"When the Body Says No" - Summary

Mary was a gentle, shy woman who had repressed her emotions since childhood. As a girl, she was abused and abandoned, forced to care for her younger sisters. She learned not to express her feelings or needs. As an adult, Mary never complained and always put others first. She developed Raynaud's phenomenon, which led to gangrene and the amputation of her fingers. Eventually she was diagnosed with scleroderma, an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks the body's own tissues.

Scleroderma and other chronic illnesses are often seen by medicine as solely biological diseases. But Mary's history shows the role of psychological factors. Her childhood traumas caused her to repress all negative emotions. This emotional repression over decades likely contributed to the immune system breakdown that led to her disease. The mind and body are intimately connected, as the field of psychoneuroimmunology has demonstrated. Chronic stress from emotional repression can suppress immune defenses and predispose people to autoimmune and other illnesses. Healing requires considering psychological as well as biological factors. If Mary's emotions had been heard and understood earlier in her life, her health might have been different. Mind and body are one whole, and for true health, both need attention.