There is a vicious cycle, known well in dentistry, called the cycle of dental fear. The cycle works like this; patients are afraid to visit the dentist; their fear means they don’t get regular check-ups, so health problems aren’t prevented, and get worse. The problems get so bad it becomes a dental emergency, and then the patient has a very unpleasant interaction with the dentist, the emergencies being the most painful or uncomfortable type of dentistry you can have done. This reinforces the patient’s fear of dentists, and the cycle is perpetuated.
You can see how this cycle can easily apply to any medical practitioner; patients avoid going to the doctor until something bad is happening, they get unpleasant treatments and avoid going to the doctor until something bad happens again. The cycle will continue to perpetuate itself until the core issue is addressed; this core issue isn’t medical in nature, it’s psychological: the fear.
Situations like this are where a knowledgeable holistic health centre comes in handy; traditional practitioners will continue to simply address the illnesses as they pop up, without considering why the patient seems to get sick persistently. Holistic practice recognizes the bad habits people can form, and the vicious cycles we can enter into; these problems are addressed so preventive care becomes more effective.
This is why patient participation is absolutely key in holistic practice; without knowing your thought processes, psychological state and subjective experience, it is impossible to break out of these cycles. This is why holistic medicine is integrative; it will not only use symptom-treatment driven medicine, but changes to diet, spiritual practices, breathing exercises; anything that can break you out of vicious cycles.
When vicious cycles exist, the inverse is almost always true as well; there is a virtuous cycle that mirrors the vicious. Take patient fear, for example; what if it were instead patient love? Strange as it sounds, consider the implication; a patient loves going to the doctor. They go in when they have concerns about their health, be it mental, physical or spiritual. The doctor acknowledges their concerns, and they work together to find proactive solutions so the problem doesn’t get worse. The patient’s concerns are addressed, no further illness develops, and they feel satisfied with the time shared with their practitioner. The patient now loves going to the doctor, and they’re likely to go back whenever they have a concern.
Your life is filled with vicious cycles that, with a change of perspective, could become virtuous; we want to help you fill your life with virtue, love, health and happiness. We’ll do this by identifying the bad habits you’ve fallen into, and give you a wide array of solutions to choose from to improve your health
