Earth & Somatics

Self-Suppression is Making Us Sick

When we override what our bodies are telling us, the cost shows up physically. On Gabor Maté's work, autoimmune illness, and what happens when we stop speaking up for our own needs.
Self-Suppression is Making Us Sick

I don’t need to identify every single research article that ties the strong connection between mind and body. They are out there. Even before scientific journals existed, our ancestors knew of this link between our minds and bodies.

The impact of trauma on our physical health is incredibly stark. Dr. Gabor Mate enthusiastically exclaimed at a trauma conference that “they should have taught this in medical school”. There usually is a connection between chronic physical problems with mental health problems.

Autoimmune diseases, rooted in stress, attack the body. The accumulation of all the instances we betrayed our body when it was screaming the truth internally, yet we suppress it, we are attacking our bodies. The times we do not speak up for our needs, our bodies begin to trust the body less. Not surprisingly, Dr. Mate and a group of other doctors looked at the demographics of folks struggling with autoimmune diseases, where 87% of them happen in women. Ignoring our own needs has been consistent with chronic illnesses. Women especially have historically and currently been ignoring their own needs, as they have been socially conditioned to do so.

References

  • Dr. Gabor Mate’s “The Myth of Normal”
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Author
Anh Tran, LMFT, ATR

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