Episode 48 The Hidden Cost of Trauma: How It Fuels Chronic Pain, Autoimmune Disorders & Exhaustion

In this latest episode, Dr. Nat Green dives deep into the powerful connection between trauma and invisible health conditions like chronic pain, autoimmune disorders, and exhaustion. Discover the science behind the body’s trauma response, and why traditional healing methods often fall short, and, most importantly, what you can do to break free and move toward post-traumatic growth (PTG)

✨ Key Highlights & Takeaways

Understanding the Trauma-Body Connection
Trauma doesn't just affect the mind; it can deeply impact the body. Neuroscience and Polyvagal Theory provide the scientific basis for why our bodies hold onto pain long after traumatic events. Your body remembers trauma, and shows up in conditions like fibromyalgia, autoimmune disorders, and chronic fatigue syndrome.

The Hidden Link Between Trauma and Chronic Conditions
Trauma, especially childhood trauma, can increase inflammatory markers and disrupt and wreak havoc on the immune system, leaving lasting effects on physical health. Chronic illness may have deep roots in past trauma, requiring healing that involves the emotional and nervous system imbalances, not just the physical symptoms.

Why Traditional Medicine Misses the Mark
Many people suffering from chronic conditions are dismissed by doctors who only focus on treating physical symptoms. The frustrating reality is trauma’s impact on the nervous system is often overlooked. Traditional healing approaches often don’t get to the root cause, which is why symptom relief isn’t always enough.we must look at the trauma-body connection.

Holistic Approaches to Healing: Moving from Trauma to Post-Traumatic Growth

There are  practical, science-backed solutions to help you release trauma and          promote healing. Techniques like TRE (Tension and Trauma Releasing                          Exercises), breathwork, and yoga can help activate the vagus nerve, release tension, and start rewiring your nervous system for healing. Self-care practices like journaling, EMDR, and expressive writing can play a powerful role in addressing the mind-body connection, allowing release of past trauma and move toward growth.

Rebuilding Trust in Your Body
Trauma often leaves us feeling unsafe in our own bodies. Rebuilding trust is key to moving forward using grounding techniques, and micro-moments of              joy to reconnect with your body and promote safety. Creating small, loving moments of safety in your daily life can support long-term healing.

Post-Traumatic Growth: Thriving Beyond Survival
PTG is more than just surviving trauma—it’s about transforming it and using it as a source of strength. Dr. Nat encourages listeners to embrace the lessons learned from trauma and step into their fullest potential. Ask not “Why did this happen to me?” but rather, “What can I learn from this?” PTG is about growing, healing, and thriving.

If this episode resonates with you then I'd love for you to hit SUBSCRIBE so you can keep updated with each new episode as soon as it's released and we'd be most grateful if you would give us a RATING as well. You can also find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/drnatgreen/ or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DrNatalieGreen

Intro and Outro music: Inspired Ambient by Playsound.

Disclaimer: This podcast is intended for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be deemed or treated as psychological treatment or to replace the need for psychological treatment.

