I Wish My GP Had Known This! Thoughts on Living Proof’s ‘Medicine and the Mind-Brain-Body Connection’ course for GPs, from a former “heartsink” patient.
13th Mar, 2025
I have recently learned that I was known as a “heartsink” patient. I am sure that medical professionals reading this blog post will know the term. I had been suffering for years from severe chronic back pain and sciatica that would often leave me struggling to walk. I never knew that my GP’s heart sank as I worked my way through every medical professional available yet kept on returning to him in pain, because nothing worked.
Following an MRI scan in my early twenties, I was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease and herniated discs, and told that my only options were to live with the pain or to have surgery. I was advised that I should delay having surgery for as long as possible as technology was advancing and I would have more chance of a successful outcome if I waited. I was sent away with a book managing my pain with back bending exercises and the door was closed.
It took 15 years of confusion and suffering before I eventually came across content that is summarised brilliantly by Dr Sarah Hadfield and partner Living Proof in their short CPD-accredited course for GPs.
What I learned on my journey to recovery was that:
• My pain was real but disc degeneration was not the cause.
• My pain was in fact caused by nervous system dysregulation and learnt neural pathways.
• Relief from my symptoms and potentially a full recovery was possible.
• The path to recovery was in learning how to calm my nervous system and rewire my neural pathways.
By understanding and applying these principles, I managed to make a full recovery. I progressed from not being able to run at all, to completing an ironman 70.3 triathlon. Now in my forties, I am fitter and stronger than I was in my twenties and act as a voice of lived experience for in the hope that I can help other “heartsink” patients recover more quickly than I did!
I would encourage any GPs with “heartsink” patients to take the short course.
If you would like to find out more the course please get in touch. members have access to a special rate, available through our members’ site: /partner-courses/. CPD points (1.5 hours) are available for this training.
If you would like to know more my personal recovery journey, you can read a longer account of my story in a or in my .
