Let me begin with a warning:  This article may prove to be one of the more controversial pieces I’ve written — if it doesn’t offend some people, I’ll be a little surprised.  Every once in a while I observe an aspect of health that becomes an internal irritant to me — something I just have to communicate.  It’s a little like Popeye the Sailor saying, “That’s all I can stands ‘cause I can’t stands n’more!”

            Here’s the root question:  How much of your health do YOU decide?  Your initial reaction may be to think that you don’t decide your health, that it’s decided for you, that it just happens and you act accordingly.  Others may reason that they indirectly decide their health via the lifestyle choices they make — what they eat, whether they exercise, etc.  And I could not argue with that view.

            But what I’m really talking about is your mental attitude, and how it determines the kind of health problems you have.  Do we sometimes create our own illnesses?  Do we mentally perpetuate our own illnesses?  Is there even a “spiritual bondage” associated with many chronic health problems?

            Almost everything I know about this subject has come from observing thousands of clients over 15 years of clinical practice.  Most people’s health problems are really pretty straightforward — poor diet, nutrient deficiencies, allergic sensitivities, toxicities, lack of exercise — things that usually fix readily on our programs.  But then I observe some people who seem stuck in their health problems for no particular physical reason.  My knowledge is very incomplete in this area, but I want to hopefully open your eyes to some blind spots that may be keeping you in your health problems.  A lot of people aren’t open to thinking a little deeper about what’s technically called the mind-body connection, but I hope you are and will consider whether your own mental state may be a cause of ongoing health problems.

BENEFITS OF BEING SICK

            Now you may think, “Who would want to continue to be sick?”  Congratulations!  If you think that way, you’re pretty mentally healthy.  But not everyone does think that way, even though most wouldn’t admit it.  There are all kinds of benefits from being sick — gaining attention, having people feel sorry for you, self-pity, avoidance of threatening situations, a feeling of self-importance, even superiority, a sense of purpose, pride associated with feeling persecuted and more.  A lot of it is about insecurity, fear, anger, past emotional wounding, and just plain immaturity.

            I have seen many clients whose life focus is on their health problems.  Now understand, health is important, but anything you exclusively focus on except Jesus Christ, will make you an unbalanced person.  I have seen people who are convinced they can eat virtually nothing, that nearly all nutritional supplements disagree with them, that their house is too toxic to live in, and that they are too allergic to walk in the door of our clinic (some have wanted to be tested in the parking lot).

            I often actually discourage some people like this from even beginning a client relationship with us, since I sense a strong mental element in their problem.  If someone is fixated on their problem, they’re going to come into conflict with someone like me that’s trying to solve their problem — the last thing they really want.  Again this may sound harsh or even ridiculous to you, but understand that if someone has built their life around their health problem, they don’t really want it solved.  They just want it catered to.

            Am I saying there’s no such thing as highly allergic people, who are very reactive?  No, not at all.  Their reactions are very real and very physical.  My question is how did they get there and what is keeping them in that state.  I have taught people for years that cumulative toxicity in many people can reach a point where they become “universal reactors”  — allergic to almost everything, or develop an autoimmune disease.  Yet I am convinced that some (and perhaps many) people continue in their maladies simply out of love for their illness.

YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR ILLNESS

            When I talk about “loving your illness,” we’re getting into intimate terms of relationship.  I believe many single people, never married as well as previously married, sometimes fulfill their desire for relationship by having a relationship with their illness.  They love their illness, their illness is the purpose and focus of their life, their illness is easier to relate to than the people in their life.

            I first thought about this concept after meeting with a client that had moved out of her home, allegedly because of allergic sensitivity.  Now I believe that could be totally valid and legitimate.  But it just didn’t feel right to me.  Most people would be distraught with the situation, but she gave every impression she was enjoying it to the hilt!  She sounded proud of the problem.

                Others go on a crusade.  This sometimes takes the form of lawsuits against employers, contractors, or whoever they’re convinced was responsible for exposing them to some toxin.  It could even be another party in a car accident.  Again, such a situation is often totally legitimate, but a lot of times it just doesn’t “ring right.”  People on a crusade have to maintain their health complaint or lose the basis of their crusade.  Such people cannot get well.  They have decided their health.  Just in case you think I’m hallucinating all of this, how about a biblical example?

