At The MindBody Reconnect, we look at symptoms from a broader perspective
We recognise that symptoms are real and that there can be more than one reason why they occur. Our approach does not reject conventional medicine. Instead, it adds another way of understanding symptoms, particularly when medical investigations have not found an underlying disease or physical cause.
1. The biomedical view
The conventional medical approach understands symptoms as the result of a disease process, physical dysfunction or changes within the body.
It is important to discuss your symptoms with your medical practitioner and have appropriate investigations to identify what is happening in your body. Blood tests and other investigations can identify deficiencies, disease and other treatable causes, and modern medicine has an essential role to play in diagnosing and treating these conditions.
But sometimes all the appropriate tests are completed and no clear physical cause is found.
This is where we believe it can be helpful to look at symptoms differently.
2. The brain creating symptoms to protect us
Our brain is constantly monitoring what is happening inside and around us. Its primary purpose is to keep us safe.
We already understand this principle in relation to infection. When we catch a virus, we may develop fatigue, aches and a raised temperature. These symptoms are not the virus itself; they are part of the body's protective response as it deals with the infection.
A similar protective response can occur in relation to prolonged stress.
We are increasingly familiar with the brain's fight, flight, freeze and fawn responses. These are protective responses designed to help us deal with situations that our brain perceives as threatening or overwhelming.
Sometimes, particularly after prolonged stress or difficult experiences, these protective responses can become persistent. The brain can continue to produce physical symptoms even when there is no immediate physical threat.
At MBR, we help you understand what your symptoms may be communicating, identify the situations and patterns that may be maintaining the protective response, and develop new responses that can reduce the brain's perceived need to produce symptoms.
3. The expectation and prediction response
There is another important part of the picture: the brain predicts.
Through a process called interoception, the brain continually monitors information from inside the body and combines it with information from our surroundings and our previous experiences. It uses this information to predict what is happening and what might happen next.
This predictive system is extremely useful. It allows us to respond quickly and efficiently to potential threats.
However, when we have experienced severe symptoms for a long time, our previous experiences can become part of the brain's expectations. The brain can learn to anticipate symptoms and, in some circumstances, generate them because it predicts that they are still necessary.
This does not mean the symptoms are imagined or that you are consciously creating them. The symptoms are real. The MBR approach is about understanding how the brain and body can become caught in learned protective patterns - and how those patterns may be changed.
A broader way of understanding symptoms
We believe these three perspectives can sit alongside each other.
Sometimes symptoms are caused by disease or physical dysfunction. Sometimes they are part of a protective response. And sometimes the brain's predictions and expectations can contribute to the symptoms we experience.
The MindBody Reconnect focuses particularly on the second and third possibilities, helping you understand your symptoms in a way that is practical, compassionate and grounded in our growing understanding of the brain and body.
Our aim is not to tell you that your symptoms are "all in your head".
It is to help you understand why your symptoms may be happening - and what you can do differently.