The Raelan Agle Podcast 94: Your Brain Can Keep You Sick: How to Break Free | Dr. Howard Schubiner, MD
Feb 27, 2025
Dr. Howard Schubiner is a physician specializing in mind-body medicine and chronic pain recovery. He reveals how the brain perpetuates chronic symptoms like ME/CFS and Long Covid, emphasizing the role of fear and learned responses. Discussing predictive processing, he explains why patients can feel awful despite normal tests. Howard highlights the impact of personality traits and the importance of self-compassion in recovery. He offers practical steps to retrain the brain, encouraging listeners to embrace joy and stay present in their healing journey.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Use Graded Exposure To Retrain Triggers
- Identify and gently expose yourself to conditioned triggers (walking, standing, foods).
- Use graded exposure to retrain the brain's learned responses.
Personality Patterns Prime Danger Signals
- Certain personality patterns (perfectionism, people-pleasing) prime the brain to sense danger.
- Those adaptive traits can make the brain more likely to create persistent symptoms.
Build Safety With Compassion
- Cultivate compassion and safety for yourself to reduce the brain's threat response.
- Practice activities that create safety, connection, and small joyful exposures.
