Let me tell you a story about two different doctors.
In 2010, I tore my ACL playing basketball. I was so afraid that was it. I had hurt myself, and I would never be as strong again.
I nervously went in to see a doctor, who told me that I needed surgery. So I agreed, I went into it. When I woke up from surgery the doctor told me:
“Hey you’re up- The surgery was great, your knee is now better than new.”
I was so relieved and grateful. And I went on to get back to my sports and hobbies.
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Now for Doctor #2,
In 2020, I was having some nerve pain going down my arm. This was a new and unfamiliar injury, so I wanted to make sure it was nothing serious.
Like last time, I nervously went to see a doctor. She did some tests and then told me
“You’ve got a pinched nerve. We can treat it, but it’s also going to keep coming back again and again and again.”
That was not reassuring, and actually quite scary. I didn’t know what I could do.
And it turned out to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I got more worried, more stressed, and more anxious. That made my body more tense and tight. Which made my nerve pain worse!
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Ever since then I’ve been on a journey to understand pain more. And today I want to talk about how your beliefs, what your doctor says actually matters a lot.
One big thing we are learning is that there’s much more to injury and pain than just the physical
Part of that is our social environment. Here’s a great clip that sums it up
When a kid falls down, they first look to their parents to see how they should react.
If they react with fear and worry, the child learns that
If they are calm, and they say it’s okay- we learn that too.
The parents’ response actually informs how they interact and understand pain
That means pain and how we react to it is learned
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Plus there’s the curious case of placebo surgeries.
What happens here is that doctors did a fake operation.
But people improved just as much as people who got real operations.
I’m not saying all surgery and medicine is a sham. But there’s definitely a lot more to it than just physical recovery.
There’s a powerful mental aspect to all of this as well.
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