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How Adversity Shapes Health & Why It's Not In Your Head

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Triggers

Podcast Guy MacPherson The Trauma Therapist Project

Chronic Illness and Trauma Podcast with Guy MacPherson (The Trauma Therapist Project)

Veronique Mead, MD, MA · January 21, 2022 · 4 Comments

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 ...

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ACREs and My ME/CFS Story Shame Chronic Illness and Triggers Mead_CITS

ACREs III: Chronic Illness Flares, Triggers and Shame (My ME/CFS Story)

Veronique Mead, MD, MA · March 5, 2021 · 26 Comments

I don't really "want" to write about shame and other difficult emotions because it means having to feel into these feelings. And as many of you know, shame, in particular, can feel annihilating. But the origins of shame are sneaky and we tend to think it's because something is wrong with US. The ...

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16 Clues About Trauma,Triggers & Flares in Chronic Illness

Veronique Mead, MD, MA · March 1, 2019 · 17 Comments

Past trauma triggers flares in all kinds of chronic diseases as can infections, mold, and other exposures. This understanding builds on the cell danger response (CDR) and other science I share on this blog. It enables you to see how you can begin to change your health. Included below are 16 ...

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MECFS How the Cell Danger Response Gets Stuck in Freeze to Cause ME/CFS chronic fatigue syndrome #CFS #CDR Mead_CITS

IIA. ME/CFS and The Cell Danger Response: How Adversity Triggers the Freeze Response and How the CDR Gets Stuck (Includes Surveys)

Veronique Mead, MD, MA · February 15, 2019 · 2 Comments

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 ...

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Chronic fatigue syndrome me / cfs is a state of freeze hibernation Mead_CITS

I. ME/CFS and Freeze: A Metabolic State of Hibernation That is Not in Your Head (The Cell Danger Response and Polyvagal Theory)

Veronique Mead, MD, MA · September 14, 2018 · 24 Comments

This post, also a guest post on Cort Johnson's Health Rising blog about chronic fatigue syndrome (aka ME/CFS), introduces the relationship between ME/CFS and freeze states. These occur in the nervous system, in our cells and in all kinds of tissues in the body (updated October 2020). The science ...

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Chronic Illness and Trauma FAQ: Top Reader Questions About Treatment Healing and More Mead CITS #autoimmune #ME/CFS asthma #IBD #RA #PTSD #fibromyalgia #depression #anxiety #mentalillness #obesity #addictions #cure #treatment

Chronic Illness and Trauma FAQ

Veronique Mead, MD, MA · July 24, 2018 · 4 Comments

This chronic illness and trauma FAQ addresses the most common questions I get asked. The answers explain where to find therapists to work with chronic illness from a cell danger response / nervous system / trauma perspective, where to learn more about the science, how to find my free ebooks, ...

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Can Trauma Trigger Flare-Ups in Chronic Illness? (Clues that Help Understand and Nip Flares in the Bud)

Veronique Mead, MD, MA · October 23, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Chances are you go through periods when your symptoms increase or decrease. And there are times when you get overwhelmed by flare-ups and symptoms that seem to come out of the blue. Flare-ups - which are also often referred to as exacerbations, "episodes," increases, relapses or aggravations - ...

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Kane is a sweet, gentle great dane with a trauma history who recovers in a session with Cesar Milan

Trauma Therapy for Chronic Illness: Video Example of Working With Fight, Flight, Freeze (Dog Whisperer Cesar Milan and “Kane”)

Veronique Mead, MD, MA · January 23, 2015 · 6 Comments

A gentle, spacious, insightful example of how helpful and straightforward trauma therapy for chronic illness can be and feel. Providing an overview of the what is done and why, the importance of going at a person's pace, and how it's about following the intelligence of the body. Using an example of ...

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The Trauma and Chronic Illness Model: Summary of the Science: #stress before onset, #triggers, multigenerational trauma, trauma in childhood; insights for treating chronic disease

Trauma and Chronic Illness: 19 Characteristics that Can Make Sense of Symptoms (Summary of the Science)

Veronique Mead, MD, MA · June 16, 2014 · 14 Comments

There are a lot of unanswered questions about chronic illness. Why do so many of us develop our diseases after periods of stress, for example? Why are we then unable to recover by addressing, removing or reducing the stress in our lives? Why do some people with type 1 diabetes, or chronic ...

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