My teacher Dr. Kelly McGonigal recently tweeted: “Evidence is mixed about whether antidepressants help chronic pain. Reducing depression DOES. Not always same thing.”
I also recently read about Author Simon Singh who wrote a strong critique about chiropractic care.
I’ve been in depression before and out of it. I’ve dug into alternative care, and do quite a bit of yoga, meditation and self development reading. So here’s my two cents:
What both of these big ideas have in common is the question: are we using the right tool for the right issue?
The first bit: depression and chronic pain can often be related. When they are, dealing with depression can relieve the pain. If they are not related, then relieving the depression will not relieve the pain. Thus it’s not the medicine that relieves the pain, it’s the emotional coupling to pain that is lowered.
The second bit: regarding Singh’s article, I’m all for being honest with what you have to offer, and Singh points out a major problem in the alternative care fields – too many false and unsupported promises.
We have to think of the obvious level first: any form of practice or modality can make certain contributions. And that’s it. What is running for? What is physical therapy for? What is yoga for? In many fields of care, therapy and training, they talk about “scope of practice” and it’s terribly important to stay inside of it. Use a hammer for nails and other simple tasks and you’ll do fine. Use it for everything, and you’ll find yourself in trouble!
On this level of thinking, practicing emotional intelligence won’t make you run faster. Interval training won’t necessarily help you be a better presenter. Yoga won’t transform you if you think it’s just stretching.
As Singh points out, not every disease or illness is caused by the same form of problem – for example, displaced vertebrae. That’s like saying that every storm is caused by a butterfly, which would be a very silly thing to say.
On a bigger level, however, there is deep interconnection, and to say that no storm is ever caused by butterflies would be equally silly. At some point in our lives most people do acknowledge that running can transform emotional lives, that physical therapy needs to explore a person’s love and family relationships in order to heal shoulders, and that yoga is actually a body-mind-spiritual technology.
So the point is this: as I search for ways to heal my body, enhance my emotions, and live a fuller life, there are countless options out there in the world. Many offer solid benefit, yet many people claim more than they should. Any panacea is inherently limited, since not all issues have a common cause. Then what’s left to do?
Keep playing, seeking, healing and sharing, I remind myself, because the world is limitless. Enjoy the adventure.
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