Feeling unwell for extended periods of time without clear answers can be extremely frustrating, especially after visiting multiple doctors, having tests performed, and trying different treatments. Many individuals face this difficult challenge, often not because of a lack of effort, but due to the complex nature of certain health conditions.
Modern medicine has made remarkable progress, but it still has significant limitations—especially when symptoms are vague, overlap with multiple disorders, or fall outside the most common patterns doctors are trained to recognize. Additionally, as Dr. Stephen Feig illustrates, physical health is closely tied to mental well-being, lifestyle, environment, trauma, and social relationships, all of which can influence how symptoms appear and evolve.
Common Reasons You’re Still Not Feeling Better
Persistent symptoms can stem from a wide range of causes, including conditions that don’t always show up in standard tests. It’s possible that a diagnosis was missed or that multiple health concerns are overlapping in ways that make them harder to identify.
The root cause of chronic conditions like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, autistic spectrum disorders, depression, anxiety, irritable bowel syndrome, or even long COVID can be especially difficult to pinpoint because your doctor may not think to ask you about certain underlying events in your life or because your symptoms may have begun slowly and often mimic other conditions. Some individuals also experience lingering effects of past emotional traumas, prenatal exposure to harmful substances such as medications and pesticides, unresolved chronic infections, or environmental mold exposure that often isn’t immediately connected to their current complaints. These events can cause lasting changes to brain chemistry and increase the risk of chronic illnesses, immune system deficiencies, and a shortened lifespan.
The multiple factors that need to be considered to resolve chronic unwellness can seem daunting to someone who isn’t trained to evaluate them. These complexities can delay proper treatment and leave patients feeling stuck. In addition, chronic health issues may fluctuate day to day, which can confuse both the patient and their care team.
When Diagnoses Miss the Full Picture
Not every condition fits neatly into a textbook description. Sometimes, symptoms are vague or overlap with other illnesses, making it easy for even experienced doctors to overlook key details. This can lead to a misdiagnosis or an incomplete explanation of what’s really going on. It is very common that standard lab tests (CBC, CMP, etc.) are not helpful in determining the underlying cause of chronic unwellness. Even advanced tests may not always detect subtle imbalances or rare disorders if they aren’t done at the right laboratory.
Time constraints during appointments may limit how thoroughly a provider can investigate complex or chronic symptoms. Sometimes, it can take several hours of detailed questioning before an experienced physician can sort through a complex medical history and get to the root of chronic health issues. A patient with intermittent joint pain, fatigue, and brain fog might be told it’s from stress or ‘getting older’, when it could be early signs of an autoimmune disorder, a gut microbiome issue, a chronic infection, or all these together! In such cases, a second opinion with a physician who takes a broader perspective and does more in depth testing can be essential to uncovering the root cause.
One of the most common reasons for the failure to resolve chronic health issues is that they are often the result of multiple factors overlapping and creating a complex symptom picture. While a conventional physician might be looking for the one ‘illness’ or diagnosis that is the cause of all symptoms, some other physicians take a more comprehensive approach and identify a broader range of issues that all together cause chronic unwellness. Some of these include food sensitivities, dietary imbalances, environmental exposure to toxic substances, unresolved trauma, gut microbiome issues, multiple genetic inherited tendencies, chronic infections, autoimmune conditions, mold exposure, subtle hormone imbalances, sleep issues, etc.
Rare conditions or atypical presentations can also fall through the cracks. A person might go years without a clear answer, simply because their symptoms don’t align with the most common diagnostic patterns. It’s not always about lack of effort—it’s about the limitations of current knowledge and testing methods.
Overlapping Physical and Mental Health Issues
The connection between mental and physical health is stronger than many realize. Anxiety, depression, and chronic stress can have a profound impact on the body, sometimes mimicking or even worsening physical symptoms. Headaches, digestive problems, and fatigue are just a few manifestations that may be exacerbated by emotional distress. This can create a cycle where the emotional strain intensifies physical symptoms, making the path to recovery more complex.
