Chronic, Auto-immune & illness: Why labels can be important

Labels or diagnosis are important when you’re trying to get information about an ongoing set of symptoms and what’s causing it.

A label validates that your ailment is real. Because symptoms are real, disease is real, and it doesn’t help to have a doctor say nothing is wrong. Because you’re the one living in your body and you know something is not right. So, finally getting a diagnosis or a label is quite a relief and beneficial in this phase.

You’re Not Hysterical

Women, in particular, have always been looked down upon in the medical field (hysteria comes from the Greek “hysterikós”, meaning “suffering in the womb.”) We have been told for decades that our symptoms aren’t real or exaggerated. We’ve been over-prescribed antidepressants because it’s “all in our heads.” (in my case, it was a rare pituitary tumour which was was ironic) So, yes, finally getting a label or diagnosis finally validates what we’ve known all along - something is off balance and now it’s real.

Down The Rabbit Hole

But then we spend weeks researching this label we’ve been given, only to realise there’s wildly varying information out there (everyone knows how dangerous googling an illness is) - let alone finding it’s root cause (which GP doctors don’t have the time or resources for) and how to go about healing it. Particularly if it’s a chronic/auto-immune type illness which is complex by nature and often misdiagnosed or told by doctors there is no cure.

A label is basically a post-it note listing symptoms, but no instructions or guide as to what to do next.

When you can’t find answers that feel right for you, this is when it’s helpful to try holistic treatments such as Reflexology - not for a cure (we never claim to diagnose or cure any illness) but yes for helping manage (and sometimes live with) the illness itself - the physical & emotional stress that comes with any illness - that may be hindering your quality of life and mental health.

How Reflexology Can Help

By reading the feet, Reflexologists can notice when certain organs or system reflexes are out of balance. We can unblock those reflexes, induce a deep state of rest & repair, and even explain how that might translate into innervated (referred) pain elsewhere you hadn’t realised were connected. A label is important for validation but use it with a pinch of salt - use it to understand how your body works, use it to better yourself holistically which will in turn improve your physical and emotional health.

This is why we always treat the whole body and never just the symptom because everything is connected.