Frequently Unasked Questions
Mainly for the initiated and the speculative.
How do I know when I’m getting better?
I’ve never been asked this question. I suppose that’s because people think that the answer is obvious. However, I don’t think it is as obvious as most people would expect.
If you ask most people to represent the recovery they would like, from whatever condition they may have, I suspect they might draw you a graph much as follows:-
But this is how a machine works, not a human being. We might, if we are lucky, average out to such a satisfying progress, but in practice will be subject to many more ups and downs. This seems to be true of many fields of human activity, but possibly in relation to our health it may have to do with some of the factors discussed under the heading ‘Why do we all have something wrong with us?’ The great scientist Albert Szent-Gyorgi discussed this same phenomenon in relation to the process of scientific research. He came up with the following graph, which I think is equally appropriate for the process of recovering from a chronic condition.
And W.la Mar Rosquist, the developer of spinal touch therapy also produced a more explicit diagram to express the same:-
So it is not quite so straightforward to know when one is getting better! Though there must certainly be times when we feel increasingly well, there may be, as an essential part of the process, times when one is actually getting better but feeling worse; because one is taking a smaller or greater dip, which is an integral part of the process of improvement.