When I was first diagnosed with hip OA back in 2006 my old Japanese karate instructor told me to “just ignore the doctors and keep training” – he was quite insistent about this. This was very typical of the Japanese martial arts mindset. I remember thinking “that’s all very well with trivial stuff. But this is SERIOUS. This can’t just be overcome by positive thinking”.

Or could it? I think the thing that saved me from a fate worse than death was the mental aspects of my martial arts training. My old karate instructor WAS proven right.

Learned Helplessness

There’s a quirk in human nature described as learned helplessness that leads to illogical behavior:

The Logical Assumption: You will do whatever you can to escape a bad situation.

The Reality: If you don’t feel in control of your destiny, you will give up and accept your lot.

Lets look at what wikipedia has to say about learned helplessness:

"Learned helplessness is a behaviour in which an organism forced to endure aversive, painful or otherwise unpleasant stimuli, becomes unable or unwilling to avoid subsequent encounters with those stimuli, if the stimuli is actually or perceived to be inescapable."

"In learned helplessness studies, an animal is repeatedly exposed to an aversive stimulus which it cannot escape. Eventually, the animal stops trying to avoid the stimulus and behaves as if it is helpless to change the situation. When opportunities to escape become available, learned helplessness means the animal does not take any action."

The Elephant and the Twig

A favorite book of mine had always been:

The Elephant and the Twig: The Art of Positive Thinking
by martial artist Geoff Thompson.

Here’s a little quote from the book’s introduction:

"Have you ever heard the story of the Elephant and the Twig? In India they train obedience in young elephants (to stop them from escaping) by tying them to a huge, immovable object, like a tree, when they are still very young. The tree is so large that no matter how hard the baby elephant pulls and
tugs it cannot break free. This develops what is known as ‘learned helplessness’ in the creature. After trying so hard and for so long to break the hold, only to be thwarted time and again, it eventually believes that, no matter what it does, it cannot escape. Ultimately, as a fully-grown adult weighing several tons, they can tie it to a twig and it won’t escape, in fact it won’t even try"

Geoff goes on to explain that human behavior is the same; if told enough times that we cannot escape a situation, then eventually that belief will become so strong, so real, that we, like the elephant, will believe it; it will become our truth. Subsequently, due to our limiting belief system, we stop trying to help ourselves.

Learned helplessness and the OA diagnosis

When we’re given a diagnosis of OA the learned helplessness starts in the doctors surgery and is re-enforced as we desperately search the internet for answers. Each little negative, hopeless message adds to our conviction that we’re tied to an immovable object that we simply can’t break free from. Gradually our spirit weakens, our dreams die and we stop trying to help ourselves.

Misery Loves Company

Geoff Thompsom made another interesting observation about human nature in his book.

Catching Crabs

"I watched a documentary about how fishermen catch crabs (no! Not that kind). They use a mesh basket with a hole in the lid just big enough for the crabs to climb through. Once more than one crab has crawled into the basket the fishermen take the lid off; many of these gentle creatures of the sea climb in, but none climb out. Eventually the basket fills to the brim with crustaceans yet, despite the fact that there is no lid to keep them there, they still don’t escape. Every time one tries to exit the cage the others pull him back again.

I was amazed, aghast. It was the factory. It was the story of my life. Every time I’d ever tried to leave a bad job, to break away, my peers would do the exact same thing, they’d pull me back; ‘What do you want to leave for? This is a steady job, this is a good number this, it’s safe.’ Or, ‘You don’t want
to do that (whatever my new idea was), there’s no security in that.’ One day, tired of the same old narrative I replied to one of the old-timers, ‘But I hate it here.’"

The first step to beating osteoarthritis is to break the twig that’s binding you to a life of pain and misery and to kick those crabs into touch. If they want to end up as someone’s lunch that’s their choice but you are free to choose a better future.

It really is that simple. Make the decision. Where the mind goes the body will follow. No matter how impossible it seems, when you unleash the power of your mind then good things WILL come to you. You will find a way.

I guess what I’m trying to do with this website is show people that their OA diagnosis really is just a flimsy twig. You can break free very easily.