Emotional component to disease

Don......WOW! I could not have expressed or said it any better myself. You express yourself very well.

I too have met with many people who were sick who just didn't want to hear about how they can heal. And many times they find out I'm a Naturopath and will ask.
There was also a party I was at and a women was brought over to me with a serious case of Lupus. She asked me how I healed or what she can do. But even before I could answer her she said "Are you like all those other Naturopaths who told me I needed to eat better with no diary or wheat and start to exercise and work on my emotions, cause that is a crock of SHEET"
So my reply was "I am open to help you when you're ready to get well". She walked away. I also found out later, her husband was a huge cheater and she had kids who were troubled etc...her life was a mess, so it manifested in illness.

And to respond to Tone, yes it's true if one was infected with Lyme (with a dx right away) or any other curable bacteria, a quick dose of abx does cure the bacteria right away, but the belief is if one is susceptible to catching illness, then one must have had their immunity down. You can infect 10 people with a viral/bacterial infection, and not all will get it.
It's not really cut and dry in every case and like Don said, emotional body is not the only aspect to healing and contracting illness. It's only a part, but a part that is always overlooked by allopathic medicine.

As far as someone who cannot afford therapy to deal with this emotional component, in my personal and professional opinion, most trained psychologists are not even equipped or trained to deal with the emotional component to chronic illness.
One would need to seek out a Spiritual or wellness guide, which of course still costs money (I work with the emotional aspect with my clients and charge), but there are GREAT alternatives like the books I've mentioned, group settings one can find at let's say on Meetup.com, Al Anon, Coda groups (many people with deep emotional scars come from addictions or are codependency).

Healing is not cheap, as many of you know from hiring MD's, ND's, LLMD's and buying supplements etc, so having to seek out and pay for emotional healing and someone to guide you out, may have to be part of a persons MO to heal. But again, there are many good, no-cost alternatives.
I've personally done both....paid for therapies and done the groups. If one is to seek out therapy and willing or can pay, I would suggest not seeing a tradition therapist though. Use the money and research and seek out a good wellness or spiritual guide who also walked through the war. There is something to be said for experience.

I personally, would want and have seen therapists who have actually suffered illness so they could connect with me. It's all about the connection.
I had one therapist tell me "your making your PMS up " I was like "you're scary" and literally walked out of his office. How can a man even begin to understand what a woman goes through when having PMS?! They can't! And I suffered horrible PMS at the time (20 yrs ago)
It was not his fault. He was trained to shrink my head, but he could not even begin to understand how i felt when I had PMS.
The best therapy anyone can get is from someone who has walked the walk.
That is NOT say there are not some amazing therapists out there, but most, are not trained in any way to deal with the sort of healing we are talking about here.

And really, just finding someone or anyone who has been through chronic illness who you know has made strides in healing.......they can offer some sage and sound advice.... most of the time at no cost.

Happy this thread got back on track and is resonating with some

Hi Peacesoul,
Not sure if you will see this since the thread is now a couple months old but wanted to thank you for recommending Dr. Gabor Mate's work. After watching the video you posted I then read his book (When the Body Says No: exploring the stress disease connection) and really got a lot from the way he describes the mind-body connection; that biochemically our emotions can create some of the very same "chemicals" as our adrenals, hypothalamus, etc. I like that he describes a frame for understanding how our mind/emotions can influence our ability to heal without laying blame on people for causing their own illness. This echos the work I have been reading by Jack Shonkoff from the Harvard Center on the Developing Child that describes how stress patterns in very early childhood get laid down and "remembered by the body" even when we can no longer consciously remember them. Anyway, for those of us who have been in recovery for some time and getting stuck physically I like that this gives us another area to consider addressing to help us on our road to wellness. Thanks once again for sharing this. I just wanted to let you know that it helped me a lot. Am now on to reading Mary Pipher's Seeking Peace which is a good next read on the journey.

Hi All,
This thread has gotten way too long! Forgive me, but I must lock it so that no more posts are put on it. Please, please do start an 'Emotional component - part two' though!!