Reframe How You Think About Symptoms
Urban dictionary: Bad Rap n. a bad reputation, something to get dissed for
No other type of doctor would congratulate you on having diarrhea – but your Naturopathic Doctor would! Diarrhea is a symptom of an illness and not the illness itself. What I mean by that is that diarrhea is an S.O.S. signal from the body alerting us to another underlying disease process taking place.
In some cases the underlying process may be a viral infection in which your body is clearing out the junk through the bowels. In other cases the underlying process may be consuming foods that you are reacting to, and to protect itself, your body gets rid of the offending food asap. Now in either case, your body’s reaction is great! Of course it is unpleasant to experience diarrhea, but here’s the good news:
- Your body is recognizing the breach of its boundaries by an offender
- Your body is responding and attempting to adapt to maintain balance
- Your body is clearing toxins instead of holding onto them
So rather than jumping to treating the symptom immediately, we need to reflect on why this symptom is occurring in the first place. In other words, what is this signal telling us? Once we have the answer, then we can treat the underlying disease process and the not-so-fun symptom will clear up on its own.
Inner Inquiry
Set yourself up for success with honest answers to these simple questions:
- Do you experience unpleasant symptoms at times and suspect there’s something more going on?
- What new thoughts does reading this bring to mind about how to understand these symptoms?
- Do I know anyone who can benefit from reading this, too?