I'll backtrack a little bit. There are a number of insightful people I can thank. But on the most part, we are a mess and I am disappointed to have been a part of the mess for so long. (In my last post I mentioned being a mess because I had been off my routine with a lazy attitude for most of the winter. This post talks about something bigger.)
I feel as if I should delete all of my blog and start over. It goes back to 2005. But I won't do that. Some of it is helpful or inspiring. It might show the evolution of my journey. I always focused on the aspect of self healing and how to enhance that.
After all, the only healing is self healing. We may use interventions to assist healing, but don't be fooled. Your body does the healing. And even better, you are healing even when you're doing nothing. You heal during sleep.
So, here I will begin to explain how frustrated I am with the whole system. You know I'm not a fan of the drug side of the medicine. And I'm not keen on the view that nearly everything is a disease waiting to happen.
We have a somewhat distorted definition of healing. Healing is considered the opposite of disease. That's not an inaccurate view, but we seem to downplay the body's profound abilities. The focus on disease has deprived us of our true healing nature. We don't give healing the proper attention and honor it deserves.
I've been wrong my entire life because of this overemphasis on disease. We're always looking at what can go wrong rather than celebrate what goes superbly well. Looking back at the history of medicine, a process that looks abnormal is studied and categorized "to death." Pardon the pun. That's how deep this mental dysfunction goes. Eventually an abnormal process gets named after the discoverer and we do it all over again. (Paget's Disease. Crohn's Disease. Alzheimer's Disease.) New diseases will described and named after somebody.
Thanks to an extremely detailed education, I learned to memorize disease names, disease categories, and disease symptoms. It kept me busy. During that time, I may have lost my sense of awe for the body. It was a depressing education. Details were complicated making them great exam questions. It seemed so important to be able to dissect a list of symptoms in order to come up with a suitable diagnosis.
But for what purpose was all this word dancing? Are we just trying to make everyone feel at a loss since there are so many diseases?Our long history of categorizing disease has demoralized us. And on the more dangerous side, it has distracted us from the most important part of healing, us. And I'm upset.
What a waste of time. I fell for it and lured my patients around for just over 20 years. I spent most of my time detailing everyone's symptoms, stresses, and bad memories. I wrote pages and pages of timelines, onset dates, and mechanisms of injury. I've ready chart notes consisting of chief complaints, old problems, new problems, multiple diagnoses, status change, progressions, regressions, on and on. People pull out of their wallets long lists of medications that they can't spell, pronounce or explain why they are taking them.
Meanwhile people are living in a fog of disease terminology and I try to get a peep in about self healing. It's a joke. I'm demoralized in such a way I cannot describe. Embarrassment for being tricked is another strong emotion.
I realize now it is going to take a while for me to explain. I'll be proofreading and clarifying multiple times. The silly or unique thing about blogs is that you will have to constantly go backwards to read this in proper order. As the most recent blog post is at the top of the page, I may have to repeat myself to help the reader follow my story.
Welcome to Part One
It has been an enormous challenge to help people feel good about their bodies. Not like teenagers going through puberty, or celebrities who need to work out ten hours a day so they are camera ready. I want them to know they can handle life's ups and downs when it comes to health. But I have competition. It's not easy to compete with negativity.
Patients come to me and say, "I have a new problem." They feel as if they are at the mercy of their bodies. Someone says, "My shoulder is acting up again." What does that mean? Is it acting up again, like an overheated radiator in a car? You are not car parts.
Sadly, it's their identity. Are you the person who has debilitating back pain every six weeks? Are you so adept at predicting a flare up after mowing the lawn? When I tell them they can self heal, the vibe I get is that of disbelief. They don't trust their bodies. They are basing this on past experience. The mind can't imagine something different. It just dwells on a catalog of memories. We've even handed down these awful memories through generations. We call it heredity.
"Okay, Doc, whatever you say about that healing stuff, just do what you do so I have some temporary relief. I'll be back sooner or later." Folks just want the quick adjustment so they return to their chaotic life style. Do I really make a positive impact on people?
Look, I'm here for you. I am happy to share the journey with you. But, I feel as if we're on a beaten track going in circles. There is nothing new. I know life is stressful, and some days are worse than others, but we have to break the cycle. I'm looking for a mind shift.
My mind had to shift. I've gone through a few smaller shifts over the years. Perhaps they prepared me for the big shift I am dropping on all of my blog readers.
There is no disease.
Yup. The belief in disease has been a great waste of time. Get it out your mind and shift into something better. Instead of planning your life around your disease mind-set, perceived disease flare ups, and the gnawing anxiety over new symptoms just plan your life.
There's a catch, though. Once you give up the disease mind-set you have a new set of responsibilities.
Look for Part 2.
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