How long will it take to be fixed

How long will it take to be fixed? 

That’s an impossible question. 

Most people with complex health problems show a measurable improvement within 15 visits. Some less, some more.

Sometimes their presenting complaint is corrected sometimes they are just improved and to varying degrees. 

There is a lot to discuss with this aspect of care.

Often when a patient presents with a condition, there are other complaints that are significant but not the main concern.

For example.

An intractable Migraineur will present with wanting their Migraine headaches stopped. Fair enough. However there are always associated problems that pale by comparison. Perhaps dizziness, vertigo with cold hands and feet also exist. These symptoms are nothing compared to the misery of Migraine, but they show that there is a lot going on with the nervous system of that patient.

In treating the patient, we look at everything possible and design a program specific to that patient’s test results. 

With the example above, as we progress with treatment, we may find that the dizziness and vertigo will go away and the migraines improve, but the cold hands and feet may persist. It would be our intention to correct all the signs and symptoms which represent a dysfunctional nervous system and in doing so the chief complaint being migraine will hopefully be fixed along with the other symptoms.

‘You can't make a silk purse out of a pigs ear’.

By this, I mean that the tyranny of age and the accumulation of injuries over time may mean that we can help somebody but not cure them. All of this will be discussed in detail before commencing treatment and as you proceed through the program.

Some conditions are relentless, such as the autoimmune conditions, they can't be stopped, but their effects can often be lessened.

Some people, at a very deep level, don’t actually want help. They don’t recognise this and would scoff at the very idea of it. However, read on!

Here we must consider our ‘self concept’.

Do you see yourself as a sick or damaged ‘you’? Or do you see yourself as the ‘you’ that has always been but that you have sustained some illness or damage.

If your answer was that you primarily see yourself as a sick or damaged person then you will have changed your ‘self concept’ to being an unwell person. This will require a lot more consideration than otherwise.

The simple reason is that as you improve your health you will have to rethink who you are. You may not want to change your self concept as that is all you know. This is serious stuff and a huge barrier to getting better for some.

Self-concept is a broad term referring to an individual's perception of "self," encompassing beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions one holds about oneself. It includes aspects such as self-awareness, self-esteem, and self-image. Self-concept shapes how individuals see themselves, influencing their behaviours, attitudes, and interactions with others. It is formed through experiences, social interactions, and self-reflection, and can evolve over time. Self-concept is crucial for personal identity and psychological well-being.

There are layers of understanding to becoming well again.

A story of Betty

Betty had been in a really bad way for 4-5 years. Her particular health problems were complex and debilitating. Multiple doctors and others made little difference. She could not easily leave the house, couldn’t have visitors and suffered considerable pain and misery both during the day and at night. she found herself in hospital every 10 weeks or so from particularly bad episodes of her affliction. She could not be the person, mother or wife that she desired. She became involved in the Facebook & Instagram groups associated with her condition and was active with those. Blogging and sharing information and advice. This was her world. It wasn’t much but it was something.

She heard of our clinic and arrived exhausted from the short car trip. We did the things we do and she started to improve. Her daytime misery was largely gone, she didn’t end up in hospital any more and she could even have visitors to her home. The kids and husband were very pleased. She was not. She stopped coming for treatment. When questioned about this she said it was too hard to travel for treatment and that was that.

Actually, what was really happening was that her ‘self concept’ was rapidly being destroyed and she couldn’t cope with it. It was better, to her way of thinking, to stop the challenge to her ‘self concept’ and to accept the now reduced misery she suffered nightly. She refused all attempts to get counselling about this, no doubt, for the same reasons. Three years later she told me nothing has changed. She does not want further treatment from anyone despite the obvious possibility of further improvement. Perhaps, in time, her self concept will alter enough to allow her to seek help somewhere.

To further understand this dilemma we should consider an Anthropological Theory: The Special Theory of Specialness’.

That being, we all have an innate desire to be ‘special’. There is a very good reason for this. It is simply that if we did not have it within to be the very best, then it would be a disservice to humanity to propagate and fulfil the primal drive to reproduce the species.

Evolution of the human species occurs from interbreeding the genetics of two people with the expectation of producing an improved version of those parents. Over time the species progresses.

It is hardwired within each of us in order to advance the species i.e. evolve. A parent will give up their life for their child for the same reason. The idea that a child will ‘jump off its parents shoulders’ is similar.

Children don’t mask this need to be ‘special’, they will readily say they want to be the best in the world at this or that.

Adults soon realise that they can’t be the best tennis player in the world or the fastest runner or the best in anything. The desire is there but we have to reconcile it in a way that keeps us satisfied. So we strive to be the best at something that is achievable and we don’t usually make a scene about it as it is a tenuous stance easily and often lost by time and circumstances.   

When the attainment is obvious we look like a ‘high achiever’. But everybody is sub-consciously working away at this impossible goal. Unknowingly driven to improve the species.

How does this relate to improving your health.

Take Betty, she sub-consciously considers herself to be the best at being her version of sick. She is online often, connecting to other sufferers, giving advice, listening to others, and being useful, it gives her a purpose to stay involved. In this way she fulfils the need to consider herself special and satisfies the drive for this relentless need. If she was well she would no longer be able to identify as a fellow sufferer.

In practical terms, Betty overtly wants to be well and have a good life. However, her self concept is holding her to ransom. She also wants to be special.

Being unwell with her particular condition is fulfilling her need to be ‘the only one’ with her situation.

And getting effective treatment leading to a rapid change in her circumstances was a bit scary and so she steered away from challenging her  ‘self concept’. Consequently she rejected further treatment despite its obvious effectiveness.

A little more on 'The Special Theory of Specialness’.

Why people believe weird stuff. Have you heard of the tunnels under the ocean linking the continents where children are kept and farmed for whatever reason I don’t remember. There are those amongst us who have very extreme views that clearly are beyond the normally accepted boundaries of reality. Denial of the Moon landing, the Holocaust. The existence of wee people, fairies, gods, superstition, ghosts, sprits, demons, luck, conspiracy theories, it goes on and on. Many have ‘beliefs’ that they are prepared to die for!

Why do so many people think this way?

For the vast majority the experience of adult life has shown us time and time again that we cannot be the best in the world in something obvious like being the smartest, fastest, funniest, slowest, greatest, wealthiest, but the drive to be ‘special’ is eating away at us.

Inadvertently we see appeal in believing some weird thing as it makes us the special person that knows something that no one else does. When someone claims to have been abducted by aliens you can be sure that the unconscious drive for this is to fulfil the need to be ‘special’. 

What to do with this.

Be the best individual that you can be.

You are the best at being you. That means you are a unique combination of attributes of varying degrees of competence, none are a world first, but in combination you and only you have the particular mix of attributes that you have. No one can be better at being you because you are uniquely a ‘one off’.

Whew, you can now relax and stop striving. Unless you were trying to be the best at not striving!

Likewise you can look at your behaviours and consider if they are serving you or a previously unconscious desire to be the best. 

Often, if you say to yourself, I’m no good at …..… then that’s you saying I’m working on being the best at being no good at ……… 

Of course this is occurring at a sub conscious level. You are not normally aware of it.

Basically we need to understand why we are not the world’s best, but it doesn’t define us. Collectively we each have no match.

What’s important is the knowledge that there is a subconscious drive towards specialness and to hold it in check is to allow acceptance of who we are so we can direct our drive in ways that matter to us. Rather than be out of control of our life’s direction.