Sick Again? Or is this a Healing Crisis?

I took yesterday off to care for my granddaughter. She’s been sick a lot lately and came with a shiny new diagnosis from her latest cough. Daycare loves diagnoses. Without an illegible signature underneath one, she often won’t be admitted for the day. But that isn’t the focus of this article., so I'll kick that soapbox back into the corner.

I brought her in from the cold and unbundled her, and it was clear she wasn’t sick.

Oh, she was coughing all right, but it sounded more like clearing her throat. Her eyes were bright and happy to see me. She’s always happy to see Grammy, but when she’s truly sick, her eyes lose their brightness. Her cheeks weren’t pale or feverishly red, either—just healthy and pink. This wasn’t an illness. This was healing.

Symptoms Aren't Sickness—Do You Know the Difference?

Years ago, I read about something called a “Healing Crisis” in a natural mothering book. It was a hot topic among “crunchy” mothers (we were called Crunchy because anyone interested in whole foods and natural healing was assumed to eat granola regularly—bonus points if you made it yourself!). The gist of these discussions was that nobody really knew if it was a healing crisis or an illness until it was over. If you got better, it must’ve been a healing crisis. If you ended up in bed for a week, you were sick.

Later, I met a chiropractor who described any health bump as a healing crisis because your immune system was working overtime on something. That perspective stuck with me.

But yesterday, my granddaughter’s bright eyes and clear progression showed the difference. She’d been through several rounds of antibiotics for ear infections. This time, the doctor diagnosed a virus and wisely didn’t prescribe antibiotics. Instead, he recommended rest. That’s the advice of a good doctor: allowing the body’s natural processes to work.

How Healing Happens 

Her body was doing exactly what a naturopath hopes to see. Whatever the cause of the first ear infection, antibiotics cleared the symptoms by shutting down inflammatory reactions and immunity agents trying to identify the pathogen. From the outside, it looked like the illness had disappeared. Inside, however, the battlefield was left in disarray, with no clear winners or losers.

Suppressing symptoms drives the illness deeper into the system, embedding the root causes further into the body’s tissues. This makes true healing more challenging and can delay recovery in the long term.

When the antibiotics were discontinued, her body began clearing the remnants of the battle. Unfortunately, much of the debris had been absorbed into her tissues. The real illness underlying those ear infections had been driven beneath the surface. By sending her home to rest, her doctor gave her body the space it needed to clean house.

Often, when we feel “sick” out of nowhere, it’s the body taking out the trash. Toxicities and captured pathogens build up over time. Given the opportunity, the body will initiate a cleanup: a runny nose, cough, diarrhea, or rash. You might feel the need to sleep more. But you don’t feel the deep fatigue that comes with catching a flu bug. Instead, it feels like healing.

A Day of Rest 

This is exactly what my little bestie was doing. She wanted to be held and napped on my arm. So that’s what we did. As she slept, I heard her breathing become clearer. When she woke up, she happily got down to play.

Sometimes, the best thing we can do is listen to our bodies and allow healing to happen. This means paying attention to the signals our bodies send us—like the need for extra sleep, cravings for specific nutrients, or even the urge to simply rest and be still. For example, if you feel unusually tired, it could be your body's way of prioritizing energy for healing rather than daily tasks. By recognizing these cues and honoring them, we support the natural processes that work tirelessly to restore balance and health.

Do you need help interpreting your body's signals? Or do you know what it's saying but need some advice on what to do about it? Call me, I can help you develop vibrant wellness from the inside out.