EP.353/ Why it helps to pay attention to your symptom improvements - no matter how small
Today I want to do a short episode on a slightly different topic, and that’s how to think of or how to approach your healing journey.
So, in my training with Dr Jessica Drummond at the Integrative Women’s Health Institute, we were taught to always start each coaching session with a celebration - typically, this celebration is tied to our work and the client’s well-being. So, it might be something as small as they ate an apple that week, and apples are a fruit that client doesn’t eat often, or it might be something big, like a low pain period. Often though, client’s love to celebrate things that happen in their lives too, from a sunny day or a nice meal out for their birthday.
But the reason we do this is two fold:
Often, because we’re working with chronic illnesses, and usually multiple, sessions can get heavy and we might cover some difficult topics. Starting the session with a win starts the conversation on a lighter, more positive note, that can help the client to not spiral and to notice the good parts of life or the progress in their health, amidst struggles.
As I just eluded to, it’s important to acknowledge progress, no matter how small, and this is because symptom improvement doesn’t happen overnight. It happens step by step. You don’t wake up one day with balanced hormones and no endo pain, it’s a process of small changes, leading to the body beginning to shift in it’s inflammation levels, it’s hormone levels, it’s stress response and so on.
Now, I am going to come back to that and why it’s so important in a minute, but the reason I wanted to do this episode today is because over the years I’ve noticed a trend. Clients will often forget about progress, even if a symptom which was a huge problem for them entirely resolves, but there’s still another symptom remaining.
So I am going to mix up and make up the stories a little for confidentiality, but to give you an example, clients may come to me with several key concerns like nausea and vomiting, fatigue and period pain. They could have had four periods in a row with no nausea and vomiting, and this cycle they had the lowest pain levels they’ve ever had on their period, but if they’ve had a bad fatigue month, they forget to celebrate this win or even mention this change until I specifically ask for an update on that symptom. This literally is consistent across nearly all clients and all symptoms. And it can range from so many scenarios. A client who had four migraines a month and who says these are one of their biggest symptoms they want to reduce, can forget to tell me that they only had one migraine that month, because they had a period that was clotty and they had been reducing those clots, so were concerned when they increased again. The wins can be huge, and I mean really huge - not taking sick leave on their period, being able to leave the house on their period, going for a cycle with their children rather than being bed bound - and they can may forget it, or feel like it’s not that important or that much of a celebration.
So why does this happen? It’s not our fault, it’s not that we’re too negative. Most of us do this, including myself, because the brain is wired to look for threats. It’s not designed to gloss over bad bits and only focus on the good things in life, especially when that bad bit is pain, or something that’s making us feel unwell. The brain is designed to keep us alive and so it will look for any challenges, any negatives, and in our case, any symptoms that may possibly be causing us harm. It doesn’t matter if the symptom actually is life threatening or not - the brain still sees this as a physical threat and that’s what it’ll hone in on, so that we can solve it and get to safety.
So, if this is biology, why should we fight it?
Because if you don’t look for the wins, you might not realise you’re getting better, and you might think the strategies you’re trying aren’t working, and you might give up, when in fact, they were working and you just needed to keep going to see the improvements snow ball.
Let me give you an example. Imagine a client is struggling with endo pain and hormonal symptoms, they show all the signs of low progesterone and oestrogen dominance - clotty periods, heavy periods, period pain, sleep problems before their period, short cycles, prolonged premenstrual spotting and anxiety, tearfulness and mood swings. Let’s say we do some testing and we see that this client doesn’t ovulate, and so this is why her progesterone is low. When progesterone is low or pretty much non-existent when you don’t ovulate, this allows for oestrogen to go to town and there’s no progesterone around to buffer its effects, this can make endo more painful and more symptomatic. So of course, we need to yes, work on oestrogen metabolism and healthy levels, but maybe more importantly, we need to trigger ovulation. So, let’s say we achieve this, the client ovulates, but it might take a while for progesterone levels to stabilise and reach healthy levels. So, ovulation is enough to extend the cycle from 22 days to 28 days, and the spotting shortens from seven days to let’s say two. They also notice they have less PMS and their anxiety doesn’t feel as extreme. However, their periods are still quite clotty, and whilst there was a mild improvement in period pain, it was still significant enough to require pain meds and for them to want to get it lower.
If this person was working on their own, they might think that nothing will work for the period pain and period flow - that they’ve tried some stuff, and their cycle lengthened, but when it comes down to it, they’d rather have a shorter cycle and less pain. But here’s the thing, that client needs to ovulate to experience less pain, and this is one of the first steps. From that point, we would continue working on improving progesterone production, oestrogen metabolism and of course, because prostaglandins are key drivers of pain, we’d be simultaneously working on reducing those inflammatory suckers.
Change doesn’t happen overnight. Your body requires time to change, and your hormones take time to stabilise, your inflammation levels take time to lower, and these small improvements you see along the way, are signs that it’s happening - so don’t dismiss them, because they are clues that your body is responding and that you’re heading in the right direction and that there’s more improvements to come.
Now, thankfully, as a coach, I am there to highlight that changes and explain them and what it means. And I’m there to say okay great, progesterone is on the up, now let’s add some extra vitamin C to increase production, and ease up on so much cardio, which can deplete levels, or whatever it may be and whatever may be going on.
But of course, not everyone has a coach.
So, here’s my suggestion to you.
Keep a list and stick it on your fridge, or make a note in your phone and pin it, and every time you experience a small improvement, or good day, or a good ovulation, a good luteal phase, a good period, a day without nausea, a morning where you wake up and don’t feel faint or lightheaded, write it down. And when things get tough, or you feel like nothing’s working, revisit that list, and remind yourself that things are changing, and your body is working on it - and our brain just needs to give it that time to heal.
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me?
Free resources:
This podcast!
Ways to work with me:
This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook
Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief
Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson