Illnesses are often talked about in regards to the symptoms present when they occur. In fact, symptoms often drive our behavior. Many times it is not our illness or disorder that drives us to change or seek help, but the symptoms that we experience that motivate us to change. Let’s explore how symptoms can be useful to help us focus our awareness on something that needs our attention.
There are two main schools of thought regarding symptoms coming from different parts of the globe. Conventional (allopathic) medicine tends to be very oriented toward symptoms and their relief, while more traditional healing techniques are geared toward removing blockages of energy and balancing a variety of aspects of the physiology, thereby eliminating the cause of the symptoms. Conventional medicine often focuses on symptom relief, which is largely mandated by the patients. Patients want to feel better NOW so they can get on with their lives. They forsake (or at least ignore) the future consequences of their desire to feel better immediately, which ultimately leads to more complicated health problems down the road.
We follow a more traditional holistic viewpoint at our center: rather than treat each individual symptom or group of symptoms we look to find the underlying cause of the symptoms and help the body come back into a state of balance. By addressing the causes rather than the symptoms, we enable the body to achieve health now AND in the long run, although symptom relief may not be as immediate. However, we can use symptoms to give us valuable information about what is going on inside the body.
Frequently ‘symptoms’ are a healthy response to excessive stresses. Although not essentially pleasant, they are often your body ‘cleaning house’. Symptoms may also be a sign that you have not been functioning well and can no longer adapt to the stresses upon you. We look at symptoms as the body’s early warning system that something is going on somewhere that needs attention. That “somewhere” may or may not be in the area where the symptom is located.
An analogy is that the symptom is like an oil light that lights up on the dashboard of your car. There are four ways that we can deal with symptoms. The first is that we can ignore them. In our car analogy, let’s say we are out for a drive and you see the oil light is on. In this first example, you’d say “Oh, that’s OK, that light is always on, it’s nothing” and you would continue driving. Obviously, that is not going to do anything to address the underlying problem. Many people, particularly men, do just that – they ignore early symptoms until they become much more serious. These people either do not realize that these symptoms represent something more serious or they just don’t pay attention. At any rate, the symptoms are ignored and the underlying dysfunction progresses.
The second thing we can do is to address the symptom directly. To treat the symptom, we go behind the dashboard and disconnect the oil light. Now, we won’t have the symptom anymore, but we also won’t be aware of the underlying problem endangering the engine. This is the real danger behind our constant desire in this country to eliminate symptoms whenever they come up. Symptom alleviation will often numb us to the real issues that our body is trying to alert us to. Without a warning system, we are not aware that anything is wrong until something catastrophic occurs.
The third thing we can do is take stress off the system. In the case of the car, we can park it in the garage at home and never drive it. Now, we won’t have a problem with the oil light, however, the car isn’t doing what it’s intended to do either! Many people make dramatic changes in their lives to accommodate symptoms so that life itself becomes a shell of its former self. We often see this when we stop doing things we love and enjoy because we feel we can’t or shouldn’t do them because of our condition – we give up hope of vibrant health and resign to live within the confines of the symptoms we experience.
The fourth and final thing we can do is address the underlying problem. In the case of the car, we can actually change the oil and/or have the car serviced, which will fix the problem and stop the light from being on. For our bodies, and ourselves we can make healthier life choices with what we eat, how we exercise, what we read and think, and how we support our body’s overall health. In doing so, we can obtain a much higher quality of life where we can embrace symptoms and the messages they give us, rather than be in constant fear of the information they provide!
Symptoms are simply an early indicator that something needs your attention. The choice to address or ignore the warnings is up to you.