When Less is More

On getting carried away with trying to ‘fix’ the body, and how to simplify things instead.

It's So Easy to Get Carried Away

When we start paying more attention to our health and all the pesky little ways our symptoms are interfering with our day-to-day life, it’s easy to get a little carried away. We’re so sick of feeling bad, and we are bombarded with information about this magic little something-or-another that’s going to change everything. 

We’re all pretty aware of how advertising gets us craving certain snack foods, but we don’t talk as much about how certain ‘health’ products or services can be just as tempting. When you’re feeling bad most of the time, you just want it to get fixed ASAP so you can get back to your life. When a product sounds like it checks all the right boxes for you, it can give you back a sense of control, a sense that you are doing something about it, if you simply click ‘buy now.’ 

What if your body needs less, not more?

The irony here is that sometimes what our bodies really need is less, not more. This is especially true if you are frequently overwhelmed or in a state of burnout. Think about how you feel when there has just been ‘too much’ and you need to just get away from everyone and lie in a quiet place for a while and unwind.  And then, right when you need that peace and quiet the most–poke, poke, poke. You can’t catch a break. 

Well, your body may be feeling some of that too. Your body may be getting stressed by a constant, steady stream of random supplements/foods/herbs  bought with good intentions but without really getting it. That your body, like the rest of you, actually needs things to slow down, be less complicated, less constantly overwhelming. On some level, perhaps your body is saying ‘stop constantly putting so much random shit into me!’ 

This can be especially challenging if you are neurodivergent. What makes it even harder is that our wiring can also mean we are more prone to activating compulsively, making us especially vulnerable to falling into the trap of ‘feeding our anxiety’ rather than giving our body what it actually needs. 

And what does our body actually need? That can be tough to figure out, because many of us  are living in our heads, checked out of our bodies. And so our anxiety just starts running the show, fueled by our social media feds that call the shots on what shows up on our feed on any given day. Try this. Try that. Now throw it away and start over. Again. Again. Again.

I’m not going to attempt to try to ‘fix’ this whole situation in a single blog post. It’s not possible. But I would like to at least plant a seed here. I think if we can see a link between the overwhelm we feel in our nervous systems with the overwhelm our bodies are telling us about with our symptoms, we can start to move towards integration.

So here’s a thought. You know when you’re trying to think about how to make life more simple? Like having an easier meal to prepare or staying stocked with staples so you’re not running to the store constantly? Or cutting out optional social activities that are stressing you out but not really improving your quality of life in any way? What if you started to think about giving those kinds of breaks to your body too in terms of what you are putting into it? 

And yeah, it’s easier said than done. Modern diets tend to be lacking in basic nutrition, even if folks are ‘organic,’ or making everything from scratch, because most folks are not eating enough nutrient dense foods (unfortunately, delicious homemade bread is not a nutrient rich food!). So many of us do need to boost certain things like B vitamins, magnesium, etc. if we are deficient in those areas.

But if you don’t really have a solid grasp on what your nutritional gaps are, and you’re not working with a professional you really trust to help you figure it out, you may be spending a bunch of money on things that are stressing your body out more than they are helping.

What are you putting into your body that you know is actually helping?

So here’s a good question to ask: If you took all the herbs and supplements you are taking and removed everything that you weren’t absolutely positively sure was helping, what would be left? How much money would you save each month? And yeah, it’s possible something is in there that is helping you that you didn’t realize was, but you won’t know for sure until you remove it. 

It does make some sense to remove things one at a time so that you can carefully evaluate the effect it is having on you, or it may be worth actually finding a clinician you trust to offer support in this process, by helping you put systems in place that will help you gather the data you need to figure it all out. You are the best judge of how you feel, but if you aren’t tracking data carefully we tend to just remember best how we feel RIGHT NOW. And sometimes having someone look over your labs with you can be quite helpful if you don’t have training around that.

Many folks don’t think they can afford to see someone to work on their health issues if insurance doesn’t cover it, but continue to spend hundreds of dollars a month on supplements that may be either worthless or actually exacerbating issues. My perspective is, if you’re going to spend money on your health and quality of life, make sure you’re going to get something out of it!