‘Do you ever feel like you’re playing whac-a-mole?’
Someone asked me this once. They explained the situation where you try one thing which only partially solves the problem. This then leads to other issues popping up.
It’s a metaphor that has stuck with me, because it describes my experience in many different domains exceptionally well. When I try one thing, a plethora of new moles seem to pop up. I find myself in a perennial battle of reactivity.
I don’t think anything better epitomises this better than my current health challenges. Recently, I’ve been looking to walk more. Unfortunately, at one point walking seemed to cause bad back pain. The back pain led me to go to the physiotherapist for mobility exercises.
Whilst the physiotherapy helped, the practice also led to more phystical fatigue. The fatigue meant that I ended up staying at home to rest. The rest meant that I had deconditioned, so by the time I started walking again, the soles of my feet would start hurting so much it restricted my movement. Eventually, I tried a few solutions, eventually realising that I needed to do certain ankle stretches and replace my old shoes. Now that I’m able to walk more, I’m now starting to get knee pain. It’s like every step has some new weird obstacle crop up.
Most people understand the concept that the body is far more complex than we often describe it as. Yet such an explanation often takes a lot of energy, and often requires overcoming a natural scepticism. For example, I had to strongly advocate that exercise was making me more sick rather than healthy
I feel like this appraoch to trying to solve every issue individually is symptomatic of the overly specialised, interventionist healthcare system based upon the western approach. When everything turns into a problem that must be solved, it can often neglect the bigger picture.
Unfortunately, our whole system is built upon solutions that are made within a ten minute appointment. With such time constraints it’s no wonder doctors must prescribe easy, catch-all solutions. When my GP once prescribed me antidepressents, I had no explanation of it’s effects or what it actually would do. It was instead left to me to research all of this myself. I knew intuitively that they were probably not right, but I took them anyway because my doctor suggested it.
My natural conclusion has been to hone my natural instinct and listen deeper to my body’s signals. ‘Listening to your body’ is a cliché that is oft repeated, and it is not a monolith. But it is repeated because we are in a system that discourages ourselves from doing so.