Recovering from a health issue can feel frustrating if you feel like your body isn’t playing ball. You know you want to get back to your regular routine, but for some reason you can’t. In many cases, this is out of your control, and there’s literally nothing you can do. You just have to give your biology time to recover.
In other cases, you could be actively slowing down your progress or working against your best interests. In this post, we look at some of the reasons why you aren’t bouncing back from a health issue and what you can do about it.
Drawing down on your energy reserves
One of the main reasons you aren’t bouncing back from a health issue is that you’ve been drawing down on your energy reserves for many years. You keep trying to push through and make things happen by working harder, without really thinking about what your underlying biology requires.
If you’re in survival mode for too long, it actually shuts down your body’s repair processes. It can also increase the risk of pain and fatigue in the future.
Therefore, take some time out to rest and do what you can to recover. If you need to use specific relaxation techniques every week, then do so. If you have the opportunity to take a sabbatical from work, then use it.
Inadequate sleep and rest
You could also be falling into the trap of getting inadequate sleep and rest. The body does most of its healing and repairing while you’re asleep, and that’s also when inflammation has the chance to act and go through the cycle to help your tissues recover.
If you have poor-quality sleep due to stress and pain, then it can actually undermine this process, as can over-resting or being in bed all the time. Optimize your sleep and rest schedule. You’ll want to spend about 7-8 hours per day asleep and then another 3-4 hours resting. The rest of the time, you want to be active, using your mind and body in ways that are accessible to you.
Poor advice
You might also be receiving poor advice about a health issue, and that, in turn, could make recovery harder. This could be a problem with the health professional you’re using right now, or the fact that you’ve been injured but aren’t using a personal injury attorney.
Working with the right professionals is important for two reasons:
- They can actively help improve your life by mitigating your symptoms and improving your condition.
- They provide the type of mental and legal support that you need to push through and ensure that your lifestyle doesn’t suffer just because you have a health condition right now.
Doing too much too soon
Finally, don’t fall into the trap of doing too much too soon. A lot of people try to get back to their regular habits without dealing with their mobility issues first, thinking that they can just resume where they left off. That’s not often the case, so make sure you work with a physiotherapist and other medical professionals who can assist you in making a full recovery.