A woman who had been stuck for 10 years asked her partner, “Would you like a hamburger or pizza for dinner?” and he said, “Either one is fine!” She is annoyed when she is told, “I don’t care either way!
She gets angry at the unfairness of it, Why do I always have to make the decision for you? The partner who says, “I don’t care either way!” is not an enemy, but she attacks him as an enemy.
But there is a sense of loneliness in the woman that “my partner doesn’t understand my desire to eat sushi” hiding behind her anger, and that “no one understands my feelings.” And the source of that loneliness is anger at herself, ” I am a useless person who is not understood and loved by anyone,” so she is angry at her partner and attacks herself for being unlovable and useless.
Then, in the body, the autoimmunity considers normal cells as “enemies” and attacks them, resulting in various physical symptoms. Autoimmunity attacks normal cells and inflammation occurs in the body. When inflammation occurs and peripheral immune cells become activated, cognitive function is impaired, so you can’t do what you need to do, and you do more and more unpleasant things. So the depression gets worse, and as you blame yourself more and more, the autoimmunity attacks the normal cells, and so the cycle goes on.
Of course, this is a narrative.
Narrative is a way to move from thinking, “Why did I marry such a bad person? My life is in total darkness.” Narrative changes the thought to “I blame my partner and myself because my autoimmunity is attacking the normal cells.”
When you realize that when you get irritated with your partner, “I get irritated because my autoimmunity is attacking my normal cells,” the autoimmunity in your body stops attacking your normal cells. Because, you realize “I am blaming my partner again! I regret my past choices!” and you will stop blaming yourself (of course, this is also a narrative).
The average person may think, “How can such a childish trick make my physical symptoms better?
But, if you actually think, “Huh? I might be able to get rid of the symptoms that had not improved even though I had been treated by doctors for many years!
That’s what makes narratives so interesting.