Thinking Beyond Science

Trauma sneaks in quietly, eroding the body, mind, and spirit over time. Detecting it isn’t always straightforward—cultural norms often teach us to brush off our experiences, and trauma hides in both obvious and subtle forms. Think of persistent trauma as an unresolved stress response, where your body gets trapped replaying the original threat.

In medical training, I learned how stress triggers adrenaline and cortisol release. Normally, you mobilize—fight or flight—to handle it. But when stuck in freeze, fright, fawn, or faint, the stressor loops endlessly, as if it’s happening now. Experts like Gabor Maté call this a chronic freeze state: a constriction blocking your authentic self in the present.

This stuck state cascades into trouble—psychological overwhelm, immune glitches, neurological issues, and hormonal chaos from excess hormones. Immune problems stand out, potentially sparking autoimmune conditions where your body attacks its own tissues.

Not everyone with trauma develops dysregulation, and not all autoimmune cases trace back to it—but most do. Autoimmunity roots over 100 chronic illnesses, hitting women harder.

Big T vs. Little t Trauma
“Big T” trauma packs a punch everyone recognizes: car crashes, war, rape, or sudden loss, like my friend grieving her mother’s heart attack without goodbye. “Little t” trauma feels personal and variable: breakups, emotional neglect, or pet loss.

Focus on impact, not the event—our capacities differ.

How Autoimmunity Takes Hold
Take rheumatoid arthritis: an autoimmune inflammatory disorder where immunity assaults joints and organs, causing painful swelling, bone erosion, and deformities. Chronic inflammation hits wherever—thyroid, hands, gut—depending on the condition.

Blood tests spot autoantibodies attacking your own tissues, confirming autoimmunity (e.g., anti-thyroid antibodies in Hashimoto’s or anti-GAD in type 1 diabetes). Yet tracking these lags behind infections or cancer. Doctors often miss early signs, leaving conventional medicine stumbling on vague symptoms without clear paths.

Your immune system guards against invaders like viruses or bacteria via antibodies—precision soldiers sparing your cells. Autoimmunity flips this: a “mistaken identity” where it attacks self.

The Trigger Triad
Autoimmunity brews from heredity, leaky gut (increased intestinal permeability), and a trigger—like trauma, toxic stress, infections, bad diets, or hormonal shifts (pregnancy, perimenopause). These collide, dysregulating immunity.

Rates are surging—up to 50 million Americans affected—blamed on rising triggers: stress, inflammatory diets, inactivity, sleep loss, toxins, trauma. Symptoms mystify: joint pain, skin woes, swollen glands, gut chaos, often lurking 7-14 years pre-diagnosis.

Expanding the definition? Conditions like heart disease, migraines, IBS, chronic Lyme, breast implant illness, and endometriosis may qualify as immunity gone awry.

Post-COVID syndrome fits too—severe inflammation in lungs, liver, kidneys, brain—now eyed as autoimmune or infection-triggered. The full story’s unfolding.

Early detection matters. Physicians could do better intervening sooner, but awareness of trauma’s role empowers us.

Source : The Autoimmune Cure: Healing the Trauma and Other Triggers That Have Turned Your Body Against You by Sara Gottfried

Goodreads : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/176822926-the-autoimmune-cure