“I’m scared of chiropractors.”
One in ten of our clients will verbally express their concern about having an adjustment for the first time, which will mean that there are many others that are also worried. They just don’t tell us.
When I first became a Chiropractor, I was always confused as to why people were scared because I knew that I would be able to help them, and I was going to provide relief. But it’s difficult for the human brain to bridge the gap to get rid of that pain and onto a path of healing if they have go to through something that looks often strange and foreign.
With the emergence of social media and Chiropractors putting more treatments on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. It hasn’t necessarily helped in terms of what we do. The reason being the adjustment is defined as a high velocity short amplitude thrust into the joint to move it into a better position to free the nervous system, to allow the body to heal.
The high velocity part looks dramatic, particularly in the neck. A lot of people will say, “You’re not going to do that thing on my neck, are you?” Purely because they are worried about what it looks like on a video. It actually doesn’t feel the same way as it looks and it can be very comfortable. If the neck is stiff or if there’s any disc issues, then sometimes it can be tender or sore in certain spots, but often is much more mobile, flexible after due to the pressure being relieved.
It’s very safe and it’s a nonsurgical and medication free way of getting your body healthier in the long term.
If you cast your mind back to Terminator, in the 1990s, Arnold Schwarzenegger running through the city, pulling people up and breaking their necks just with his bare hands. This is genuinely almost impossible for a conscious human to do this to another person purely because of the strength of the ligaments and the fact that the person is conscious. It’s very tricky to physically break someone’s neck. You need a serious amount of force like a skiing injury or a fall from a height to provide the force to cause a fracture. It’s almost impossible with human strength.
If you were to walk into a Chiropractor and the first thing they did was adjust you, this is also a concern because you need to have a thorough assessment, a medical history and often an X-ray in order to determine what adjustment needs to be done in the right area at the right time and then you need to have a follow-up report before the adjustment to explain what’s going to happen, why you’re having your issues, what the prognosis is and how we’re going to get there.
Then you need to be happy with everything and we will talk you through exactly what’s going to happen. In that case, you’re well-informed. You know exactly what to do and what’s going to happen to you and the likely outcomes afterwards.
So, when you come see one of our Chiropractors, they will explain everything in full. If at any point you have any questions, please stop them. They can talk you through exactly what’s going to happen. We can assure you that the adjustment itself does not hurt. It can feel stiff afterwards like if you haven’t been to the gym or a long walk in a long time purely because the muscles are moving in a different position now and your body is in a different structure.
