Disease as a process instead of a thing that attacks us is the perspective Dr Mate introduces in this chapter. He begins with the absolutely heartbreaking story of a well-known woman V, author of Vagina Monologues, and women’s rights advocate. Her story of chronic incestual rape with emotional and physical abuse and the trauma she carried with her led her to ask the question “Do I have rape cancer?” and to make this incredibly insightful observation:
“…I think that if there were one underlying reason why I got sick, it was unreckoned—I hadn’t gone deep enough in processing my trauma. A disease is not like a thing. It is energy flow, it’s a current; it is evolution or devolution that occurs when you’re not awake and connected, and trauma is essentially ruling your life.”
That we currently view disease as a thing is evident in the language we use culturally: we declare war on cancer like we declare war on drugs or al-queda. We battle a severe disease and fight our colds and flus. A disease is also something we “have”, not a process we’re going through. It’s an object to (reluctantly) possess like a car or a TV, not a journey we’re on.
In my personal opinion (and I think this aligns with what Dr Mate says); disease is what happens within our bodies after many years of us sleep-walking through life, just taking care of necessities, or everyone else around us, and not doing the deep and difficult work of self-healing. The more trauma we’ve been dealt in life, and the more we’ve repressed it, the higher the likelihood of our body saying “No—I can’t deal with this any more, you need to wake up.”
This has been my experience in small things, with severe colds or flus appearing when I’ve been pushing myself too hard for too long (who hasn’t experienced this?). And on a deeper level, with a build up of kidney stones that wouldn’t pass and needed to be removed surgically or blasted apart while I was living stressed out and uncertain about the future, while putting on an “I’m ok” face for everyone around. The interesting thing to me is that within three days of securing our own place, I passed a kidney stone for the first time, and two weeks after moving, three more. This after two years of repeated visits to the Urologist and Nephrologist trying to figure what was wrong with my diet that I was growing and keeping so many stones.
I’m not saying diet and lifestyle has nothing to do with disease. But I do believe that emotional and mental stress, especially when repressed or bottled up, is a main cause of our physical — especially chronic —diseases.
Lets return to Dr Gabor Mate’s words:
“What if we saw illness as an imbalance in the entire organism, not just as a manifestation of molecules, cells, or organs invaded or denatured by pathology? What if we applied the findings of Western research and medical science in a systems framework, seeking all the connections and conditions that contribute to illness and health?”
While this seems a new and even revolutionary to our way of thinking, the truth is, our current approach to disease is only 100 years old. A blip on the timeline of humanity. Previous to modern western reductionist/specialist medicine, the doctor treated the patient, not the disease, trying to assess and restore a healthy balance to the individual person — instead of focusing on diagnosing and treating a specific disease.
Yes, they also had some bizarre applications of restoring balance, such as using leeches to get rid of the “bad blood” in medieval Europe, but meanwhile in the East, both India and China have been successfully treating their patients using Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine for thousands of years.
Both of these ancient medicine systems focus on bringing the health of the patient back into balance before a major disease takes root. In the west, we have looked at this approach as superstition for too long, and to our detriment. Now our more recent scientific research is establishing the same principles (though with different words) that have been established for thousands of years in the east.
Seeing disease as a process instead of an invader, gives us agency in our healing. Rather than being a helpless victim at the mercy of “medical miracle workers”, we can be an active participant in the process, taking actions and making choices that will affect the outcome.
“Disease itself is both a culmination of what came before and a pointer to how things might unfold in the future. Our emotional dynamics, including our relationship to ourselves, can be among the powerful determinants of that future.”
Is stress the cause of disease? Or is it a trigger of disease? Research points to it being a trigger. Using cancer as an example again, Dr Mate explains that we all have malignant cells, which our immune system works to clear out of our bodies.
“The question is, What drives the progression of these cells into clinical illness? What keeps the immune system from successfully confronting the internal menace? This is where stress plays its incendiary role: for example, through the release of inflammatory proteins into the circulation—proteins that can instigate damage to DNA and impede DNA repair in the face of malignant transformation. These proteins, called cytokines, can also inactivate genes that would normally suppress tumor growth, enable chemical messengers that support the growth and survival of tumor cells, stimulate the branching of blood vessels that bring nutrients to feed the tumor, and undermine the immune system.”
If we feel threatened or insecure over a long period of time, our bodies are literally programmed to turn on inflammatory genes. As human beings, we’re meant to feel safe and secure the majority of the time. We’re supposed to be able to remove or get away from the threat to our safety. When this isn’t possible, or when we remain focused on a perceived threat, this chronic stress triggers inflammation, and:
“…One of the things many diseases have in common is inflammation, acting as kind of a fertilizer for the development of illness. . . when people feel threatened, insecure—especially over an extended period of time—our bodies are programmed to turn on inflammatory genes.
. . . Much good can come from an open minded engagement with the process that disease represents. It may even lead to an opportunity to find out why this particular visitor has come to call, and what it might tell us about our lives.”
This brief commentary and the included quotes are only a sample of Dr Mate’s work. I include what stands out the most to me, but there is a lot more. If you’re interested in exploring trauma and emotional healing further, I encourage you to visit Dr Gabor Mate’s website, check out his youtube channel, or read more of his books.
Very interesting. It's worth noting that when one of our wonderful kitty cats got oral cancer, her vet (a specialist in the field), was open to using both western and Chinese medicine at the same time. Our kitty lived another 6 months, but we were told that was an exceptional outcome and that usually kitties with oral cancer only live 2 months. Those 6 months we had with her were really wonderful.
I appreciate how you’re sharing and relating your personal experience with this. It’s sad that conventional medicine dismisses this aspect of our body state when dealing with health issues. This is why we need to be our own advocates.