What story are you telling yourself about your pain?

If I have meat in my belly, I intend to do something.

One of the arguments against taking medication is, patients might become dependent on it as their sole source of healing.

To the point that those medications may divert them from seeking out other solutions.

Interestingly, my experience was the opposite. When my gastroenterologist first prescribed medication for my chronic stomach pain, he reminded me that the pharmacological path wasn’t a panacea, but it was a good place to start.

It was a tool for establishing a new baseline that would make it easier to seek out other nonmedicinal strategies for healing in the future.

The doctor was right. Once my body adjusted to the new meds, instead of resting on my chemical laurels, feelings of deep determination welled up inside of me. And thus began a journey of diligent, systematic effort to find anxiety management techniques that worked for me.

Therapy, meditation, mindfulness, hypnosis, yoga and support groups, to name a few, became the arsenal of mental health resources that was layered on top of the foundation laid by the medication.

That way, there was a system in a place. A toolkit that could be whipped out on a moment’s notice to predictably pop myself out of a state of imbalance.

It reminds me of a great movie about cannibalism.

After great debate, the starving passengers decide to eat the flesh of their dead companions in order to survive. Canessa, although he shows fear, shame and disgust at the prospect of consuming human meat, shoves the flesh into his mouth and proclaims to his fellow passengers:

I tell you one thing, if I have meat in my belly, I intend to do something.

Sure enough, he’s motivated to lead the search for a way out of the mountains. And after a twelve day trek, he escapes the mountains and alerts the authorities of the location of his companions.

That’s what medication did for me. It was the meat in my belly that helped me climb the mountain.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What story are you telling yourself about your pain?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.
scott@hellomynameisscott.com
www.nametagscott.com

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