Thought Viruses, Ear Worms and Vaccines
Over the past 30 years I have seen many, many patients who have been “cursed” by their condition or diagnosis. I’ve lost count of the number of people who have come to see me with ongoing Low back Pain of many years standing, who have been told by their Dr, “You’ve got lumbago”.
There ars three things here, 1) Lumbago simply translates as Low Back Pain; it’s the reason they went to see the Dr in the first place! it’s the same as me going to the barbers only to be told “you’ve got hair” (that would be nice actually). 2) Lumbago then, isn’t a diagnosis; it’s a fact. 3) What the patient actually heard is “YOU’VE GOT LUMBAGO”. They have gone away to wear that supposed diagnosis as a mill stone that will plague them for years and years.
Like the flu, some ideas, like “I’ve got lumbago” simply get a planted in our heads and then we propagate them. There are many others too. Some common ones are Sciatica, Frozen Shoulder and the dreaded Arthritis.
These ideas have become known in physiotherapy circles as “thought viruses”.
Patients carry these infected ideas around with them which in effect stops them from asking the crucial questions that should have bee posed in the first place; Why have I got lumbago and how can I get rid of it”.
Over the years the infection germinates and affects us both physically and emotionally.You might have heard the term “Ear Worm”? It’s when you get a song or phrase in your head say at breakfast time when you are listening to the radio and it just keeps going round and round in your mind all day. You can get the song out of your head.
It’s the same with Thought Viruses except these misconceptions and misdiagnoses can stay with you for years.
Joined up thinking
The idea that our thoughts and misunderstandings or our willingness to accept in deference the diagnosis (that wasn’t) leads us towards the possibility that an alternative thought might be the path to solving some chronic pain problems or breaking the curse.
If our thoughts can fundamentally alter the acceptance or rejection of our pain or diagnosis, then this is powerful stuff.
Patients I see nearly always come to see me because they have pain. More often than not, they simply want it to go away. Obviously I have modalities and treatment techniques that can treat pain directly. But as I point out to them, their pain is not really the issue. It’s the cause of that pain that interests me. My job is to put the jigsaw together as to why they still have the pain and how we might be able to ease it or cope with it or obviously get rid of it if that is possible.
All Pain is real – No matter how much you imagine it
Like pain, thoughts are invisible, but we all know that they exist. Pain and thoughts regarding that problem are very real and involve very complex interactions between our brains and body parts..
If my patient says “I have pain”, then they have pain. End of. But that doesn’t mean they have to surrender to it.
There are some great joined up thinkers in the Physio world. Two that come to mind are David Butler and Lorimer Mossley. Austrailians but we cant hold that against them: They’ve co-authored several books and articles and they said this in their book Explain Pain:
“When Explain Pain was first published in 2003, there was a very curious response to the section on “Thoughts and beliefs are nerve Impulses too”. While some readers, especially physical therapists were outraged “you want us to be counsellors and psychologists too!”, and others felt lost “how do I even start talking about this stuff with my patients?”, patients seemed to ‘get it’, and many sent in notes explaining that they finally understood their pain – especially the odd ups and downs that they experienced, and wondered why nobody had explained this to them before. Of course there were some psychologists who were just a bit amused… “you’ve only just realised this now!”
Education is like a ‘Thought Vaccine’. There is light at the end of the Tunnel:
At SPS Clinics we can prescribe you “Thought Vaccines” through a combination of treatment, education and positive thinking to help eliminate these “Thought Viruses” of chronic pain problems and replace them with self help coping strategies that empower you to make positive behavioural changes in the way you think, the things you say and the crippling words you use, the way you move and go about your daily activities and will deliver the outcomes that you desire.
If you understand why you have pain, it will allow you to know what CAN be done to help you. It will allow you to take control over the pain rater than the pain overtaking you and your life.
As an introduction to our helping you, Here is a video link we direct our patients to. It really helps; take a look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_3phB93rvI
If you’d like SPS to help you with your pain problems call us. 01704 500655 / 01772 816816 or 07885979770