Recently I wrote some notes on this topic. I decided why not upload them to our blog for you to read.
Below is a wide range of notes and perspective including a Christian perspective.
How do symptoms serve purpose? (But not limited to)
-They give you an identity. Who would you be without them? Just you? Nothing special? This can be a big one people don't even realize they have going on. It seems like of course we'd want healing but when it comes down to it it actually feels more comfy to stay in the illness. They'd rather get a label, and have a life sentence diagnosis then have to prune away their identity with that label.
-They help you avoid certain things. Life for example. Ya it seems crazy but the subconscious is crazy sometimes. Your true self maybe wants to do something but your brain feels the need to protect you at all costs.
It often gets mixed up on how to protect you though. Take chronic fatigue for example. At the end of the day what its doing is making you unable to do life. That symptom now allows you to skip out on many things. Yes when we actually think about it of course you'd want to do life right? But remember, your symptoms very often aren't even about now anymore. They are a stuck neural pathway from a past time where there maybe was a stressor but it had to shut down in order to get through. Now the brain is very good at getting stuck and so it doesn't just go back to how things were before the chronic stress, traumatic event, etc, it will stay stuck thinking it still needs to protect you from anything.
So in short, your system can think it still needs to protect you. Protect you from whatever it thinks might happen again. Be prepared. Be on high alert. Or be shut down. Avoiding feeling. Avoiding exposure. Avoiding new things. Fearing symptoms. Looking for symptoms. Focusing on symptoms.
All because there is always meaning and stories that get attached to every experience and symptom.
Another one: (Christian perspective)
-Thinking its somehow our cross to bear. We are sick so we must be being punished. We pray and pray and don't take action to heal because we think its a spiritual issue. Which I'm not saying it cant be but here's another perspective.
The devil likes it when were sick. He actually wants us to be complacent. So accepting of bad things that we do nothing. Yes God 100% uses our sorrows, and our hard things to shape and mold us. But from my own experience, wow the evil one loves illness. He loves it when were so absorbed with it that its all we can think about. He loves it when it stops us from being with our Christian people. He loves it when it prevents us from going to church. God has good things planned for you. We so often think, one day. But what if you go your whole life thinking one day when its right in front of you but you didn't take it because you decided you were suppose to learn something by staying in it or prolonging the struggle.
You know what takes a lot of faith? Healing the brain and body while the world around you tells you it cant be done. Doing the work and waiting for results. Trusting they will come and until then its up to you to believe while you wait. Not accept I'm just sick forever and one day God will heal me. (of course He could) But until then, you need to do the work. And then leave it up to God. Its still up to Him but who are we to think we should just sit in it and wait without making an effort. I believe there's a verse about faith without works is nothing. That one tells me God wants us to have faith but also take action.
If you think your suppose to be sick cause of some sin, is there any faith in that? What are you having faith about? Now if you believe God wants you well but don't have much evidence of healing yet but decide to believe, you do have to have a lot of faith for that. Now if we do believe we have illness for growth, maybe THAT is the very path of growth God wants to take you on. The healing part.
-The symptoms reinforce your belief that you don't deserve good things and good things don't happen to you. This ties both of these together. I had a time in my healing where things were truly getting better but I became somewhat afraid. It felt too good to be true. So instead of fully trusting good things were in store for me I was cautious, waiting for the other shoe to drop. The evil one loved that because I was not fully enjoying the good in front of me. It takes faith to do that when life has knocked you down for so long. But once you do leap, its the most beautiful thing. God does care for you. He wants you to thrive. He wants you well. He wants you free.
And yes, we are on earth. Sometimes there are things we carry for life. But maybe too many are accepting what was never theirs to take through a whole lifetime. Even if they are, we still have a choice of how we carry them.
Just some thoughts to think about on a much larger topic. Disclaimer: of course parts of this doesn't apply to every single symptom we have as humans when it comes to acute symptoms. Use your own discretion. But also learn what actually comes from the NS and brain and you might be surprised. What you have googled or been told may not be the whole truth. Speaking from experience. Its food for thought. A bridge to another perspective.
If you want to dive deeper into what could really be going on, and challenge your way of thinking, consider NSR today. In NSR we dive deeper into how chronic illness works. We also have a whole module on spiritual application with this work.
Thanks for staying with me this far,
hp
