Mind Over Matter

I’ve always been a big believer in saying your attitude is everything. I’ve lived most of my young adult years believing this way and for the most part I’ve been surrounded by positive people. Can thinking positively truly help how someone heals from an injury? I came across an excerpt on NPR’s website from the book, Relaxation Revolution, by Herbert Benson and William Proctor that made question how the mental state of patient’s after their surgeries can affect them. The excerpt is about a patient who suffered from back pain and tried numerous treatments like physical therapy, pain medication, and multiple failed surgeries. Nothing seemed to be successful, that was until the patient started doing relaxation techniques or “mind body treatment.” By focusing your mind on healing the injury the patient could start to feel the pain subside. I’ve seen a few gruesome surgeries in the past 6 weeks and when the doctors are cutting through your muscles, tissue, fusing your bones or even breaking them it’s hard to believe a patient can just “think” there is no pain and it will go away. If you continually have a positive attitude towards that injured body part can you convince yourself that there is no pain or that it hurts less? What if you are always thinking about how much the injury hurts or are negative about how quickly you’re recovering, does that make it hurt more, or heal slower? How did the patient mentally take away pain from her back when no surgeon or physical therapist could help heal? It seems like with all of the medical training and advancement in medical technology one of those treatments would have helped.  What if a patient were to attend physical therapy as well as meet with a psychiatrist to help them stay positive? Isn’t that kind of what physical therapists already do? They see a patient for 30 minutes to an hour and in that time frame there is a lot of psychological babble that happens. Is that one of the biggest keys to a successful recovery?  I’ve found that the main ideas being explored in this excerpt was that healing an injury isn’t just about rehab, it also has to do with being connected to your body and believing that you can heal. In the article Anesthesiologist that I referenced in my previous blog it discusses an issue that some patient’s may suffer from that may inhibit the way they recovery after having surgery. The similarities in these two resources are that many factors play into healing the body, you can’t just depend on physical therapy as a way to fully recovery. In contrast, one portrays the idea on how mental awareness of the injury and positive belief in healing plays a large role in recovering. The other article, Anesthesiologist, frames the issue that symptoms of CRPS could cause more pain after surgery and inhibits someone’s recovery time. It also suggests that patient’s should wait until CRPS symptoms subside before considering surgery or physical therapy. At this point in my research my belief is that both of these resources have valuable insight and that physical therapy can be beneficial. I also believe that it takes more than physical therapy after surgery in the road to recovery and I need to explore more into the factors that are really important. I am not purely sold on the fact that mental awareness alone and positive attitude is the best healing option, like the excerpt in Relaxation Revolution suggests, but I do find this excerpt to be more interesting than the article Anesthesiologist because there are many valid points.

References:

Benson, Herbert, and Proctor, William. Relaxation Revolution. Simon & Schuster. Excerpt from National Public Radio. NPR, 2010. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. Relaxation Revolution.

Reuben, Scott, S. M.D. “Preventing the Development of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome after Surgery.” Anesthesiology. Ed. David C. Warltier, M.D., Ph.D. Vol. 101. Nov. 2004. 13 Nov. 2011. Anesthesiologist.