Symptoms
Inevitably the first thing we want to do when we have a physical problem such as continual heartburn, inability to sleep, constant headaches, is to get something to stop the problem.
Thus we remove the symptom but we do not always remove the cause. The symptom is one of the body's early warning signals that we are on overload. It is there to draw our attention to the fact that something is wrong.
But if we mask the symptom then this vital response by our body is also masked so we carry on as usual. We might then mask the next symptom until a situation arrives when this strategy will no longer work.
Then, both mental and physical symptoms become so overwhelming that we cannot continue to work or function normally. This is often called 'burn out'. The lesson is -don't ignore symptoms. Pay attention to these early warning signals.