Do you ever feel like you’re in fight or flight mode? Feel like you can’t focus on work and it’s just taking way too much effort on your behalf? These are a couple of the common tells that our patients notice when they need to be adjusted or if they’ve gone too long between seeing us. Most of my patients, once they get over the initial phase of care where they’re here for a major problem, go on and hit maintenance care. At that point, they’re basically coming to my office to ensure their body doesn’t fall back into bad habits.

Symptoms are not to be ignored. You can listen to your body whisper to get your attention or you can wait for it to scream and kick like an overtired toddler.

Patients say they have tells they start to notice. Little things that aren’t quite right when they know they need to be adjusted or that they’ve gone a little too long. Feeling like you’re stuck in fight or flight mode is a big one. Not being able to focus as quickly or easily at work is a big one. Simple things like having a fouler mood or having your spouse notice that your mood isn’t quite what it should be. Not being able to sleep as well. Not waking up energized. Even something like being uncomfortable lying in bed.

Often, when patients come in complaining of what they later realize to be one of their tells, they’ll say things like, “but I was just here”. That’s when we look back to their last visit and they realize it’s been 10-12 weeks.

They were just so busy and caught up in life that they hadn’t even realized it’d been a long time since they’d been in to get checked.

Children are awesome at detecting these tells. They simply notice the differences in their body once they’ve had good quality care. Children will say things like, “You need to take me to see Dr. Tina” and their parents often reply with, “Why, does something hurt?”. Kids will reply, “No, my body just isn’t working great.” They all use the same vocabulary to describe it when they think they need to be seen. And nine times out of 10, they’re right.

So, pay attention to your common tells, but don’t rely too heavily on them. There’s a reason we trust the objective data to know when you need to be seen and monitored in our office. And if you don’t have tools for objective data to monitor you and your nervous system and how your body’s functioning, reach out to us and we would love to help you learn more about how Upper Cervical Chiropractic could be a game changer for you. Your future self might thank you.