Don't forget your common sense

Thu, September 3, 2026 at 9:11 AM | Zlatoslava Karga
Common Sense Above Degree and AI

A Message About Critical Thinking, Self-Advocacy, and Taking an Active Role in Your Own Care

Zlatoslava (Z) Karga, PMH NP DNP

We use common sense every day, often without even realizing that we are doing it.

Imagine opening your refrigerator and reaching for a container of yogurt. The expiration date says it is good for another month. It comes from a reputable company. According to the label, everything should be fine.

But something looks wrong.

The lid is bulging. When you open it, pressure releases unexpectedly. You look inside and notice something green growing on the surface. You smell it. Your eyes and nose are giving you information that conflicts with the date printed on the package.

Do you say, “Well, the expiration date says it is good, so I should eat it”?

Of course not.

You throw it away.

In that moment, you have done something remarkably important: you gathered information, compared it with what you were told, recognized a contradiction, and made a judgment.

That is common sense. It is also critical thinking.

And we should not leave either one outside the door when we enter a doctor’s office.

Your Degree Does Not Determine Whether You Can Ask Questions

There is an interesting tendency many of us have when dealing with professionals.

We can be perfectly capable of making decisions throughout the rest of our lives, yet when we enter a medical office, suddenly we may feel that someone else is entirely in charge.

“The doctor said so.”

“The specialist prescribed it.”

“The computer says this.”

“The test says that.”

Those things matter. Expertise matters enormously. Education matters. Training matters. Scientific evidence matters.

But you matter too.

For an adult who has the capacity to make their own healthcare decisions, treatment is ultimately something you consent to. You have the right to understand what is being recommended, why it is being recommended, what the alternatives are, and what risks and benefits are involved.

You also have the right to ask:

Why?

What are my other options?

What happens if I wait?

Is there another explanation?

Could this medication be causing what I am experiencing?

Can we reconsider this?

And sometimes:

Can I get a second opinion?

Asking those questions does not make you a “difficult patient.”

It makes you an active participant in your healthcare.

When Something Doesn’t Seem Right, Speak Up

One of the most heartbreaking examples of why patient and family observations matter is the story of Josie King, an 18-month-old child who died at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2001 after initially recovering from severe burns.

Her case became an important part of the patient-safety movement. Her mother repeatedly expressed concern about her daughter’s condition, including her intense thirst. After Josie’s death, investigations identified multiple failures in the system, including failures of communication.

I am not sharing this story to frighten anyone or to suggest that medical professionals cannot be trusted. The overwhelming majority of healthcare professionals want to help their patients.

The lesson is different:

Systems can fail. Professionals can make mistakes. Communication can break down. And observations from patients and families can contain critically important information.

A prestigious hospital does not eliminate human error.

A medical degree does not eliminate human error.

Neither does a computer.

That is why healthcare works best when patients, families, nurses, physicians, therapists, pharmacists, and other professionals communicate with one another rather than assuming that someone else must have everything figured out.

This Is How I Want Us to Approach Your Treatment

In my practice, I view you and me as partners in your treatment.

I bring psychiatric training, clinical experience, knowledge of medications, diagnostic reasoning, and the available medical evidence.

But you bring something I can never have: the experience of actually living inside your body and your life.

You know how you normally feel.

You know when your thinking has changed.

You know when your sleep suddenly becomes different.

You know when a medication makes you feel unlike yourself.

You may not always know why something is happening—and neither may I initially—but your observation is still important information.

So if you start a medication and think:

“I can’t explain it, but something about this medication doesn’t feel right,”

please tell me.

You do not need a pharmacology degree before you are allowed to notice that something has changed.

Maybe what you are experiencing is a known temporary side effect.

Maybe the dose needs to be adjusted.

Maybe the medication is not the right medication for you.

Maybe the symptom has nothing to do with the medication at all.

Our job is to investigate rather than dismiss it.

Of course, some medications can cause problems if stopped suddenly, so contacting your prescriber before making medication changes is important whenever possible. And urgent or severe symptoms may require immediate medical attention.

Self-advocacy does not mean treating yourself. It means participating intelligently in your treatment.

A Degree and Common Sense Are Not the Same Thing

Growing up in the Soviet Union, I remember comedians joking about American products having instructions for things that seemed ridiculously obvious.

We found it hilarious.

Where I grew up, sometimes you were lucky if something came with instructions at all.

You looked at it.

You figured it out.

And hopefully you figured it out correctly.

There was an underlying lesson in that environment that stayed with me: you are responsible for thinking.

Education can give us tremendous knowledge. Experience can sharpen judgment. Professional training can teach us how to recognize patterns that would be invisible to someone without that training.

But a degree does not automatically produce good judgment.

A person can know thousands of individual facts and still struggle to put those facts together when the situation in front of them does not fit neatly into a textbook.

The best professionals do both.

They know the evidence and they look at the person sitting in front of them.

And Now We Have AI

Today we have another extraordinary tool: artificial intelligence.

I use AI. Many professionals use AI. Patients use AI. It can be incredibly useful for organizing information, generating questions, explaining complicated concepts, and helping us find starting points for further research.

But AI is a tool, not an authority.

A very recent example illustrates this beautifully.

In 2026, three novice climbers had to be rescued from Mount Shasta after becoming stranded during a poorly prepared climb. According to authorities, the climbers reported relying heavily on Google’s Gemini AI for information about their route and how much food and water they should bring.

They eventually acknowledged that they had relied too heavily on AI instead of their own critical thinking.

