As someone who has recovered, mentored by other recovered people. I'll try and offer some perspective here.
All of this micro analyzing of how the body responds to what chemical, under what conditions, causing what circumstance is LIKELY ALL TRUE. All we are doing is trying to understand the body's stress response system. The real question is what do we do next? How can we take action despite our limitations?
Well, we can spend our lives quantifying the mechanism behind this. Let say we do that. What is the expectation? Is it that we find a drug or procedure that miraculously reverses the condition? Ok, that would be great. BUT...lets look at reality as it actually is. Where is there a chronic medical condition that has been miraculously reversed by the western medical approach? Please name one.
In every case of chronic illness in the body, we are learning that it is a late stage of a chronic stressor being applied to the system.
It makes far more sense to investigate what the chronic stressors are and remove them from the system. The problem is, that the ego separates us from knowing what is causing stress so that we remain unharmed. This is great way to keep us moving forward no matter what....until we are broken. Then what?
It is my experience that when the body is in a chronic state of disregulation, our thoughts will then be reflective of that state. Just like the exhaust from a car engine is the product of that engines state of being. A solution in this disregulated state IS NOT POSSIBLE. No matter how structured one's thinking can seem, no matter how experienced someons thinking may be through academia, research or experience, the reality is that something must be wrong at some level in the thought equation, or the result would be different.
When we change our state of mind, solutions "magically" appear seemingly out of no where. A mind in a state of stress will create thoughts that are incapable of a solution. We are not just our thoughts. Our thoughts are tools for us to use, but not who we are. Our brains are thought machines that can often prevent us from seeing reality as it is, as opposed to how we are experiencing it. Using OCD as an example. Anyone that has recovered from this type of behavior knows that the more we resist something that is perceived as stressful, the more we will try to out think the stressor. The harder we will try to create a solution to the stress. The faster the thoughts become as the stressor grows through resisting it or avoiding it. The remedy? Either remove the stressor, take a medication that dampens the stressor or create a solution (process) the stressor.
Obviously the rabbit hole of what a stressor actually is to a person is highly individual, but worthy to explore nonetheless as thats exactly how people routinely recover from this illness. We pace with precision. We do it long enough for the body to rea;x enough to begin healing. This same approach works in all forms of injury or trauma to the body Let's take a lower back injury for example. The QL can be inseams for a long time before we are aware that disregulation is occurring. Many other muscles will compensate to correct or mitigate the problem. After the stressor to the QL (lets say poor posture, lifting things poorly, surfing to long) remains for too long, the body will tighten to prevent further injury. Only now would we feel back pain, even though the injury may have started months earlier. Think of it was the body is self splinting as if the injury was a broken bone. The body naturally immobilizes us from doing further damage. Yes there are things we can do to shorten the duration of recovery, but we must rest the system or recovery will not happen. Now, after a few weeks, we may feel better, so we start resuming normal activity only to again, hurt our lower back. Even though our pain had resolved, we were not out of the woods because our body has not yet recovered enough to feel safe and relax to allow complete healing. This can go on for years if we dont essentially "give up" on trying to use our back for whatever purpose in continuing to hurt it. In some cases, it takes 2 years of recovery while not re injuring it. After ward it can be injured easily for several more years although if minor, those smaller injuries will heal much faster than the initial few.
This is the exactly what many people who build recoveries experience.
So what did we do?
Acceptance of reality and thus our situation. We couldn't recover while simultaneously resisting our situation. This is a law of nature that cannot be overcome. You can observe this in any system in nature. Electricity is an easy example I can think of.
Strict adherence to pacing for as long as it takes. Just like with any muscular injury, if we keep aggravating it, it will not heal and in many cases will get much worse. Pacing teaches what a stressor is and how to recognize them
Stimulants. Avoid at all cost. They dont add energy, they mobilize it from within our bodies. Essentially taking from peter to pay paul. Anything that doesn't relax you is a stimulant. This means people, food, the internet, our phones, our situation, our childhood, our relationships. Over time with adherence to pacing, we can learn what are the important stressors that have contributed to our fight or flight system being chronically engaged to the point of exhaustion. We can then do something different.
Pacing to calm the body enough to allow it to repair itself is a low risk/high reward scenario that is free and explained and practiced by all eastern philosophies. Philosophies that have been around for thousands of years at least. Pacing also teaches many other things as we evolve through it. Things that are lengthy to discuss here. If I told you that cliff jumping was the most rewarding thing you could ever do...just go do it and ask questions later, you would probably die trying. If someone says, "trust me, learn to pace" there is no failure risk. If you do you learn something. If you dont, the cost of not learning is the state that you are currently in, so there is no risk to trying it.
We dont need bio markers to tell us how we feel. This is known though cultivation of the intuition. Pacing will teach what needs to be taught.
