Your Brain Can Keep You Sick: How to Break Free | Dr. Howard Schubiner, MD

Summary

Dr. Howard Schubiner describes how the brain can produce genuine symptoms—including pain, fatigue, anxiety, depression, dizziness, and insomnia—when it interprets a situation as dangerous. Symptoms may begin after an illness, injury, or stressful event, then persist through learned associations and fear. Worrying about symptoms and avoiding activities can reinforce the brain’s danger response.

Schubiner emphasizes that symptoms are real, not imagined. He also stresses that people should receive appropriate medical evaluation to check for conditions that need treatment. A brain-based explanation should not be used to dismiss symptoms or assume a diagnosis.

Key Strategies and Techniques

• Understand the proposed brain–body cycle: Learn how stress, fear, and attention to symptoms may contribute to symptoms and keep them going.
• Respond with safety rather than alarm: When symptoms appear, remind yourself that a symptom does not automatically mean you are in danger or damaged.
• Reduce fear and symptom monitoring: Try not to let symptoms become the sole focus of daily life. Schubiner describes this as reducing fear and focus, not pretending symptoms are absent.
• Use gradual, compassionate exposure: Reintroduce feared activities in small steps, such as standing or walking, at a manageable pace. The aim is to build a sense of safety—not to force yourself through intense fear or distress.
• Make room for enjoyable activities: Start with what you can do, even if it is small. In one example from the interview, a bedbound woman began moving her hands to music and gradually expanded her movement.
• Practice self-compassion and accept imperfection: Notice harsh self-criticism, perfectionism, and pressure to meet everyone else’s needs. Treating yourself with care and recognizing your own needs may help foster a sense of safety.
• Explore and express emotions: Schubiner discusses Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy as a way to acknowledge emotions such as anger, grief, sadness, or guilt in a safe, constructive setting rather than suppressing them.
• Build connection, meaning, and joy in the present: Instead of waiting for recovery to begin living, look for small sources of pleasure, purpose, and connection now. He frames this as shifting attention toward what can be done in the present.
• Be patient with doubts and setbacks: Schubiner says doubt does not mean recovery is impossible. Progress may be gradual, and the approach is not easy, even if its principles sound simple.
• Reassess if progress stalls: Review whether medical issues have been adequately assessed, what fears or doubts remain, whether emotional concerns need attention, how you treat yourself, and whether recovery efforts have become another source of pressure. Schubiner also suggests focusing on purpose and daily life rather than doing every activity solely to get better.

Presenters and Other Sources Mentioned

• Presenters: Raelan Agle and Dr. Howard Schubiner
• Other people and works referenced: Dr. John Sarno; Alan Gordon; Dr. Alan Abbass; Tom Rosshirt, Chasing Peace; Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning; Joni Mitchell; James Taylor
• Books by Dr. Schubiner: Unlearn Your Pain; Unlearn Your Anxiety and Depression; Hidden from View (with Alan Abbass)