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Chronic Illness Trauma Studies

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

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Update 2023

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Update 2023 – Taking a Break

I took a break from blogging in 2022 and am continuing into 2023. This is a next step in my healing journey and I am not planning any blog posts at this time. This feels like a really good thing. Here’s why.

I continue to gradually improve a little every year from disabling fatigue I’ve experienced for a few decades, which I view as stemming from relative states of freeze. As part of my healing journey, I suspect I have now entered a phase of “thawing” and it feels like my system is shifting into states with more aliveness. This is a good direction (Yay!). It has also been intense.

As an example, I have started feeling more difficult emotions. My sense is that these are feelings from childhood that were too big for me to process at the time and which contributed to some of the shut-down that is linked to my freeze. Clamping down on overwhelming experiences is part of our nervous system’s way of surviving. These feelings are now emerging so I can begin to integrate them.

As a result, I am feeling a lot these days (grief, anger, rage, fear). Outwardly, I am doing less – no blogging, fewer interviews, no summits, less teaching etc.

Inwardly, I am “working full-time.”

Inwardly, I am practicing wu wei-ing: “Doing without Doing,” “Going Within” and doing my best to hold (and keep coming back to) curiosity to be with the feelings. And to see what life wants from me next. It’s been pretty hard work (!) as many of you who are doing similar work know first hand.

I am making space and spending time with resources (such as baking :-) and in 2022, moving to a new home and transforming our space by painting and more. This is helping and I am gradually coming into more of a sense of connection – to myself and with David. It also continues to be a remarkably intense time (learn more about this perspective with these 11 Tools and this blog post).

I still have a strong passion for the trauma and chronic illness connection. I trust this period will give me clarity about next steps. I will send you a blog post once I know more.

Here’s to finding our path in all kinds of interesting and often unexpected ways :-).  Thank you for being a part of this community. It’s an honor to share this journey with you!

Veronique

xoxo

updated December 16, 2022

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My Bio and Events page has changed and you can now find it here.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Zahra says

    October 27, 2020 at 8:18 pm

    Pls help me about MS
    Im a psychologist in iran

    Reply
    • Veronique Mead, MD, MA says

      October 28, 2020 at 11:59 am

      Hi Zahra,
      It’s nice to meet you.
      My first free ebook uses MS as one of the examples, citing some of the research about trauma and how the role of trauma has been dismissed. Would that be helpful? I also have a blog post about the 11 tools I have found most helpful on my journey, including trauma therapies.
      Warmly,
      Veronique

      Reply

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I love hearing from you. I read and review every comment before publishing it to make it visible to everyone. Your stories and insights make the writing and running of my blog so worthwhile. Although your email is required, it is not made public. You can use any name you wish. How do you work with your health? What has helped as you've become an expert in your own right? Does understanding the science of trauma make your journey any easier? Is there anything you need or wish I wrote about more?

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About Me

Hello! I'm Veronique Mead. On my blog I look at how chronic illness may be a natural response to one or more overwhelming experiences of threat. While this includes infections and toxins, I specialize in the role of psychological and physical trauma. Because the research - still overlooked and underestimated by medicine - has knocked my socks off.

 

Symptoms, it is turning out, may not be caused by mistakes our bodies are making but because our nervous systems have gotten stuck in states of fight, flight or freeze. Our bodies are our best friends and risk everything to help us survive. We are designed to recover or at least begin to heal from the effects of those survival strategies. I never knew any of this as a family physician or assistant professor. And it’s not in your head.

 

I've been testing these ideas with my own disabling disease for the past 20 years (I am much improved and get a little better every year). I share the research, challenges, why some things that seem so logical do not work for everyone (or make things worse), as well as my favorite 11 tools. This is so you can explore what might help you stabilize, improve or possibly even begin to reverse underlying drivers of your chronic illness too. For an overview with links to my most important posts, start here.

Awarded Top 100 Chronic Illness Blogs

#WEGO Patient Leader 2019 Finalist

#WEGOHealthAwards 2019 Patient Leader Finalist for Best in Show Blog Chronic Illness Trauma Studies Veronique Mead MD, MA

I and we - it feels so much like a WE - were among 6000 nominees for 15 categories of patient leader awards and one of 5 finalists for Best in Show Blog at the #WEGOHealthAwards. Learn more here.

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