“Dr., I have a cold. Please do something about it”
“Dr., my stomach is paining. Please get rid of the pain.”
These are common expressions on a day to day basis encountered by any physician. The underlying anxiety of the patient is palpable; the question is, is it justifiable?
Why do we get so easily disturbed by the slightest hint of ill-health? Why do we feel that illness is like an enemy to be unmercifully routed? Why do we presuppose that disease is like an arrogant invasion into our territory? Why, indeed, do we basically distrust the innate intelligence of our very existence?
The answer lies in an objective perusal of the complex interaction of homosapiens with the environment through capabilities endowed on it by millions of prior generations through the medium of genes.
Our primary endeavor lies in banishing the notion that symptoms need to be vanquished to bring about normalcy. A symptom is nothing but an altered way of functioning of the body . For eg, we are not aware of our breathing or of the regular beating of our heart. We become aware of it only when an efficient action of the organs concerned is impeded. Bodily dysfunction is thus communicated to the human awareness by packing it into units called symptoms. When symptoms arise, we realize that something is wrong and needs to be investigated. Symptoms are messengers of faulty processes within the body and the only way that we can become aware of the disharmony in the internal vital organs. Why then should we get rid of them? Quite to the contrary, we ought to encourage its full expression so we know for sure as to what we are dealing with. Merely suppressing a symptom is like suppressing a natural expression of the human being which leads to unforeseen, unfathomable, daunting consequences.
It follows by analogy that all ill-health, all complicated and fearsome diseases are nothing but expressions of the body signifying mal-adaptation.
Ancient Oriental philosophy speaks of human beings as being microcosms ie a miniature reflection within of the universe without. All principles of the universe are manifested within the human body to a greater or lesser extent depending upon the choices it makes. By free will it embodies certain aspects and rejects certain others. Those which it rejects, are buried into the subconscious mind. Leading psychoanalysts have promulgated the idea that these principles that lie deep within, are the sources of our motivation and drive and dictate our behavior and are responsible for our verbal slips. These rejected principles are also the origin of our disequilibrium and disease. A symptom thus us not only the language of the body but also of the mind. It is the cry of the organism seeking help to rectify the very being of the person. It is not the invader, but the helpless victim struggling in the throes of unconscious and unresolved conflicts. It becomes easier now to view symptoms not as external entities engrafted on the system but as inevitable accompaniments of internal conflicts.
It becomes imperative now for us as physicians as well as for every individual concerned to protect the sanctity and identity of symptoms as and when they arise so that complete health and harmony can be restored.
Let us not fear symptoms and ill-health, let us understand it better!