This Start Page for Chronic Illness Trauma Studies gives you a way to explore my blog and the relationship between life experiences and risk for chronic illness.
Note that while some events that affect risk for chronic illness are clearly traumatic, most are not. Many of these other types of trauma are misunderstood and poorly recognized even as they evoke subtle perceptions of threat and change our nervous systems and genes. The process is not psychological. It’s because life experiences alter our genes.
I integrate the research about this topic and you can learn whether any of this helps makes sense of your own experience of chronic illness. If it does, there are therapies that work with the nervous system to heal the effects of overt and subtle trauma and perceptions of threat (see more below).
** Some of the links below may stay black but should all work if you hover over them.
The Three Best Introductory Posts
- My Personal Story describes the onset of my chronic fatigue (ME/CFS), how I found the research and how it makes sense of my chronic fatigue (ME/CFS) and other chronic diseases
- A Summary of the Science I’ve discovered in the past 15 years of investigative research
- The Discovery Series, Post 1. For anyone unsure about having experienced trauma or who wants to get a sense of the research, this series introduces my first discoveries from studies in type 1 diabetes and how it all began to shed light on my own history (I never thought I’d experienced trauma until then)
About Me & My Blog
About Me – My Story and How Understanding Trauma Made Sense of My ME/CFS
My Biography (Education & Professional Experience)
About My Blog (Home Page)
Introductory Posts
What Caused my Chronic Illness? The Discovery Series on Research I Never Knew as an MD
Video and Introduction to Chronic Illness, Trauma, & Why It’s Not Psychological
When You Have a Chronic Illness and a History of Trauma
When You Have a Chronic Illness and No History of Trauma
1.1 What if Chronic Illness is an Intelligent Process Gone Awry? Insights from Type 1 Diabetes
Types of Life Events that Affect Risk for Chronic Illness
Overview: 11 Characteristics of Trauma and Early Life that Affect Risk for Chronic Illness
Prenatal and birth experiences
1.1 Insights from Type 1 Diabetes
1.3 How Events in Pregnancy, Birth and Infancy Alter Genes (Epigenetics)
Childhood
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
Parent-child relationships (Invisible ACEs)
Onset Triggers
Why stressful events can trigger the onset of chronic illness
Health & Trauma Survey
Survey: Good Health Bad Health. Did Grandma’s Traumas or My Difficult Birth Make a Difference?
How Life Events Affect Risk – the Mechanisms
Mechanisms include Brain Plasticity and “Pruning”
Why Chronic Illness May be Reversible (and Introduction to Epigenetics)
Specific Chronic Diseases
Chronic Fatigue (ME/CFS) – this includes links to my ME/CFS story
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
Healing and Treating Chronic Illness
Therapies for Healing Trauma, The Nervous System, and/or Subtle Perceptions of Threat
10 Tools for Working with Chronic Illness
8 Steps for Healing through Impulse And Play
Treating Chronic Illness by Making Room for Pleasure
Treating Chronic Illness: 9 Sneaky Ways to Act Out
An Example of Trauma Therapy with a Dog Named Kane
Making Sense of Symptoms
Trauma Symptoms that are Common in Chronic Illness and How to Recognize Them (ebook 2)
Why Chronic Illness is Not Psychological Even if you Have a History of Trauma (ebook 3)
Free eBooks and Publications
All ebooks: The Chronic Illness Trauma Connection Series
Book 1: Can Trauma Cause Chronic Illness? An Overview
Book 2: Symptoms of Trauma that are Common in Chronic Illness and How to Recognize Them
Book 3: Why Chronic Illness is Not Psychological Even if you Have a History of Trauma
Other Useful Links
It’s Not “All in Your Head”: The Limits of Mind Body Medicine
Disclaimer, Glossary, FAQ and Site Map listing all Posts
Life Altering Perspectives in Disease Treatment
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