here wanting to diet, did you?”

“Well, dieting is dieting, but I was wondering if my panic symptoms could improve too. I came wanting comprehensive counseling!”

That was a relief to hear.

“I searched for Korean medicine clinics after hearing from Se-sun-Unni, and I found an article written by a doctor from Sowon General Hospital. Reading that, it seemed you treat mental illnesses well too.”

“…A doctor’s contribution?”

She wouldn’t be referring to the formal MOU article as a contribution.

When it comes to Sowon General Hospital, only one person came to mind. Park Young-gil.

What kind of article did he write?

I turned on the internet and searched for our clinic’s name.

An article contributed to a general newspaper unrelated to the medical field caught my eye.

“Yes! I heard the doctor’s mother’s heart palpitations improved thanks to you! Actually, it seemed similar to my case, so I’ve been brewing some gardenia and soybeans to drink!”

And before I could even read it, I clutched the back of my neck at Hyun Ju-mi’s words.

This is why you shouldn’t reveal the herbal ingredients! There’s always someone who does this!

She was truly a sunny but troublesome patient.