Appendicitis: emotional and spiritual meaning

What appendicitis is

The appendix is a narrow pouch at the base of the large intestine. Its Latin neighbour, the caecum, means blind. Appendicitis is inflammation of that pouch. Pain, fever, and nausea are the usual signs. If the appendix bursts, the lining of the abdomen follows, and that is dangerous. Treatment is urgent assessment and, usually, an operation. Crohn's disease can sometimes imitate the pain. A doctor tells them apart. Dark thoughts do not start the inflammation, and they do not make it safe to stay at home.

The emotional meaning of appendicitis

Spiritually, this is an anger tied to a sharp tension or a situation you cannot settle, something that makes you boil and feel indignant. It is most often on the emotional plane, a disturbance of sensitivity. Worry may have been running for a long time. There can be a sense of a struggle between life and death, a deep anguish, and a choice you cannot make because of the responsibilities that would follow. Work, and the list of things to do, becomes the place you flee to.

The shape of the appendix is a dead end. That image is for feeling oppressed, and for the fear, insecurity, weariness, and sense of abandonment that follow. The bind is often a member of the family, or the principles the family runs on. Money can be in it, especially money that was almost in your pocket and then was not. Something, or someone, you wanted added to your life is blocked: a partner who will not move in, a room that is not there. The current of life feels obstructed, and a crowd of emotions is pushed down.

You may be at a real turning, and afraid of the changes because you still depend on certain people. Filtering new realities, so as to stay protected, no longer works. There seems to be no other way out. You cannot empty yourself of something. You store it until the pouch cannot hold any more. You need to talk, to empty the bag, because what is happening will not be digested and the disappointment is sharp. Spontaneity is held back. At any moment you feel you could be emptied out, of money or of love. Heat, redness, and pain are the body's side of that tension. When the appendix bursts, the suffering is of another order, and it belongs in a hospital.

A gentler way to hold it

• If the pain is in your belly now, go to care first. The questions can wait.
• Afterwards, name the dead end. Say who it involves.
• One need of your own, met before the next expectation, is a way of leaving the blind pouch.