When the Body Says No

"Listened to the audiobook. I think it would have been better for me to read than to listen to because I kept zoning out and having to rewind or go back a chapter. <br/><br/>But from what I was able to recall, it was interesting to hear the anecdotes from some of the author’s (he’s a doctor) patients and talking about a few studies that seems to correlate our repressed emotions with autoimmune diseases. <br/>When we hold onto the negative emotions and don’t have a healthy outlet to express them—and/or the problems/traumas in all types of relationships that cause the emotions in the first place—then our body signals to us by the way it knows how, to give us signs & symptoms or illness to show us we aren’t actually okay.<br/>I tend to lean towards agreeing with the few studies that have been done because I have my own personal problems that have been showing me I haven’t been ‘emotionally’ healing with my body letting me know it can’t take those things anymore and getting some physically unknown aches and pains.<br/><br/>"

"Overall, this was a decent book. An easy read with many abbreviated case histories regarding people with chronic and fatal illnesses. While the anecdotes are backed up by more scientific studies and I very much respect Gabor Mate's work I have 2 criticisms. 1. It almost seems like he read Selye's works on stress and became enamoured without viewing the work critically (possibly even missing some of what Selye said later in life). I also disagree with the hypothesis that it is unidentified/ unconscious background stress that is the real culprit in these cases and he nearly identifies that and comes close to noticing other trends related to the cases but doesn't quite make the leap. Still very much worth the read."

"Bleak truth, no tools offered but an understanding."

"This is a MUST READ for everyone!!!!!!"