Treating a Cough by Drinking Motor Oil

Sometimes something strange conquers our immune system. It causes sluggishness, a slight chill, and an irritating tickle in our throat. We can’t tolerate the slight irritation so air is quickly forced through our esophagus and a cough comes out. An alarm must go off in some of our minds. One that has been programmed since birth. It screams so silently that we listen to it without even knowing. We go to the cabinet full of chemical combinations that could be toxic to small rodents. Our eyes search for that “comforting” color scheme that says, “swallow me and all your irritations will go away.”

Does it really work though? What does that thick liquid with 10% alcohol actually do for our level of homeostasis?

I believe many times it’s the thoughts that thus and such will make me “feel” better is actually what improves our symptoms and not actually the chemicals that were put in the body.

We do that in life too. Life’s irritations “bug” us. Whether it’s an argument, loss of finances, unhealthy relationships, hypocritical people, or a bad day; we get bugged. These irritations happen throughout a lifetime and whether we realize it or not, they affect our life. How we deal with them effects our emotional health.

As a culture we treat even our emotional health like a cough and just say ine-meenie-minee-mo about a cough syrup or maybe even our favorite cough drops. Rather than addressing the actual cold virus that was causing the cough. For out life our favorite cough drops translate into: alcohol, drugs, poor relationships, promiscuity, and eating disorders. None of these things actually help us. Rather they hurt us and make the problem worse.

The scariest part is sometimes treating the symptoms of our emotional health can appear healthy, such as excessive cleaning, exercising, or overly helping others. Same as taking Excedrin will make the headache go away so it must be solving the problem and so we take it every time. Yet neither Excedrin nor doing things in excess is really solving the problems. They are just temporary “fixes” without getting to the root of what is actually wrong.

It’s kind of like treating a cold by drinking motor oil. It does nothing to get to the real problem that is causing the symptoms. Taking medicine may just be treating the symptoms and a lot of time in life we continually treat the symptoms but never address the problem.

When we are just treating the symptoms, we might as well just drink motor oil, because it’s doing about as much good. The symptoms might temporarily disappear, but that does nothing about the problem accept make us believe it is gone, when it is truly just lying beneath the surface.

Sometimes something strange conquers our immune system. It causes sluggishness, a slight chill, and an irritating tickle in our throat. We can’t tolerate the slight irritation so air is quickly forced through our esophagus and a cough comes out. An alarm must go off in some of our minds. One that has been programmed since birth. It screams so silently that we listen to it without even knowing. We go to the cabinet full of chemical combinations that could be toxic to small rodents. Our eyes search for that “comforting” color scheme that says, “swallow me and all your irritations will go away.”

Does it really work though? What does that thick liquid with 10% alcohol actually do for our level of homeostasis?

I believe many times it’s the thoughts that thus and such will make me “feel” better is actually what improves our symptoms and not actually the chemicals that were put in the body.

We do that in life too. Life’s irritations “bug” us. Whether it’s an argument, loss of finances, unhealthy relationships, hypocritical people, or a bad day; we get bugged. These irritations happen throughout a lifetime and whether we realize it or not, they affect our life. How we deal with them effects our emotional health.

As a culture we treat even our emotional health like a cough and just say ine-meenie-minee-mo about a cough syrup or maybe even our favorite cough drops. Rather than addressing the actual cold virus that was causing the cough. For out life our favorite cough drops translate into: alcohol, drugs, poor relationships, promiscuity, and eating disorders. None of these things actually help us. Rather they hurt us and make the problem worse.

The scariest part is sometimes treating the symptoms of our emotional health can appear healthy, such as excessive cleaning, exercising, or overly helping others. Same as taking Excedrin will make the headache go away so it must be solving the problem and so we take it every time. Yet neither Excedrin nor doing things in excess is really solving the problems. They are just temporary “fixes” without getting to the root of what is actually wrong.

It’s kind of like treating a cold by drinking motor oil. It does nothing to get to the real problem that is causing the symptoms. Taking medicine may just be treating the symptoms and a lot of time in life we continually treat the symptoms but never address the problem.

When we are just treating the symptoms, we might as well just drink motor oil, because it’s doing about as much good. The symptoms might temporarily disappear, but that does nothing about the problem accept make us believe it is gone, when it is truly just lying beneath the surface.