The body delivers the mail

Jefferson Breland

(6/2024) What you do with it is up to you.

About four years ago, I wrote a column entitled, "Symptoms as Teachers." In it, I introduced this concept in relationship to one of my most powerful, foundational beliefs: 1) there are no accidents; 2) everything happens for a reason; 3) everything happens for the good; and, 4) can you see the good?

Since I was first introduced to these concepts about 12 years ago, I have applied them to my own life as well as shared them with all of my patients.

Recently, I had a bit of a revelation about symptoms as teachers which I want to share with you; but, first review.

You may ask, "How can symptoms be a teacher or good when they can be uncomfortable, inconvenient, and sometimes terrifying?"

Symptoms are the body’s natural way of calling attention to something in our life that is out of balance and needs tending. This is their purpose.

Symptoms offer us the opportunity to take action to help ourselves. They are like the "check engine" light in our car. Symptoms point to sometimes subtle and sometimes profound ways that something in our bodies or in our lives is out of balance and needs attention.

We can ignore the "check engine" light in our car, put tape over it so we can’t see it. We can turn up the music in the car when the engine makes a funny noise so we can’t hear it. As many of us know, if we ignore our cars’ warning signs, rather than needing a simple oil change, we might need a new transmission or a new engine. Which would you rather pay for?

I grew up in a house where in the cabinet above the stove, there was a bottle of aspirin or ibuprofen and a bottle of antacid tablets. This was the way I learned to ignore my body’s "check engine" light of smaller symptoms like a headache or indigestion. It was my family’s way of addressing these regular "check engine lights."

For years, I masked the symptoms of headaches and a sour stomach with these medicines. It never occurred to me that I had any choice, much less any power to make them go away without medicines; in other words, to heal myself.

It never occurred to me to look at these symptoms like a cut or sprained ankle. I knew how to tend these injuries and let my body heal itself. I knew that if I disinfected the cut and kept it clean and covered with a bandage, it would take care of itself. I knew that if I reduced the swelling of my ankle and kept my weight off it, it would feel better over time; but, I forgot something important. The it, my skin, my ankle is me. So in fact, I was healing myself. This basic healing ability is available to us for even more complicated issues if we use the opportunity to create the conditions to heal ourselves.

As for the headaches and indigestion symptoms, I was lucky. The worst my indigestion got was advancing to acid reflux with the stomach acid irritating my vocal cords. I was prescribed a strong stomach-acid reducer and at the same time I learned relaxation techniques which helped me address the root cause of my symptoms, stress. When I learned how to release the stress in my life and be more peaceful, my symptoms stopped returning.

My mother was not as lucky. She masked the symptoms of headaches and stomach issues and progressed to more complicated and painful concerns requiring hospitalization and surgery.

In general, if we knew these "less severe" symptoms were here to help us and took the opportunity to listen to what they are saying, we can become our own primary care physician, so to speak.

We can observe our symptoms and look for simple solutions. We have a choice. We can make small, sustainable lifestyle modifications and see what helps reduce symptoms.

If we suppress symptoms we take the chance the root cause of those symptoms will surface somewhere else in our body in a more severe form. You could think of it as a mortal game of "Whack-a-Mole."

My epiphany about the wisdom of our bodies and our symptoms came while I was listening to a patient.

Her chief complaints were anxiety, insomnia, and depression. It appeared these symptoms were entwined and put my patient in a downward health spiral. She needed sleep to feel better. Her racing thoughts kept her awake most of the night. In the presence of her exhaustion she could not see any way out.

She was seeing a therapist who prescribed anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medications, and sleep aids. None of these drugs seemed to help.

The one constant in my patient’s life was her job. She hated it. She liked the field well enough, but she hated the environment and culture of the workplace.

She felt trapped. She had devoted time and money to get an advanced degree in her field. She felt if they left this job or the field, it would mean she was a failure and had wasted her life.

In the last few months, she began to realize she could no longer stay in the job. It was an unbearable situation. She felt miserable driving to work and walking into the building. She felt she needed some time off to clear her head. She hoped she would begin to feel better even in with the challenges of being unemployed.

This is when I had my epiphany.

Our symptoms are so much smarter than we are.

Her symptoms did not just deliver a message about an imbalance. Her symptoms created the conditions where she could only hear the message. The symptoms were no longer the labels of anxiety, insomnia, and depression. She felt them on a deeper level where she recognized they could not be ignored or suppressed.

She was so exhausted, her emotions were like a "raw nerve." Her symptoms created the conditions for her to be able to make a very tough decision.

Her symptoms left her no real choice. She had nothing left in her tank. Her symptoms had depleted her usual defenses which would have allowed her to push through and ignore her suffering.

What if the medications had helped her sleep better? What if she felt better about her situation? What if she worried less? What if she felt well enough to continue working where she was? That would have been a good thing, right?

Maybe.

If the medications worked as they were intended, she may have been able to stay in that environment and work culture. The medications would not change that environment and culture. The relationship to the work would not have changed. The root cause of her symptoms would still exist and continue to affect her health. I’ll bet you dollars to donuts, her outcome would have resembled my mother’s situation.

We blame our symptoms as if they are the cause of our suffering. Symptoms are not the cause. Symptoms are messengers to tell us something is out of balance. It is like getting a letter in the mail telling us about an important opportunity. We can read it and take action or not take action.

This letter however can be a matter of life or death. The choice is ours.

Please note I am not saying to ignore your symptoms. I hope that you understand that I am asking you to think of symptoms as an opportunity to help yourself.

If certain symptoms persist, I recommend scheduling an appointment with your primary care physician or your local acupuncturist to gain some insight about how you can help yourself.

Jefferson Breland is a board-certified acupuncturists licensed in Pennsylvania and Maryland with offices in Gettysburg and Towson, respectively.
He can be reached at 410-336-5876.