Chronic Illness Trauma Studies
How Adversity Shapes Health & Why It's Not In Your Head
I recently had the impulse to use play as a way to invite more support for healing complex PTSD and attachment trauma that are getting stimulated as I take over my mother's financial and personal life because she is losing self-agency due to dementia. Painting is a big resource for me that I rarely ...
I've had a number of chronic illness flares since my father died a few years ago. These symptoms have increased significantly since I have begun offering more support to my mother, who is 91 now and still living independently in their house. Her story is not mine to tell, however, so today I share ...
I got a big splinter in my index finger recently when I was lightly sanding door trim in preparation to prime it. It hurt and I cursed, which is a very satisfying bit of fight response that arises spontaneously now, and that I don't suppress when I'm in my own setting such as at home with no ...
Hello Everyone! This is my first blog post since taking a break in 2022. During the past 2 years I've moved, experienced the death of a parent, and felt intensely emotionally weary from all the effort, time, self-care and other hard work involved in the healing journey. I've been almost completely ...
On my return from time with my parents for my annual summer visit in the early 2000s I finally connected the dots to realize that my unquenchable thirst and dry mouth were not solely from living at 5000 feet in the arid climate near the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Eating desserts and vinegary ...
Understanding the connections between trauma and ME/CFS (myalgic encephalitis/chronic fatigue syndrome) has helped me begin to heal and change the direction of my life in the best possible ways. I never realized that I'd experienced adversity until I left medical practice, retrained as a trauma ...
One of my favorite experiences so far this Christmas season was feeling loved for who I am. All because of my soft spot for (yet another) Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. Well, that and my latest thing for flying pigs. A Charlie Brown Christmas Tree Story The day I put up the first Christmas ...
Last summer I focused some more on healing IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and long-standing severe constipation from a trauma perspective. This is an update to the process of following my impulses and using art as an approach to listening, which I first wrote about in October. I'll tell you about ...
In today's installment of my journey with chronic fatigue I want to tell you what I've been learning about the art of listening. Because it turns out to be a much more complicated task than we realize. And because, in unexpected and potent ways, it's what has enabled me to find a pathway to healing. ...
