Episode 5 – Do You Need To Know Your Root Cause?

Shownotes

Is it possible to recover your energy and vitality when you don’t know why you became unwell? Anna takes the time to address this question and offers a nuanced perspective that may be important for those that don’t know why they became unwell and for those that do!

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Do You Need To Know Your Root Cause

Today I wanted to create a short episode to answer the question, do you need to know the root cause of your fatigue? So the root cause is often the thing that keeps your body in threat. In previous episodes, I discussed the cell danger response, universal response to threat, which affects the body differently.

Essentially, this response keeps the body stuck in a particular state where rest, recovery, and repair are impossible until the body feels safe.

With that framework in mind, I often talk about how we need to know why we became unwell to address those challenges, threats, or whatever may be going on in the body and move forward. Unfortunately, addressing the root cause may confuse some people because some may not know why they’re unwell. And then, obviously, that can create a sense of panic, perhaps anxiety.

I don’t know why I’m unwell. I don’t know why I’m unwell. No one can help me. I don’t have access to the tests that I need, which that internal dialogue I appreciate is not very helpful for healing and well-being and supporting a well-regulated nervous system state. Dealing with a chronic and complex condition can be challenging for so many reasons.

We don’t always get the support that we need through the medical professionals we’re working with, and we don’t necessarily get the support that we need from our friends and family because, through no fault of their own, they don’t understand what it’s like. So I want to empower people to move forward in their health journey, feeling as supported and informed as possible, and with empowering internal dialogues because that’s really important for regulating our nervous system and our mental well-being. I don’t want to create a spin of anxiety, and almost like an obsession around, I need to know why I’m unwell and why I’m unwell because I don’t think that’s helpful.

But there is what I’ve noticed with the clients that I work with, and there is a strong desire to want to understand, to want to understand what’s happening in the body and what’s happening to them, and to help them to make sense of their symptoms. I think this desire to understand is a human desire to feel safer or more in control in a situation that feels very much out of control. And I get that.

That’s why I love the framework of the cell danger response, the framework of understanding polyvagal theory, how the nervous system works, and this idea of fight, flight, and freeze because I think those frameworks help people understand their bodies a bit better. This idea of the cell danger responses: if the cells...