It seems many doctors are opposed to new information, particularly if it rubs against their picture of the way things are, and even more so if it threatens their status and livelihood.
For instance, the head of the Johns Hopkins Blaustein Pain Clinic told me that my Interpersonal Neurobiology-based healing framework was working so well I should keep doing it. And, if I fall down, I should go into their treatment plan, which would undo everything I’ve been doing, put me in secure mental health facility for 3 weeks or more, take away the medicines that work for me, and put me on tricyclic antidepressants and antipsychotics.
In other words, the head of the Hopkins Pain Center would subject me to more of the harm the system already perpetrated against me, which is the reason that my entire body has been on fire for 4+ years.
The clinician was adamant that all my problems must have stemmed from one particular event. He could not accept that my life has been a series of horrible events perpetrated by men like him. He is wedded to the “brain chemical imbalance” theory of depression that psychiatry puts forth, which has been debunked. It’s never been true. It is a complete falsehood.
But psychiatry and psychiatrists can’t let go of the idea because it means they’d have to learn a whole new paradigm and they won’t be able to make as much money without selling the pills and endless cognitive talk therapy.
These “pain is in the brain” specialists often mention the nervous system, but they ignore the neurobiology.I just finished reading “Psychophysiologic Disorders, trauma-informed, interprofessional diagnosis and treatment,” by Clark, Schubiner, Clark-Smith, and Abbas. Each of the contributors has a similar perspective, that our thoughts and fears cause the chronic or recurrent pain. They are certain we just need to change how we think.
While this may be true for somebody who has a backache in an otherwise pretty decent life, it doesn’t apply to complex trauma. Even though it’s supposedly trauma-informed, it’s not really. Which is too-often the case.
One of the authors asserts that physical pain is our brain’s attempt to distract us from the emotional pain we don’t want to deal with. No, it’s a symptom of lack of appropriate support for resolution of the overwhelming experience and the emotions we cannot integrate without sufficient resources
Like I have said, I need compassionate witnessing from men in positions of power, particularly doctors, because they are the class that caused me the most egregious and deep harm of sexualized violence throughout my life, starting with my father, when I was a baby, and most recently the gynecologist who cut chunks of healthy tissue, including muscle, off my genitals because he likes the harm it causes.
None of these men has faced any consequences that I haven’t created with my watercolors, words, and wits, but the system tells me that other women wouldn’t have a problem with it so I am the problem. This is similar to the “your brain is tricking you into feeling pain” camp. It pathologizes my lived experience and tells me I’m the problem. It’s untrue, unscientific and harmful. And I will speak up.
#TraumaAwareAmerica
