Dr. Howard Schubiner MD, director of the Body Providence Hospital, Southfield Michigan, USA. He is also a clinical professor of Michigan State University College of Human Medicine shares his personal story with chronic pain and how he healed himself with talking to his brain
I was actually interested in MINDBODY medicine when I was in University in my College years. I was very interested in the idea that the mind could heal the body and that there was a connection between the two. I read a lot about that. I went to medical school. I was interested in hearing people's stories. But it wasn't really mind body medicine type work until in 2002, I had moved to my current hospital and someone gave me a book by Dr. Sarno, who I'd never heard of I was quite interested in it. I went to New York a few weeks later and spent a few days with dr Sarno him just to see what he was doing. then I told my boss I started a mind body clinic And I started talking to people. I just spent time with people listening to their stories of their lives and how the intersection of their lives affected whether and how they got sick or not and whether or how they had symptoms or not, and when their symptoms got better and when their symptoms got worse and what their childhood was like. I began to read more and more about the brain and the subconscious brain and about emotions and about stress. gradually, over time, I learned more and more every day and began to make this work my main focus of my career.
that was my body reacting to the huge stress
Well, I think as I started to do this work. Of course, I looked at my own life and times when I had particular symptoms. The main thing that stood out was when I was an intern, I was a young doctor, very much afraid of hurting someone or making bad decisions or making mistakes, being exposed as being an imposter or being incompetent. It so happened that I started having diarrhea every day before I went to the hospital, and I didn't really think too much of it until six months later it went away. And then when it went away, I realized, oh, that was my body's reaction to the huge stress that I was feeling being a doctor.
Neck pains and stiffness
over the years since then, there's been many times when I had a lot of neck pain in my 30s and 40s and I would get pain, and then it would go away or I'd wake up with a very stiff neck and I couldn't turn my head. I thought I had slept wrong. doctors told me I had arthritis and pinch nerves and all sorts of things like that. I went to physical therapy and would get better and it gets worse and get better over the years.
the normal abnormalities of the body
it was only when I started studying this work that I realized that pain was due to the stress I was under as a young faculty member, as a father, as all the things that I was trying to accomplish, because now I don't have any neck pain, even though the MRI of my neck shows large bulging discs, it shows arthritis, shows a lot of really what many doctors would consider to be bad things, but are actually normal findings on MRIs of everyone.
Stress created back pain
few years ago, when my father was getting older, I was having a lot of leg pain, sciatic pain that's gone away. And then a couple of years later, when my mom was getting sick and starting her decline, I had a lot of upper back pain, and that's gone now.
how did you heal?
if you understand that the mind and the body are connected and you look at your life, it's not very hard for most people to make connections. It's not hard at all. In my 30s and 40s. I wasn't aware that that pain was due to my brain. I just figured I had some neck problems and I had physical therapy and it got better. I didn't connect that to stress at all. But the more recent times, a few years ago, with the leg pain and the upper back pain, those I was aware of the connection between my mind and my body. And the main thing that I did for those was wait.
I did not really follow my own advice
I guess the immediate reflex is to do something but I didn't do anything. I just waited because I knew I was okay. I knew I would be okay. I didn't worry. I didn't go to doctors. I didn't try to solve the problem medically because I didn't think there was anything medically wrong. And I suppose it would have been smart or wise if I would have done some emotional work and dealt with some of the stress issues in my life. But I felt that it was okay. I thought I was okay and I just waited. It took a few months with the upper back pain, but it went away.
What was your inner self talk back then? What did you tell yourself?
I told myself I was going to be okay. This would get better, that it hurts now, but there's nothing seriously wrong. I said:
"This is a reaction. This is my brain. I'm okay" so I just waited. I just kept going. I did my work. I did my job. I did my life. I focused on what was important in my life. And then eventually I got better.