Fortunately, they survived.

The lesson is not “AI is bad.”

The lesson is:

Don’t outsource your judgment.

AI can give you information. It cannot take responsibility for what happens when you act on that information.

AI Can Be Confident—and Wrong

An even stranger recent example involved a man accused by federal authorities of posing as a San Francisco 49ers football player as part of an alleged romance and investment fraud scheme targeting numerous women.

The story became particularly interesting because false information about the man had spread online, and Google’s AI-generated search information reportedly repeated the false claim that he was associated with the 49ers.

Think about that for a moment.

Someone searching the internet for reassurance could ask essentially, “Is this person legitimate?” and encounter an apparently authoritative AI-generated answer supporting the very falsehood they were trying to investigate.

This demonstrates an important limitation of AI systems.

AI does not possess an independent understanding of truth in the same way people sometimes imagine. It processes enormous amounts of information and identifies patterns within that information. If inaccurate, misleading, manipulated, outdated, or incomplete information enters that environment, an AI system can sometimes produce an answer that sounds remarkably confident while still being wrong.

Confidence is not the same thing as accuracy.

That applies to AI.

And, occasionally, it applies to humans too.

Use Your Brain. Use Your Professionals. Use Your Tools.

I don’t want you to choose between common sense and medicine.

I want you to use both.

I don’t want you to choose between your own judgment and professional expertise.

Use both.

And I certainly don’t want you to stop using AI.

Use it—but understand what it is.

Ask AI questions. Then verify important information through reliable sources and qualified professionals, particularly when decisions involve your health, medications, finances, legal matters, or physical safety.

Most importantly, never become afraid to ask a human professional:

“Can you explain why?”

You Are an Active Participant in Your Care

When it comes to your psychiatric treatment, please remember this.

If you are uncertain whether your medication is working, tell me.

If you believe you are experiencing side effects, tell me.

If something about our treatment plan does not make sense, ask me.

If you read something online or receive an answer from AI that contradicts what I told you, bring it to me. We can look at it together.

If you disagree with me, you can tell me that too.

I would much rather spend additional time discussing your concerns, reassessing your symptoms, and explaining my reasoning than have you quietly follow a treatment plan you do not understand or do not feel comfortable with.

Good healthcare should not require blind obedience.

It requires communication, informed consent, professional expertise, observation, evidence, and critical thinking.

So keep your common sense with you.

Bring it to the grocery store.

Bring it to the mechanic.

Bring it onto the mountain.

Bring it when you use AI.

And please, bring it into my office.

Your education level does not determine whether your observations matter.

A professional degree does not make someone infallible.

And artificial intelligence does not relieve any of us of the responsibility to think.

Use the tools. Respect expertise. Ask questions. Verify what matters. Pay attention to what you observe. And remain an active participant in the decisions that affect your life and your health.

This article is intended for general education and patient empowerment and is not a substitute for individualized medical advice. Do not abruptly discontinue prescribed psychiatric medications without discussing the risks with your prescriber when possible. Seek urgent or emergency medical care for severe or potentially life-threatening symptoms.

References and Further Reading

1. Johns Hopkins Child Death — The Josie King Case

Johns Hopkins Medicine. No Room for Error. Johns Hopkins Medicine, January 2016.

Josie King was an 18-month-old child who died at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2001 after initially recovering from severe burns. Johns Hopkins reports that a root-cause analysis initially identified dehydration and an unnecessary medication dose as contributing factors; a later analysis identified septic shock from a hospital-acquired infection and broader system failures. Importantly, Johns Hopkins states that communication had broken down and that her mother’s repeated concerns that Josie was thirsty were not heeded. The case subsequently became an important catalyst for patient-safety initiatives at Johns Hopkins.

Read the Johns Hopkins article:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/2016/01/no-room-for-error

2. Mount Shasta Rescue — Hikers Who Relied on AI for Trip Planning

Castañeda, Carlos E. Hikers rescued from California’s Mount Shasta after ascent planned with incorrect AI information. CBS News/CBS Sacramento, September 2, 2026.

Three novice hikers became stranded on Mount Shasta after authorities said they relied heavily on Google’s Gemini AI for information about their climbing route and what supplies to bring. According to the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office, Gemini advised them to bring substantially less food and water than their group ultimately required. Their planned climb turned into a multi-day ordeal requiring assistance from rescuers. Authorities specifically cautioned people not to rely solely on AI for wilderness trip planning and recommended consulting local experts and official sources.

Read the CBS News article:
https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/mount-shasta-hikers-rescued-california-ai-incorrect-instructions/

3. Alleged Fake San Francisco 49ers Player — Romance and Investment Fraud Case

Henson, Steve. How an alleged fake 49ers wideout wooed women and took $1.3 million: “That’s Google, not me.” Los Angeles Times, August 27, 2026.

Federal prosecutors allege that Daejon Labrayae Love and an accomplice participated in a romance-and-investment fraud scheme that took approximately $1.3 million from at least 26 women. Love allegedly represented himself as a San Francisco 49ers player, among other false identities. Particularly relevant to the discussion of AI, investigators documented a Google AI Overview that incorrectly identified Love as a wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers. Love allegedly displayed the AI-generated information as apparent confirmation of his story. The case illustrates why information produced by search engines and AI systems should be independently verified rather than automatically treated as proof.

Read the Los Angeles Times article:
https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2026-08-27/fake-49ers-player-charged-defrauding-women-1-million-dollars
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