Case:
Cynthia came to me a year ago for help with weight loss and general health. She
was a bubbly, energetic person and although she had many difficulties in her
life she did not complain, but rather tackled each as a challenge to be
overcome. She was an inspiration to many people who knew her and she was popular
at the office and within her peer group.
A
year later Cynthia came back to see me complaining of high levels of stress at
work. She felt like she could not deal with any of the problems she was
confronted with and that her mind and her body were collapsing from all the
stress. She worried about her mental and physical health. When I saw her at her
first appointment she seemed to be a changed person. She complained of not being
liked at work, of being very upset with people for not doing their jobs
correctly and she was angry at many people around her.
Cynthia
originally came to me complaining of stress from work. However, thirty minutes
into the interview with her she revealed a number of other stress factors in her
life that explained a lot of her mental and physical health issues. Her problem
was twofold - she was not aware of the other stress factors in her life and
secondly, she had subsequently not taken into account the effect these other
factors would have in her life. The final result was that Cynthia was expecting
too much out of herself and panicking when she found she did not live up to her
own expectations. Secondly, because she did not recognize the stress factors in
her life, she was not helping her body deal with the stresses it had been under
in the past three months.
During
the interview with Cynthia I found out that last year she had been betrayed by
her boss at work and transferred to a new division, her fiancé’s mother died
and soon after, she found out that her fiancé was unfaithful to her and left
him; in addition, she had two major surgeries - a hysterectomy and a breast
reduction surgery - the last of which happened only a month before.
It
was amazing to me that Cynthia did not call any of these other factors stresses
in her life. When I asked her why she did not consider them stresses on her body
and mind she replied, "Because I am finished with them now." In the
case of the plastic surgery she had solved her problem, in the case of the fiancé
she was no longer relating to him and in the case of her hysterectomy surgeries
she considered her recovery period over as the wounds closed over and the pain
faded.
However,
Cynthia's body apparently had another point of view. It was not finished
recovering from all the challenges of the past year.
To
Cynthia, she was just "being efficient" by planning the two surgeries
in one year. However, the body does not distinguish between physical harm done
to it by an accident, such as a car accident, and physical harm done to it
during surgery. From her body's point of view, Cynthia had suffered two major
accidents in one year. Furthermore, both of these surgeries left Cynthia with so
many side effects that she could not recognize herself some days.
It
appeared that Cynthia’s body was completely overwhelmed with stress, which
then caused her to be unable to deal with any more. Her colleagues at work had
noticed this and resented her judgmental and impatient habits. She had noticed
it and thought she was in need of a psychiatrist.
In
reality, Cynthia was simply suffering from stress related symptoms,
after-effects of her hysterectomy and side effects from her plastic surgery.
Hysterectomy can cause weight gain, fatigue, constipation, premature menopause
like vaginal dryness and hot flashes. It can also increase symptoms of PMS.
Among her complaints were mood swings, anger, and paranoia, which are only three
of the more than 150 signs of PMS (Cornforth, p.4).
I
gave Cynthia a long and general reflexology treatment to assist her in relaxing
and enable her mind and body to better deal with the stresses they had. I also
gave Cynthia a tea of Skullcap, Hops and Valerian to help her relax and feel
more peaceful. In a more relaxed state she could think more clearly and her body
could heal more efficiently. I recommended that she take a tincture of don
quai herb to help her rebalance her hormone levels and deal with any other
symptoms of PMS. I also gave her a calendula, aloe vera and olive oil cream to
rub on her surgical scars to enable them to fully heal. By assisting these areas
to heal, she would relieve the body of doing all the healing work and thus
relieve more stress.
A
week later Cynthia came to me and was significantly changed. She still had
complaints, but they were drastically reduced. After only one week of taking the
herbs and tincture her mood improved, she was sleeping better and she even
started to be more understanding to people at work. She also reduced her
workload around the home and reduced her extra-curricular activities to give her
body more time to recover. The doctor had said she had recovered at her three
week check-up, however, I advised her to continue to rest a bit more and not
push herself so much.
Three
weeks later Cynthia was back to her "old self" when she came to my
office for her third reflexology treatment. Her eyes were brighter, she was
happier, her scars had been healing much faster and she felt very healthy.
Cynthia, however, still remained oblivious to how her health condition was
affecting her outlook on life and at work. "Things are getting better at
work, " she confided in me, "for the first time in months!"
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