Not seeing the forest for the trees implies a person is overwhelmed with focusing on every small detail that they fail to recognize or comprehend the broader picture or context. This concept often applies in a clinical setting.
When people experience pain or injury, they tend to pathologize everything they experience, thinking that each symptom or experience are individual of one another. People tend to walk around “marking trees” so to speak, looking for patterns or associations, but really just creating chaos, confusion, and frustration for themselves.
Depending on the timescale a person has been uncomfortable or dealing with symptoms, these issues can compound and can become a comprehensive inventory of experiences. A person who meticulously documents each symptom and experience and completely loses sight of the forest.
Chasing symptoms and treating them individually is a quixotic task, much like trying to improve the health of a forest by going tree to tree. Better to nurture the forest environment and the trees, and other bits will improve on their own.
Point being…
Just as trying to improve the health of a forest by focusing solely on individual trees would be impractical, treating symptoms in isolation without addressing their root causes or the overall environment may not lead to lasting improvement. Instead, nurturing the entire ecosystem or addressing the issue systemically can lead to more comprehensive and sustainable solutions.
Bri's Blog 