Don't make it mean anything..

Explanations and reasons for symptoms are very important to the person experiencing their symptoms, but have you ever thought about how our symptoms would be if we didn’t assign meaning to them and just let them happen to us ?

Recognising our patterns and reaction to symptoms is an important part of our journey through and beyond pain and other health conditions.

I experienced a difficult period in life in my twenties with persistent fatigue and this made me anxious about why the symptoms were there and how it would impact on my future, I was told by an M.E practitioner ‘don’t make it mean anything’! You may think this is rather dismissive of the fatigue I was feeling but it actually gave me a different way of dealing with my symptoms.

For persistent pain and exhaustive conditions you can waste a lot of energy focusing on symptoms, this can be tiring and stressful. Don’t forget that our brain is the organ that uses the most amount of energy, accounting for 20 % of the total energy expenditure of the body. Trying to work out that ‘why’s’ and ‘how's’ of our symptoms is taxing. Please don’t take this as me saying we should not take a proactive and inquisitive approach to moving towards better health. BUT….what is a symptom without meaning, well it can be less scary, less anxiety inducing, we can maybe relax about it rather that being lead astray by it. So how about this; just let it be there; without assigning meaning…see what happens?

A CFS/M.E example of giving symptoms too much thought and meaning; I’m really tired today, I wonder if it was that I over paced yesterday? or stood for too long? or talked for too long on the phone? 'is my fatigue getting worse?' 'when will I pick up?' This takes us into our heads, away from reality and away from being grounded in our bodies.

A pain example could be; my back is still hurting and it’s been 3 days since I exercised, maybe this will linger? Maybe exercise is bad for me? Have I damaged something? Maybe I should limit my movements? I wonder if I’ve stirred up that old injury again?

You get the idea yeah? All possible examples of over thinking, over vigilance and in some cases attaching meaning to something we m not know for certain: imagine all that mental energy that could be used for better purposes. On my path towards health I was warned of ‘M.E thinking’ thoughts about the condition, that keep you in the condition, every time I felt a thought related to worry about my condition (when I was able to catch them) I would squeeze my thumb and little finger together and, well, basically have a compassionate word to myself! (Part of a Technique called the STOP technique). People also twang a rubber band worn around their wrist...I appreciate this may be a bit more hardcore and certainly not as self compassionate!

Another way to look at this is, imagine your pain (or other symptoms such as fatigue) is fire and your thoughts about your pain are petrol, the more you over focus and think too much about your pain the more that fire grows. A really educated tuned in health practitioner can be just the hose pipe you need!

Medically unexplained symptoms are of a high proportion in GP clinics but the very nature of our symptoms can propel enough worry in us to seek GP opinions and more importantly reassurance, I can name quite a few symptoms including stomach pains, altered leg sensations that I have brought to my GP’s attention that have faded away post GP reassurance.

Vigilance is important, it’s warranted on many occasions and can keep us safe, the important thing is noticing when that vigilance flips into hyper-vigilance and we become our own worst enemy, locking ourselves in thoughts of the condition, giving symptoms more meaning than they deserve. I appreciate recovery is more than just recognising thoughts and worries but it is an important aspect. So next time you get a symptom, observe your thoughts, try not to get lost in them (no more fuel for the fire!) and maybe even just let the symptom be there. Why not try the phase out 'don't make it mean anything', it worked for me.

#thoughts #pain #vigilance