“WILT THOU BE MADE WHOLE”

            In John 5 we read of the paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda who had been in his sickness for 38 years.  Note that the passage doesn’t say he had been sick for 38 years, but that he had been “in” his sickness 38 years.  First clue.  Next he rationalizes his continued sickness to Jesus with self-pity — he had no one to put him in the water when the angel stirred it; thus he could not get well.  Bad choice — don’t rationalize your health problems to Jesus!  Seeing right through this guy, Jesus said, “Do you  wish to get well?” (“Wilt thou be made whole” in the KJV).

            I see in this passage someone not unlike many of my clients.  Here’s someone so identified with his health problem, that he’s stuck there, he’s fixated on the problem.  Health problems are to be solved, if possible, accepted, if it is not possible to resolve them.  But, even when you must resign yourself to having a health problem, you never focus on the health problem, you never make it the thing your life revolves around.

            My brother has taught me a lot about this.  My brother developed diabetes at the age of 14 and has been on insulin for 45 years.  No one ever thought he could live this long.  He has multiple amputations, including losing both legs below the knees.  He basically has no fingers, and he walks on two artificial legs, and what he is able to do is amazing.  He has come close to death more times than I can remember.  While attentive to his health, including monitoring his blood sugar several times per day, he doesn’t focus on his disease.  He focuses on his life, and somehow he figured out that his disease was not his life.

SELF EXAMINATION

            Here are some questions to distinguish between merely a physically caused health problem and a health problem perpetuated by psychological problems:

1. Does having my health problem give me a sense of meaning or purpose in my life?
2. Do I like to attention I receive from my family or friends because of my health problem?
3. Do my health problems limit me from being involved in activities or relationships that I am fearful of?
4. Have I withdrawn from activities or relationships because of my health problems?
5. Do I spend a major amount of my time focused on my health problem?
6. Is it hard for me to imagine my life without my health problem?
7. Do I avoid challenges of new people or situations, preferring to stay safe in my shell?
8. Do I think that I’m allergically reactive to most foods — that there’s almost “nothing I can eat”?
9. Do I think I’m allergically reactive to lots of things in my environment?
10. Do I think I react to almost all vitamins I take?
11. Is being in a “support group” for my problem an important part of my life?
12. Do I have a sense of humor, or am I constantly serious?  Do I laugh at life’s circumstances, other people, and, most importantly, at myself?

DECIDING FOR HEALTH

            So, if you think your health problems may be caused or perpetuated by your own mental attitude, what do you do?  I don’t think there’s a formula, given the wide variety of reasons that may have resulted in a fixation on your health problems, but here are some thoughts:

1. Accept your health problems as the way things are now, but not the way they will always be.
2. Look ahead and imagine what your life will be like in five, ten, and twenty years if you remain in bondage to your health problems.  Contrast that with what your life will be like if you resolve those problems.
3. Accept some new challenges with relating to new people, situations, employment, etc.
4. Develop some definite goals about what you really want to be, what you really want to do.
5. Get busy on those goals!
6. Focus more on getting involved in other people’s lives and less on yourself.
7. Avoid exclusively relating to people like yourself, who may just be facilitating your health fixations.
8. Follow a good diet and nutritional program, but don’t become obsessive with it.  A health-building program is your servant, not your master.
9.  Cultivate your sense of humor.  Try to find humor in almost everything.  Read cartoon books like Garfield or B.C., watch Marx Brothers movies, M*A*S*H reruns, or whatever tickles your funny bone.

Better Health Update is published by Pacific Health Center, PO Box 1066, Sisters, Oregon 97759, Phone (800) 255–4246 with branch clinics in Boise, Idaho, Post Falls, Idaho and Portland, Oregon.  E-Mail:  drkline@pacifichealthcenter.com.   Monte Kline, Clinical Nutritionist, Author.  Reproduction Prohibited.DISCLAIMER:  The information contained in this publication is for educational purposes only.  It is not intended to diagnose illness nor prescribe treatment.  Rather, this material  is designed to be used in cooperation with your nutritionally-oriented health professional to deal with your personal health problems.  Should you use this information on your own, you are prescribing for yourself, which is your constitutional right, but neither the author nor publisher assume responsibility.