Thursday, September 08, 2005

Mind & Body

I remember of one incident back where I complained about this severe tummy ache to my mother and she would examine my tummy by pressing around and finally telling me that there's nothing wrong. There was also once where I cut my toenails wrongly and hence resulted in in-grown nails. She grabbed the nail clipper and some other manicure / pedicure gadgets and begin plying the in-grown nail out of my flesh. I sat on the sofa with my legs propped on her thighs while she "operated" on my toe, I wailed and screamed like a woman in labour (not that I've ever been in labour, but it's like in the tv you know...), she merely told me to hush up and stop making a big deal out of it.

Being an ex-staff nurse, she brought up us tough, meaning if you have a small cut on your pinkie or fell on your knee out on the tar road while playing, you don't go running to her. She'll apply some iodine liquid to it and tell you to run along and don't be a baby.

We always have a designated medicine drawer in one of the cabinets at home, and all four of us are brought up to be well acquainted with some of the basic remedies for flu, cough, cuts, diarrhoea, etc. We all had that potential to be future pharmacists, however none ventured there, and the closest that we have is that sister No. 3 is now pursuing Medicine.

Back to that severe tummy ache many, many years ago.. Finally not being able to take my whining about the pain, she brought me to a clinic. The doctor did the same thing, pressed my tummy around, took my temperature, etc. and told Mom that I'm perfectly healthy and that it's probably just "in her head". Boy, was I insulted! Needless to say, my sisters called me a psychotic for the next few days.

Sitting at my desk here about an hour ago, it suddenly hit me - I'm probably having these psychologically-induced pains all over again. My back has been aching for the past week, my tummy feels topsy-turvy no matter what I eat, the veins in my legs feel as though they're all tangled up one huge, complicated knot. And yes, in the last week, I've been having a terribly hard time at work.

So I emailed my doctor-to-be sister and then took to calling Mom.

"Is there such a thing as stress being manifested into physical pains?" I asked after enquiring on what was she was doing.

"Umm.. yes I think so.. remember that tummy ache that you had back then?" she said. "The doctor told me that you probably were worried about something, or scared about something at school.. and I guess it resulted as pain in your tummy" she added.

Been doing some reading online about the mind and body connection, and there are indeed plenty of resources and studies regarding this matter. Eventhough the mind and the body are two separate entities, there must be a part where these two meet and interact. Therefore, being happy and healthy in the mind will result in a happy and healthy body.

Hey, at least I can use this to combat should anyone ever call me psychotic again!

Posted by Doreen at 5:51 pm