However, just because you have emotional distress, it doesn’t mean that this distress is the cause of your health issue! When one person is stressed, they may develop migraine headaches, while the next person may have gut issues because of feeling stressed.
STRESS BRINGS OUT THE UNDERLYING WEAKNESS.
Your body has resilience, and chronic stress can wear down resilience. People with chronic health issues such as gut microbiome imbalances, mold exposure, subtle thyroid imbalances, chronic infections, food sensitivities, unresolved trauma, and dietary imbalances are frequently physically and emotionally already worn out by these conditions. Add life stress on top of these conditions and there is a good chance that the body will falter and symptoms will emerge. Life stress merely brings out the underlying health issues. Some of the most common symptoms that occur in these circumstances are fatigue, brain fog, depression or anxiety, overwhelm, mood swings, bloating, gas, muscle/joint pain, etc. This often looks like an individual who is slow to arise in the morning, needs a nap in the afternoon, can’t focus on their work, has achy muscles or joints, has a depressed mood, notices gut issues such as bloating & gas, and is easily overwhelmed. Do you know anyone like that?
In some cases, certain physical conditions like subtle thyroid imbalances, gut issues, food sensitivities, or hormonal fluctuations can trigger changes in mood or cognition or bring out underlying trauma. A woman with untreated PMS and mood swings may be more likely to feel overwhelmed or have past trauma triggered at a time in her cycle where she is especially sensitive. Treating just the hormone imbalance or just the past trauma may not lead to full relief, which is why a comprehensive approach is often necessary. Integrating both mental and physical health care under one plan can help individuals regain vitality and balance more effectively.
Lifestyle and Environmental Influences
What surrounds us and how we live day to day can have a significant impact on our health in both positive and negative ways. Factors like living in a home that has had water damage and possible mold exposure, sleep issues such as sleep apnea, unresolved trauma, or a diet that contains foods that are feeding gut microbiome imbalances can certainly amplify existing symptoms. Sometimes a simple shift in routine—such as eliminating commonly eaten foods, purchasing an air filter, changing pillows, increasing exercise, moving towards a plant-based diet, improving hydration or reducing screen time before bed—can lead to noticeable changes in energy and focus. Long-term habits like sedentary behavior or eating the same foods repeatedly each day can gradually wear down the body’s resilience.
Environmental triggers are often underestimated or not discussed at doctor visits. Mold exposure, stealth infections that occur from tick bites, food cravings or overeating, or even prolonged noise pollution can keep the body in a heightened state of stress. People may not immediately link these elements to their health, especially when symptoms develop gradually. These overlooked influences can quietly contribute to fatigue, brain fog, muscle/joint pain, depression, anxiety, or respiratory/sinus issues. Addressing them may require home assessments or lifestyle audits that go beyond the clinical setting.
Taking Charge of Your Next Steps
When standard conventional care isn’t yielding results, it may be time to ask different questions, see a different kind of practitioner, and have different lab testing performed. Becoming an advocate for your health can shift the direction of your recovery. Seeking out specialists, researching alternative approaches, or joining support communities can open new doors and offer fresh perspectives.
Don’t forget about the importance of love, hugs, and meaningful human connections. If you’re feeling lonely, know that it may be your inner wisdom seeking the connections it needs for better health and happiness. Strong social connections help reduce stress, improve the ability to fight off illness, and protect against physical decline. Conversely, a lack of social relationships can increase the risk of depression and other mental health challenges, obesity, inflammation, and high blood pressure.
Small acts like getting hugs daily, tracking symptoms, making a diet diary, having your home tested for mold, requesting a comprehensive stool analysis, having a comprehensive hormone evaluation, or preparing thoughtful questions for appointments can build momentum. Progress can sometimes occur quickly if the root cause is identified. Even if your testing and evaluation may seem to occur slowly, with the right tools, social support and positive mindset, recovery and healing can be attainable!
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