Is good management the biggest threat to your recovery?

Illness management and recovery are closely related, but if you are looking for solutions to your chronic illness, it’s vital to know the difference. 

What does management really mean?

Management is primarily focused on minimising symptoms and relapses, and developing strategies to cope effectively. Management might look like avoiding situations, activities, or foods, with the desire to limit symptom flare ups or the dreaded ‘crash’. 

It’s understandable, but it can be problematic; you can get good at managing symptoms, but it doesn’t mean you're healing. For example, if you experience sensitivity to loud noises, you may choose to avoid busy places, loud music, and crowds of people. You might get really good at managing and avoiding these ‘triggers’, but in doing so your world becomes smaller and smaller. 

Pushing though isn’t the answer either. If you push yourself into a situation your brain perceives to be a threat, your body will respond inappropriately. This is how we end up with the experience of flare ups, crashes and PEM (post exertional malaise) and wonder why a walk around the block resulted in a week in bed. 

There is another way…

If it isn’t about avoiding or pushing through, what is your alternative? Many people get stuck because they don’t realise there is a 3rd option, they don’t realise that they can change the way their brain and body are responding. 

When I was suffering chronic fatigue and pain, it didn’t feel like I had any control over my symptoms. Back in those days, I didn’t realise my nervous system was operating in a state of chronic stress, and ‘survival mode’ had become my norm. Learning about the power of the mind-body connection and developing the skills to influence this is essentially what empowered me to fully recover. 

The biggest threat to your recovery

I believe the biggest threat to recovery from chronic illness is good management. Unfortunately many strategies focus on management, often presenting it as the only option. It’s why we need a conversation around the difference between the two, and why we need to shift the focus to what’s possible. 

Maybe you’ve been focusing on management because you’ve heard things like, ‘there is no cure’, ‘people have this for years…’.

Maybe you didn’t realise an alternative was possible, that symptoms could be a thing of the past and you could re-engage in living and loving your life?

What does recovery really mean?

Recovery is not only about short-term and long-term relief from symptoms; its focus is helping people pursue personal goals and develop a sense of identity that allows them to grow beyond their illness. 

One of the most effective recovery strategies is developing the skills and ability to actively participate in your own recovery. When you learn how to influence your own mind and body and change your physical experience, you become the one in the driver’s seat.

Does that sound hard? When you have the knowledge and tools to know what you need to do and when you need to do it, things become a lot easier. These are skills that can be learned, just like learning a new musical instrument, it takes some focus and practice, but the results can be life changing. 

If you are ready to learn the skills to rewire your brain and body to heal, contact me to find out more about how the Lighting Process can help you.