Alarms and Extinguishers

Thanks to the magic of PVRs and the joy of the fast forward button on our remote, it’s rare these days to endure the tedious task of watching commercials. But perhaps you have still encountered a few of them recently. If you sit through even a single commercial break, in addition to cars and food delivery services, you’ll no doubt be treated to ads for pain relievers and anti-inflammatory medications. None of these mention how they work, they just depict someone who feels terrible but then amazing and back to their regular self after popping one. These ads help strengthen and solidify the pathways in our brain that make associations between the medications and how we will positively respond to them. This ensures that the next time we have a headache, we remember how on TV just by taking one Tylenol that guy was able to silence the little jackhammer man drilling into his head. Subconsciously, we can make a pretty strong network of neurons “firing together” to link headaches with Tylenol (or whatever other medication we’ve used in the past). 

For most people, these pathways are much much stronger than the ones for being curious about why we might have a headache in the first place. We could consider what our stress level has been like - maybe we should be taking a mindful moment and doing some breathing to “clear our heads”, or finally take a couple hours off of that banked time we’ve accumulated. Perhaps we haven’t had enough water to drink and should really track down a couple of glasses. It’s possible we have been sitting crouched forward at a computer for hours on end without moving, and need to get up more and stretch. Maybe if we think about it, we’ve eaten something that we are sensitive to. On the flip side, maybe we haven’t drank a certain something that we’ve become accustomed to and our body is just putting up a little hissy fit which will diminish the more often we don’t have it (not that any of us would like to admit that perhaps we’re a bit more addicted to that morning coffee than we’d like). 

Another commercial slogan that’s had frequent run time lately is “When pain says you can’t, Advil says you can!”  Well thank goodness, this knight in shining armour has arrived to rescue us!!! This is just one example of the many NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatories) that we can swing by the grocery store and grab relatively cheaply, without jumping through any hoops. Conveniently, they can be found in pill-form or as the active ingredient in creams. We rarely think twice about using the more common ones, which also means we rarely think twice about why we might be reaching for them. Inflammation and tissue damage at the site of an injury triggers our pain receptors to send the message up to our brain that something is wrong. When we take pain relievers and anti-inflammatories, we are turning off these messages but not taking care of the actual problem. Sometimes we can end up doing a disservice to ourselves as masking the problem allows us to do things that the pain messages would have told us not to do. If pain says we can’t, we maybe should consider stopping to listen? It’s also important to keep in mind that we don’t have a headache or pain because our body is running low on acetaminophen or ibuprofen. We don’t need these things in our system to function, so the root cause likely won’t be solved by taking them :)

Consider this: If there was a fire in your house and your smoke alarms were ringing, would you just shut off the alarms and carry on with your day, or do you think that might end up being a bigger problem shortly? If it wasn’t obvious, perhaps a bit of investigating into what/where the source of the smoke is might be wise. This would allow you to determine the best course of action. Maybe it’s grabbing the fire extinguisher, maybe it’s calling the fire department or maybe it’s taking the pot off the stove before your burnt dinner turns into a burnt kitchen. The point is, though easily done (and a temporary relief from the ear piercing sound), taking the batteries out and turning off the alarms isn’t going to do much of anything to put out the fire. Pain is one of your internal alarms, a message that something is wrong in the body and we need to pay attention to it. Blindly turning off the signals shouldn’t be your only strategy. 

That’s not to say that there isn’t a time and a place for these tools. They can help us cope with our various aliments and discomforts for sure, but they should not be viewed as the solution. Back to our house example: If the alarm was still blaring and I had done the investigation work to sort out the source of the fire, it might be very helpful to turn off the alarm so that I can concentrate and take the necessary steps to solve the issue. Maybe the alarm keeps going on and off while I’m working through it. We can all acknowledge how that may get irritating and sometimes is more disruptive than helpful. Regardless of the reason, should we choose to take the batteries out and enjoy the peace, we must always keep top of mind that we only dealt with the alarm. The fire is still going somewhere and we still have work to do. We should also consider that although annoying and irritating, it may actually be helpful to continue to have the alarm on to guide us. It will help us determine what we can and cannot do, when we’ve fixed the problem - and when we haven’t. 

So I encourage you, the next time you go to grab for that quick and convenient “knight in shining armour” pill to rescue you, just pause. Take a conscious moment to consider what the source of your issue could be and what course of action you might need to take. Everyone needs a little help to get through the rough patches sometimes, but don’t let yourself check out. Don’t think that shutting off the alarm is the long term solution. Consider the cause and then begin taking action on that, one small step at time. Over time, you’ll need less rescuing and you won’t end up causing bigger problems by being blissfully ignorant that the issue has been totally solved just because the alarm has been turned off…well, for the next 4-6 hours anyways.