In the mid 1980's, many people were being diagnosed with a mysterious chronic disease called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. What is the main symptom of this syndrome? Yes, that's right. Chronic fatigue.
To translate this into layman's terms, chronic fatigue simply means "I don't feel good consistently".
For a while, the medical industry blamed the Epstein-Barr virus as the culprit for this condition, but research later dismissed this theory as the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome.
Before it was labeled as a 'syndrome', however, many people simply didn't feel good. They went from doctor to doctor trying to find the answers.
My mother was one of those people. She was chronically debilitated with a consistent sense of fatigue, or a general sense of exhaustion and low energy. It was painful to witness as a child.
I remember her going from doctor appointment to doctor appointment but never getting any real answers. Medical tests came back inconclusive. She tried changing her diet, taking supplements, and other external medications, but to no avail.
On one particular medical visit, however, the physician diagnosed her with the newly identified chronic fatigue syndrome. He told her it was a new syndrome probably caused by a virus.
Finally an answer! my mother thought.
This new diagnosis gave her a sense of comfort and peace. Finally at least someone had an explanation for her condition.
Did the new diagnosis cure my mother of her chronic condition? No, she was told that there was no known cure yet. Nevertheless, my mother felt that she had an answer for her chronic I don't feel good condition.
She was diagnosed with a syndrome!
The reason she didn't feel energized or good in life was because she had a syndrome called chronic fatigue.
In my mother's mind, she began to identify with this new label as a part of her actual identity.
Before my mother was given the label of CFS, however, her chronic fatigue was only a symptom, not the root cause. With the diagnosis, however, the symptom magically became the cause in her mind.
"I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" my mom would often explain after the new diagnosis.
While the diagnosis brought my mother mental comfort, it was simply a mental game. A psychosis, if you will.
A diagnosis is often an invented label by the medical industry to explain away a set of symptoms in which the root cause isn't known or understood.
Unfortunately, diagnoses often sink to the recesses of the subconscious mind to form new disempowered identities for people creating crippling consequences.
Like many others, my mother concluded that her body was the source of the problem. She saw her body as flawed and concluded that her body was the source of the "I don't feel good" disease or syndrome.
This is an all too common problem with our western society. Because we don't understand root causes, we simply slap a label (diagnosis) on the symptoms. As a result, we become mentally identified with the diseased label.
Unfortunately, this enables the condition to perpetuate without actually addressing root causes because the symptom is identified as the root cause.
This happens in education. If a child learns differently than the agreed upon standard, the child is diagnosed as 'learning disabled'.
Instead of discovering the natural way the child learns and is motivated, they are simply labeled as being defective. The symptom becomes the cause. (Albert Einstein was diagnosed as being learning disabled because he learned differently.)
This also happens in religion. Because we haven't understood our flawless divinely sourced identity, our actions and thinking have been negatively affected. This is often labeled as sin.
Instead of addressing the root problem of our inherent ignorance to our true goodness and pure identity, religion simply slaps the diagnostic label of "original sin / sinner", or "totally depraved" upon the human condition. Again, the symptom is incorrectly labeled as the cause.
This happens all too often with mental health symptoms like anxiety and depression. Instead of understanding that a lack of motivation in life, a lack of energy, or chronic anxiety as being symptomatic of a dis-regulated nervous system rooted in deeper issues of low self worth, unprocessed trauma, suppressed desire, or mis-aligned programming about our purpose and focus in life, etc...
We instead label the person as being chronically / clinically depressed, or as having an anxiety disorder. Then they are viewed though this debilitating label which further exacerbates the problem of identity.
Again, mental health symptoms become seen as causative.
Instead of simply feeling depressed or anxious as temporary symptoms of a regulated nervous system, we tell ourselves: "I am clinically depressed", or "I have chronic anxiety". This is more than just semantics. It more often than not develops into an entire mental identity or psychosis.
In a similar way, although we know that addiction and addictive tendencies are a direct result of trauma (personal or generational) and is also a symptom of a dis-regulated nervous system, our society and medical industry has diagnosed addiction as a 'disease' that a person has.
Again the symptom becomes seen as the cause with the psychosis of diagnosis.
I could go on and on, but you get the point. The diagnosis is simply a made up label that we use to identify ourselves with in order to avoid addressing the root causes that we are either unable or unwilling to acknowledge and change.
It gives us a false sense of comfort in our stuck-ness. "It's just the way that I am" we tell ourselves with our invented diagnoses.
Going back to the 1980s diagnosis of CFS, fortunately many people refused to accept that label or diagnosis. Instead, they learned to discover and address the root causes.
For some, it was dietary. For others, it was addressing the deeper rooted mental and emotional traumas that were stored deeper down in the body and mind.
As they addressed the root causes that our medical system dismissed as being causative, the "incurable" disease of CFS vanished for millions.
The exact same could be said of many other chronic conditions that have been labeled as "incurable".
If you've read this far, let me say this to you. You are not flawed. The cure is in you and is accessible to you.
You are designed for healing and wholeness. Don't accept the label and the psychosis of diagnosis.
Accept the symptoms, difficult as they might be, as welcome messengers pointing you deeper toward the root cause.
Understand that the symptoms are not the cause.
Learn to address the root causes.
If you are ready to address the root causes of your inner energy deficit, your sense of stuck-ness in life, and your chronic mental fatigue, let's talk further. This next year could actually be the best year of your life. Visit the link for more information...
https://www.jamaljivanjee.com/life-coaching
Jamal Jivanjee
Certified Mastery Method Coach, Author
Free To Love Coaching Solutions LLC