(Originally posted on 01/27/2010)

I've had more than 20 years to fully formulate an answer to the question:  "Isn't it true that once you start getting chiropractic care you get addicted and you have to keep going?"
Even though this question comes up fairly often for chiropractors - both young and old - it always catches me a little bit by surprise.  After much thought, here's what I think about that:

In my experience, a person only becomes "addicted" to their chiropractic adjustments in the same way that he or she might become "addicted" to washing their face, or brushing their teeth, or shampooing their hair.  It really has more to do with how a person views the everyday, ongoing management of their body and their health than with the adjustment itself.

SO ~

If you'd truthfully instruct your teenager to take the time to wash their face only after it's broken out.......

Or if you're convinced that daily brushing and flossing of your teeth is a fool's errand, designed only to make you a slave to Tom's Of Maine, Colgate, Oral B, and your dentist.......

Or if you think that this whole shampooing thing is just a scam and you'd never shampoo again except that your darned clean hair feels and smells so much better.......

Then the idea of regular chiropractic adjustments as part of an overall healthy lifestyle probably does feel like another time-consuming and expensive conspiracy to you.

I care for patients like you in my practice.  You show up at my office hurting, and angry that you have to tend to your physical body at all.  You get adjusted barely enough to be out of pain.  You disappear until you can't take it anymore....... again. It's a vicious and frustrating cycle for both of us.

I also have the pleasure of caring for patients who see a bigger picture. They've not only achieved relief from their pain -- they've gone on to include chiropractic care (as well as other body work modalities, most likely), into an overall healthier lifestyle. These patients get adjusted regularly no matter how they feel, because they know that the benefits of their adjustments go far beyond symptom to relief -- all the way to the improved quality of their daily existence.  They rest comfortably, eat sensibly, work & play with vigor, and experience fewer visits to their medical doctors.  Their up-front investment of time and money in prevention is more than surpassed by their proactive participation in living.