Guy MacPherson invited me to his Trauma Therapist Project for a chronic illness and trauma podcast. We talk about the science and some of my own story of how this became my passion. It was a joy and Guy's inviting style holds depth of curiosity and wisdom, with questions that get right to the heart ...
ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences)
Chrillog #2: Harper’s Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Story (ME/CFS)
This is Harper’s chronic fatigue syndrome story, also known as CFS, myalgic encephalomyelitis or "ME", ME/CFS, and CFIDS (chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome). I call her story a #Chrillog, which stands for “chronic illness weblogs,” in which we look at our journeys through a nervous ...
Chrillog #1: Marit’s Asthma & Parkinson’s Story
This is Marit's Parkinson's Story and Asthma Story. I call her story a #Chrillog, which stands for "chronic illness weblogs," in which we look at our journeys through a nervous system and trauma lens. Introduction My name is Marit, I am 58 years old and I live in Norway. I worked as a nurse ...
Chronic Illness Books for Healing Trauma (That Will Help Your Symptoms) + Free Resources List
The chronic illness books listed here support recovery through stories and by highlighting the new science. The research is discovering that risk for diseases of all kinds is affected by adverse life experiences and other sources of threat and overwhelm. Because these change our body's natural ...
Type 2 Diabetes and Trauma: 8 Categories of Adversity Increase Risk (+Tips, Fact Sheet and Why It’s Not Your Fault)
Get the Free Fact Sheet & Post The forms will appear momentarily Chapters Preface A New Model The New Model: Weight is Not the Cause There is a profound and deeply shaming stigma assigned to larger bodies or having type 2 diabetes (T2D) in our culture. T2D is ...
Planting Seeds for Healing 8 Categories of Adversity (and Chronic Illness)
There are empowering, encouraging things about understanding the role of adversity and trauma as risk factors for chronic illness. Among the most important are that it provides opportunities. Opportunities for making sense of symptoms. Opportunities for removing blame. And opportunities for planting ...
IIA. ME/CFS and The Cell Danger Response: How Adversity Triggers the Freeze Response and How the CDR Gets Stuck (Includes Surveys)
I've described how chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a disease driven by a cell danger response (CDR) and a nervous system caught in a threat response of freeze and some of us with an underlying fight/flight response (wired and tired) in Part 1. This second post describes how the CDR gets stuck ...
IIB. ME/CFS Surveys (The Cell Danger Response and Hibernation Series)
This post contains a group of chronic fatigue syndrome questionnaires (ME/CFS surveys) and serves as a short companion to other, more detailed blog posts. Post I introduces Dr. Robert Naviaux' research on the cell danger response (CDR) and how ME/CFS represents a metabolic state of freeze. Post IIA ...
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Chronic Illness (Calculate Your ACE Score & See Graphs)
If you have a chronic illness, research showing links between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and chronic illness may help begin to make sense of your symptoms. They explain why it's not your fault. And why it's not in your head. In this post you will be able to calculate your ACE ...