One of our body’s greatest coping mechanisms is distraction. The body uses chronic pain and chronic symptoms/illness to distract us from our painful emotions (fear, anger, shame, etc.). It is actually easier to feel physical pain and discomfort than emotional pain.
Mind-body stress syndromes are skyrocketing! Why? Because stress is skyrocketing! The majority of chronic pain/health issues (especially the ones listed) are caused by stress. Unconscious stress. The emotions that have been pushed aside, hidden away, and unprocessed.
Most people visit their doctor when they struggle with the symptoms listed above. Unfortunately, conventional doctors know very little about mind-body syndromes. Instead, they are trained to give you a diagnosis (via x-rays, MRIs, blood tests, etc.) and prescribe you a treatment (medications, pain pills, surgeries, injections, etc.). This poses a HUGE problem! Mind-body syndromes do not respond to physical treatments such as those mentioned above. WHY? Because the cause is not physical, the cause is emotional!
The amount of people suffering from mind-body syndromes on planet earth is absurd, and it’s absolutely devastating because it’s completely unnecessary. Luckily for us, the fix is pretty simple.
I struggled with several chronic mind-body syndromes and spent years doing ALL THE PHYSICAL THINGS; massage, injections, physical therapy, strengthening exercises, rest, ice, steroids, pain medications, etc. I even came very close to having multiple surgeries, had I taken the advice of my doctors.
The ONLY effective treatment for mind-body, stress induced symptoms and syndromes is to address the root cause; a dysregulated nervous system and repressed/unprocessed emotions.
These two things are the leading cause of chronic pain and chronic illness. Unfortunately, you will not hear this from your conventional doctor, which is exactly why you may not be getting better (hence the term “chronic” ) and why such illnesses remain such a widespread and growing problem.
If you suffer from one or more mind-body syndrome, I highly recommend you learn HOW to process your unconscious emotions, rather than suppress them. Like most people, you’re probably unaware that you’re even experiencing these negative unconscious emotions, let alone repressing them. I also recommend learning HOW to regulate your nervous system, so your body can move out of a sympathetic dominant state and finally heal!
Chronic pain and chronic illnesses are a massive, gargantuan, and growing problem. If I had a dollar for every family member, friend, client, and stranger who is or was unknowingly suffering from a mind-body, stress related syndrome, I would be very wealthy! I see it daily.
