Descartes Was a Prick....

Now that I've gotten your attention...

In a study by Dr. Kurt Kroenke of Indiana University reported in the American Journal of Medicine, only 16% of symptoms that people consulted their physicians about could be medically explained.

A syndrome is a group of connected symptoms. Syndromes do not necessarily have a clearly defined cause, and yet the symptoms are very real. Those who suffer from Fibromyalgia, adrenal fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic pain and/or fatigue, and many others can testify to the devastating effects that syndromes have on one’s life and body.

Somewhere in the process of diagnosing and treating syndromes, we have lost sight of the bigger issue at hand: the mind, body, spirit connection. Eastern medicine has always acknowleged that all three of these components are braided together like a rope, and for us to be healthy, all pieces of that rope must be strong. Western medicine recognized this connection as well for quite some time. However, Rene Descartes suggested that the body and the mind were two completely separate entities, and for the past few hundred years that was simply that. To hell with the rest of us! Fortunately, some doctors today are beginning to realize that maybe twenty-first Western medicine should dare to question the ruling a dead French guy made in 1637. No shit, Sherlock. Thank the gods they are, too, because 84% of us who see our doctors with very real symptoms are being told that we either have a “syndrome” or that it is all in our heads….

About this “all in our heads” business… that is not to say that what we are experiencing isn’t very real. What I am suggesting is that maybe when we see a doctor who deals only with physical “body troubles”, we are only investigating one-third of the possible causes (the other two-thirds being the mind and the spirit, you see). I happen to have a lovely collection of syndromes that are showcased for various occasions. I am also a trauma survivor and the only “real” diagnosis I have received in the past five years is for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I have spoken to , emailed, texted, and otherwise communicated with friends who also suffer PTSD, as well as stress, anxiety, depression, and my favorite, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD!). So many of these, mostly, women also suffer from a cocktail of so-called syndromes that make it hard for them to even get out of bed, much less get through their day.

The body can store memories. The mind and the spirit can feel symptoms of disorder in the body. Is it any wonder that those of us who live with hurting minds and spirits suffer physically? When we go to our doctors with a host of symptoms, and the doctors run test after test that comes back showing were should be perfectly healthy, we are not crazy, exaggerating, or otherwise blowing our physical symptoms out of proportion. Just because a Descartes-loving white coat who you have dared to bewilder with whatever syndrome he decides to diagnose you with tells you to “take two aspirin and call him in the morning”, doesn’t mean that you have to settle for sub-standard care. Keep looking. Keep reading. Keep in mind that 84% of the population is with you.