Summary: During and after trauma you may have experienced such enormous pain that it became impossible to speak about it. Even today you may have trouble finding words to communicate your experience in the past. I had that problem, too. In fact, in my book BEFORE THE WORLD INTRUDED there’s a whole chapter entitled, ‘No Words’. This week I chatted with Dr. David Biro about how to break through the silent wall of suffering— both physical and psychological. A doctor who has also been a patient (he’s a cancer survivor) Dr. Biro explained how language can actually alleviate the loneliness of pain, plus how you can begin that journey. In addition we covered: What causes pain to become a barrier How isolation increases pain The importance of expressing pain 3 top tips for how you can better express pain MEET MY GUEST: David Biro has a medical degree from Columbia University and a doctorate in English Literature from Oxford University. He is an Associate Clinical Professor of Dermatology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. He also teaches in the medical humanities division there, directing a course on medicine and literature. Dr. Biro’s first book, One Hundred Days: My Unexpected Journey from Doctor to Patient (Pantheon, January 2000), chronicles his experience undergoing a bone marrow transplant for a rare blood disorder. Last year, his second book was released, The Language of Pain: Finding Words,Compassion, and Relief (W.W. Norton, 2010). His articles and essays have been published in various medical journals as well as The New York Times Magazine, The London Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Slate. He currently blogs on pain for Psychology Today. His latest project is a novel.
