There are different ways to make sense of symptoms.
For example, you can think of symptoms as an annoyance, a threat, a punishment, or a message to take a break.
Our beliefs about symptoms are often unconscious, but they guide how we interpret and respond to symptoms.
For example, believing symptoms always signal damage leads might lead you to get medical tests done every time you experienced a new symptom.
Seeing symptoms as a message from the body to take a break might lead to another kind of response. You might adjust your lifestyle, and try to get more rest.
Language is a tool we have for making sense of the world.
We can use this tool in different ways.
For example we call use language to slice things up (analytic language).
Concepts split things up into categories, which are then taken to represent reality.
This use of language allows focus on details, analysis, and planning, but there is a cost.
Analytic thinking creates a sort of virtual reality, where things that don’t fit into neat categories are seen as less important, or less real. Our concepts and categories can end up holding up a distorting mirror what is really going on.
We live in a ‘analysis dominant’ culture. We see this reflected in our medical journeys. A diagnostic label acts as an explanation. If our symptoms don’t fit neatly into these categories, they can be seen as less important or less real.
However, this is only half of the story.
We also have another way of using language, that connects experience.
We can also use language to get in touch with the body, and find meaning and connection. This language of poetry and stories understands reality through sensing, intuition and feeling.
Both ways of using language are useful when you need to make sense of illness.
Making sense of illness
The thinking mind is always trying to make sense of things. This is especially true when we have new or confusing symptoms.
Finding an explanation for a symptom can reassure us that we are not seriously ill and help us find a path to feeling better.
We all hold a set of beliefs about what kinds of things can cause symptoms and how the body works.
These beliefs are built from the narratives we are exposed to in the culture, for example what doctors tell you, what you read on the internet, or how illness was handled in your family growing up.
These beliefs and stories become interwoven with our identity, and shape how we navigate the healthcare system and care for ourselves.
