I see patients literally crawl into my office on a daily basis.
How did they get to that point?
By using one of these 3 excuses:
#1 “It’s not that bad. It will go away”
It may not be that bad at the moment and yes it may go away temporarily. Unfortunately, if someone is experiencing neck or back pain, it is more than likely that there is a larger underlying problem. These are typically people that deal with back pain on and off for years, letting it get worse and worse until they wake up one morning and cant move. They ignore the pain until it gets so bad that it has taken a giant toll on their lives and they can no longer ignore it.
Pain is the way that the body warns that something is wrong. If we choose not to acknowledge it, we will undoubtedly suffer the consequences.
#2 “I don’t have time to get checked out”
Life gets busy and sometimes our schedules seem impossible, but it all comes down to priorities. Work, school, family time, choir practice, chores, vacations… The list goes on and on. There is a lot to do and it is all important. But, we can’t do any of it without our health, which is why it is important to prioritize it accordingly.
Wellness Coach, Joyce Sunada, said, “If you don’t take time for your wellness, you will be forced to take time for your illness.”
#3 “I will take the quick fix”
Oftentimes, people resort to pain medications and possibly muscle relaxers for a “quick fix”. There is a time and place for such things, but the issue is that they only mask the symptom, so that you can’t feel the pain.
As I mentioned before, pain is the way your body communicates that you should stop doing something. If you mask the symptom with medications, your brain cannot receive the message that something is wrong. This usually causes further injury and pain after the medication wears off.
The reality is that if we don’t actually get to the root of the problem, the pain will more than likely return or continue. The only way to ensure that the pain doesn’t get worse or prevent the pain from returning is to correct the problem.
The best time to start worrying about your health was yesterday, but today is all you have left. Most times, when someone is in an extraordinary amount of pain, the problem did not just start that day, that week and maybe not even that year. It has been developing over time and being pushed to the side.
As a culture, instead of being reactive to bad health, we need to start being proactive to create good health.