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When your body says no

kr 469,00

Foreword by Marta Thorsheim

The price we pay for not taking into account the whole living organism in the treatment of people seeking help is high. It should be common knowledge that separating body and mind belongs in the history books. In this book, Dr. Gabor Maté that we still do not take this insight into account. He explains the consequences and shows a way out.

Big questions that concern our lives

Gabor Maté helps us to understand big questions that concern our lives, such as the connection between untreated trauma and disease, children's development, the importance of parents' presence in children's upbringing and AD(H)D among children and adults. His message contains a strong criticism of (society's) medication of children with AD(H)D. He explains how society creates stressful lives that affect our health, and how to find good alternatives to medication. He also explains how it is connected that so many in our time develop addictions to, for example, alcohol, drugs, shopping, sex and gambling, and how to facilitate healing.

All his books, including this one, are written from Maté's unique point of view: As a doctor, he knows medicine's field of action from the inside, while at the same time his gaze reaches far beyond the traditional medical view of how the suppression and suppression of emotions leads us into stress and illness. One of his most important points is that when we suppress emotions, our entire human organism is affected.

Maté's expression "Every feeling has a chemical correlation" is repeated like a mantra in many of his lectures.

Fortunately, he is not alone: That trauma experiences leave deep traces is knowledge that is on its way into parts of the Norwegian treatment apparatus, writes Dr. Anna Luise Kirkengen and Ane Brandtzæg Ness in their book How abused children become sick adults. It gives hope. Nevertheless, the consequences of traumatization are still not on the syllabus in all medical studies, and are also lacking in many other health and social studies studies. An equally large shortcoming is the processing by health, social care and children's professionals of their own experiences of abuse. This creates the possibility that those who are supposed to help become blind to the experiences of others, and thus there is also a danger that those who need help will not be taken seriously in the health and care professions and in the judiciary.

That the body's alarm system is not taken seriously is a sign of serious illness in society. Not until all treatment springs from a holistic view of humanity and makes it possible to strengthen our healthy characteristics and experiences will we as individuals and as a society be able to take full advantage of the research and knowledge described in When the body says no.

Today, Dr. Gabor Maté retired from his practice as a doctor. He travels the world and gives lectures and courses on the topics that this and some of his other books are about: that the consequences of childhood trauma and people's lived lives are not taken into account in the treatment apparatus, and how compassion and good trauma therapy can heal the human organism. Through many touching patient stories, he describes how violations of integrity lead to illness, and how bad experiences in early childhood leave deep traces, without the people concerned receiving appropriate treatment. Canadian studies show, for example, that people who are sexually abused in childhood have a 50 percent greater chance of getting cancer than others. In the book, he reflects on the question of whether the patients' suffering in adulthood could have been avoided or mitigated if someone at an earlier stage had taken an interest in the whole patient, and not just treated the physical body.

He also describes a way out of repressed emotions and survival strategies. His realization is that it is compassion that leads to patients getting in touch with their lived lives. Through compassion, repressed childhood and growing-up traumas can come to the surface and be processed. First of all, this concerns compassion that the person can feel for themselves, compassion for the fact that what happened has been shifted to the unconscious level within us, and that the unconscious is a response to experiences that were too painful to take in at the time happened for painful experiences when we were smaller. This frees us from blaming ourselves for what we did as a result of what happened, and can shift our focus to trying to understand.

This deep recognition of how repression leads to a separation between emotions and consciousness is something I encounter daily in my work as a trauma therapist. Whether the event behind the repression occurred in early childhood, later in life, or is the result of generational trauma, repression and separation from the self is an emergency exit in the given situation. We can call it protective strategies that are developed so that the repressed feelings do not seep through to consciousness. The protection strategies lead to stress and illness. And it is only a form of treatment that contains a clear intention to get in emotional contact with the repressed memories, which can restore contact with the self and start the self-healing process.

This is what my trauma therapy - Identity Oriented Trauma Theory and Therapy - IoPT - is all about. And the good, persistent effect of being met with compassion throughout the entire process, from protection strategy to healthy contact with the self, also shows the truth of Maté's message. When the hurt that has happened can be expressed and the feelings and memories that were repressed are illuminated and integrated into our consciousness, there is also a healing and reorganization of our physiological defenses, which were confused at the time the trauma occurred. And when the defense is given the chance to organize itself in an appropriate way, symptoms and illness can ease, and even heal. This is the reason why apparently miraculous healing processes are sometimes seen in this type of therapeutic work.

Gabor Maté offers no simple solutions to these complex topics. But in this book, he provides a good basis both for self-reflection, and a direction for how we can become authorities in our own lives.

Hidden stress, emotions and illness

This book is about the connections between hidden stress, emotions and illness. It asks: Can loneliness make us sick? Is there a connection between our ability to show emotions and the development of disease?

We know today that the consequences of childhood trauma and the lived lives of adults are rarely taken into account in the treatment apparatus. However, modern medical research confirms what has long been known - that there is a connection between emotions and physical health.

In this book, Gabor Maté gives us thorough documentation that we develop hidden stress, a condition we often do not realize we suffer from. Hidden stress is about us repressing negative experiences in the past in order to cope with life in the present. Through a series of patient stories, Maté describes how violations of integrity can lead to physical illness, and how bad experiences in childhood leave deep scars, without those affected receiving the necessary help in the health care system.

Maté's path to a holistic life shows that we ourselves must recognize our self-worth as human beings. We do that by processing the baggage we carry with us; the experiences and traumas that have caused hidden stress and in the extreme can cause serious illness. In this book, he gives us useful tools in dealing with ourselves and the healthcare system. The most important thing is caring for one's own life and the ability to connect with other people.

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