July 8, 2022 “Stop putting a Band-Aid on your problems”
Are you suffering from the “Band-Aid Solution”? A quick, superficial, or temporary solution to a problem that does not address or resolve the underlying cause of said problem.
A concerned mom called me this week because her 23-year-old son was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and she wanted a second opinion, although she says he lives a sedentary lifestyle playing video games and he eats out daily with his girlfriend. On top of that the doctor told him his A1c level was 13.2. She asked me if a vitamin B12 shot or an IV therapy treatment we offer would help to lower his levels, because she doesn’t believe what the doctor has told her.
This week for the midpoint check-in, I was going over a client’s scan, and she lost 5lbs, she was happy about her progress but stated, I could have done better but old habits are hard to break. Trust me, I get it.
You’re overweight and can’t lose the weight, you A1C is high, your blood pressure is through the roof. You’re upset. Someone hurt you, you feel left out, you’re overwhelmed with stress, or you feel this way for no reason; regardless, just like most people, you want an easy fix for your issues. What’s easier than going back to what you know?
If you’re sad, there are endless amounts of food you can stuff down your throat. Or if you are a shopaholic, a credit card, will fill the void and you can shop your problems away. Or there is even a bed you can sleep in for hours to shut out the world. You see, these band-aids are a little problematic, because they fix nothing.
When we’re in a rough place, the last thing we should be doing is avoiding our problems. Our emotions act up for a reason and by choosing all of these distractions, there’s no growth. These are what I like to call emotional band-aids. Many people use what I think of as emotional band-aids to temper painful or scary situations or to avoid doing what they know, at least deep down, that they should do.
We find a distraction that we’re comfortable with and stick to it. We fill our stomachs and shopping carts in hopes the problem will go away. We have this metaphorical void inside of us and we try to fill it with all of these outer things when the only way to fill the void is to dissect the issue.
I’ll use myself as an example.
Let’s say I’m having a bad day. I’m feeling insecure, lonely, sad, you know, the whole she-bang. I don’t know how these emotions came on, but I’m hurting. I don’t want to feel this way anymore. I’m about to go into binge-mode with my food to cover up these feelings.
If you think about it, how is a bowl of ice cream going to solve feeling insecure? Will I be less lonely after a few slices of bread? Of course not.
I’ll end up bloated with a pit in my stomach. I’m worse off than I was, to begin with. So, how can I approach this situation differently?
There are a number of things I can do, find what works best for you, here are a few.
- Pick up a journal and just write. Go through every single thought that crosses my mind. Dive into each part of my day and look a bit closer at where these negative emotions could have stemmed from. Facing your emotions is the only way to fill the void; nothing physical will ever come close.
- I love to practice yoga and meditate all while listening to my body. See where you feel blocked throughout the practice and deep breathe the blocks away.
It’s difficult, but for the right reasons. When you address and work through an inner block once, it’s less likely to come up again. As you combat more blockage, I guarantee you’ll feel a weight off your shoulders. It’s impossible not to; you’re letting go of so much emotional baggage.
So, my advice to you? Don’t go for the band-aid.
When we treat health issues with band-aid solutions we remove our own responsibility and create a reliance on external sources to “solve” problems. If we truly want to achieve good health and be free from disease, we need to address the root of the problem. Like depression, pain or stress, from headaches to high blood pressure these are ways of your body communicating that there is a deeper issue.
A band aid solution is simple and a great way to hide your problems, but that’s all it is. A life carried out covering up your mental, physical, or emotional health issues instead of hitting them head only tends to exacerbate the problem.
By finding the root cause of health problems be they mental, physical, or emotional we eliminate a reliance on pills, creams, and formulas. We learn to be in touch with our bodies and listen to the signs it gives us. We learn when we need to eat or NOT eat certain foods, spend more or less time in the sun, exercise more or get into bed an hour earlier.
If you address the problems as they arrive, you’ll spend a lot less time sulking, bingeing or hiding. Avoiding your emotions is essentially procrastinating on your well-being.
A band-aid covers a cut, but it doesn’t heal it. A band-aid was never meant as a permanent solution. So, stop using a band-aid approach to addressing challenges and address the root of the problem. When we stop using band-aid solutions and start addressing the root cause we achieve good health. No Mess!
