Can I Safely Feel Emotions I Buried? Dr. Howard Schubiner

Can I Safely Feel Emotions I Buried? Dr. Howard Schubiner

Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This conversation between Dr. Aimie and internist and clinical professor Dr. Howard Schubiner looks at how long-buried emotions can show up as very real pain, fatigue and other symptoms, and what gentle steps people can take toward relief. The episode focuses on “neuroplastic conditions” – symptoms the brain has learned and, as Dr.

Schubiner puts it, “by definition can be unlearned.” He stresses that these symptoms are brain-generated, real, and “reversible because their brain has learned to create this pain or this anxiety or this fatigue,” which can be good news for anyone living with chronic pain, chronic fatigue, long Covid, or similar issues woven in with trauma. You’ll hear them talk through fear, anger, guilt, sadness and grief, and how these emotions often get locked away for decades.

Instead of treating the nervous system as broken, they frame it as “simply responding to the data and information that it has available to it” – meaning that changing the emotional data can gradually shift the body’s signals from danger towards safety. For people scared of being overwhelmed by feelings, Dr. Schubiner shares how he starts “with love,” creating a space of safety and compassion so emotions can be approached rather than avoided.

He gives simple tools like placing a compassionate hand on a painful area, using curiosity (“hello. I see you. I hear you.

What do you have to tell me?”), and practicing calm responses to symptoms so the brain gets new feedback: “actually, I’m okay.” One of the most striking stories is of a woman bedridden with severe full-body pain who began her recovery by “finger dancing” – starting with one finger and slowly expanding movement over two years until she was fully recovered.

If you’ve ever wondered whether feeling what you buried could be safe, this episode might help you ask different questions of your pain and offer a kinder way back to your body. What small, compassionate signal could you send your nervous system today?