Transcript

Dr Nat Green: 0:01

Welcome to the Growing Tall Poppies Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Nat Green, and I'm so excited to have you join me as we discuss what it means to navigate your way through post traumatic growth and not just survive, thrive after trauma. Through our podcast, we will explore ways for you to create a life filled with greater purpose, self awareness, a deep inner peace through integrating the many years of knowledge and professional experience, as well as the wisdom of those who have experienced trauma firsthand. We will combine psychology, accelerated approaches, coaching and personal experience to assist you to learn, to grow and to thrive. I hope to empower you to create deeper awareness. and understanding and stronger connections with yourself and with others, whilst also paving the way for those who have experienced trauma and adversity to reduce their suffering and become the very best versions of themselves in order to thrive. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode. Hi everyone. Welcome back to Growing Tall Poppies. I'm Dr Nat Green and today we're diving deep into something that affects so many of us. It is rarely talked about in its full depth and that is the link between trauma and invisible conditions. Conditions such as chronic pain, autoimmune disorders and exhaustion. If you've ever wondered why your body seems to hold on to pain long after the traumatic event has passed, then this episode is for you. We're going to explore the science behind this connection, how unresolved trauma gets stored in the body, and most importantly, what you can do to break free and move towards post traumatic growth. So grab a cup of tea or coffee, get comfy and let's dive in. So let's start with the big question. Why does trauma show up in the body? When we go through trauma, our nervous system shifts into survival mode. That's that fight, flight, freeze or fawn response that you will have heard about. It's talked about quite often and quite openly, and we often don't understand what that means. If we don't process the trauma or the adversity that we've experienced properly, Then the body stays stuck in this hyper vigilant or shut down state, therefore keeping stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline running on a loop, therefore keeping stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline running on a loop, constant loop going over and over. And over time, this can wreak havoc. on our immune systems, the nervous system, and even how our cells function. And there's solid science research behind this. Research in neuroscience shows that trauma alters the brain, particularly the amygdala, which is responsible for detecting threats, the prefrontal cortex, which regulates the responses, and the hippocampus, which processes the memories. And these changes make the body more sensitive to stress and pain. Many of you will have heard of the polyvagal theory. This was developed by Dr. Stephen Porges and explains how trauma impacts the vagus nerve, which is the nerve that controls our ability to relax, digest and to heal. And when the vagus nerve is stuck in threat mode, then chronic inflammation and illness often follow. And studies have linked childhood trauma and PTSD to autoimmune conditions, such as fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and chronic fatigue syndrome. Research shows that trauma can increase inflammatory markers in the body, therefore leading to long term health issues. So in short, what does that mean? Your pain is real, and it has a root cause beyond just physical symptoms. Bottom line, you are not making it up and you're not alone. But here's where it gets frustrating. We know that traditional healing approaches often fall short. Many people are suffering from chronic conditions and I know that you know all too well, often dismissed by doctors who only focus on physical symptoms. Have you had that experience? So here's where it gets frustrating. Many people, and I'm sure a lot of you listeners, will relate to this. I certainly can from my own experience that many people suffering from chronic conditions are often dismissed by doctors. How many times have you been told that they can't find any real cause? Here's where it gets really frustrating. Many people experiencing chronic conditions and suffering. Autoimmune issues are dismissed by doctors, often multiple times, and they only focus on the physical symptoms. How many of you, listening now, are sitting here thinking, yep, that was me. How many times have you been to the doctors and they've not been able to find something and you've left there feeling, though, they think it's in your head. But you know it's not. What we know is that often we will be dismissed by doctors without looking at the deeper nervous system dysregulation that's fueling the problem. So what happens when we ignore that trauma link? We chase symptom relief rather than addressing the root cause. We would be prescribed medications. Some of which might help short term, but they don't address the underlying root cause and therefore don't truly heal. And I know this is one many of you will relate to, that we feel gaslighted, or we feel gaslit by a medical system that often doesn't acknowledge the trauma body connection. The good news, though, is that there is another way. How do we move from trauma to healing and post traumatic growth? Knowing this stuff. How do we start that healing? Not just the symptoms, but the root cause. You might have heard of a guy called Gabor Marte, who also, more recently, has been speaking about how autoimmune conditions tend to show up more commonly in women. In fact, 80 percent of them happen to women. And he's been highlighting that this is due to a number of reasons, including this pattern of self sacrificing. How many of you can relate to putting others needs ahead of their own? I know that I was really stuck and entrenched in this pattern of self sacrificing, constantly putting other people's needs ahead of mine. And this was resulting in some built up resentment, often unknowingly, but also definitely leading to chronic health conditions for me. Many of you will have this sense of duty and role responsibility rather than actually tuning into the needs of yourself. Many women in particular like to be very nice to everyone. Don't like to be disliked. Don't like to upset people. And this often serves to then repress your anger and your negative emotions that are healthy to experience. So they get repressed and never dealt with. He then says that they often feel responsible for other people's feelings. They have this belief. We must never disappoint. We must never disappoint anyone and that we must never say no. However, all of these things, the self sacrificing, the repressing of emotions and the people pleasing are all working to create chronic stress, which we now know undermines our nervous system. So here are some science backed and holistic ways to regulate our nervous systems and therefore move us forward and into post traumatic growth. Firstly, We can start with somatic practices like releasing trauma from our body. This can be through things like you know that I talk about often, TRE, tension and trauma releasing exercises that are so helpful. They work to help us shake off stored tension and release it through a tremoring response, which is the body's natural way to process trauma and stress. You can engage in breathwork techniques. We can engage in breathwork techniques like diaphragmatic breathing, activating the vagus nerve and calming the system. Things such as yoga and Qigong, combining movement. With nervous system regulation, helping the body to rewire old patterns. Number two, we can really address the mind body connection. Practices such as EMDR, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Practices like EMDR, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, which is known to be highly effective in processing trauma responses, and things like brain spotting, and things like brain spotting can reprocess traumatic memories at a neurological level. Journaling and expressive writing also allowed the brain to make sense of trauma, moving it out of our subconscious and into a healing space. Number three is around rebuilding safety and trust in your, in your body. Is around rebuilding safety and trust in your body. Trauma teaches us that our bodies aren't safe. Therefore, rebuilding trust. is key. Gentle, loving, self touch, grounding techniques and body scanning can all help to feel present and connected again. Small micro moments of joy, such as listening to a song, stepping into the sun, watching a sunset or a sunrise, patting a dog. Also, all of these things help rewire the brain for safety and healing. They keep us grounded and our bodies and nervous systems feeling safe. Number four is around embracing post traumatic growth. Post traumatic growth isn't just about surviving. It's actually around thriving. It's about giving ourselves permission to live the life we choose. The one we really want because we deserve. to live a thriving life. Instead of asking, why did this happen to me? Ask yourself, what can I learn from this? We can also recognise how trauma has reshaped. We can also recognise how trauma has shaped our resilience, our wisdom and our strength, even if it still feels messy right now. The good news is that we will be looking to launch our next round of the Phoenix coaching program. In April, and we will address all these root cause issues and come from a whole of person approach in this program, we'll look to be, we'll be look to, we'll be looking to address three main areas, identity, who you are as a result of your trauma, and what values are most important to you now, as a result of what you've been through, we'll be looking at emotional release, where we get right to the root cause of our unhelpful and unhealthy emotions and release them so that we are no longer tethered to our past trauma and we are free to create the life that we choose. So we can move towards thriving and then we'll be finalizing, then we'll be rounding it up with nervous system regulation. So we can start to release the trauma that has remained stuck in our nervous system and rewire our brain and nervous systems and accelerate our journey into post traumatic growth. So the main takeaway today is I want you to know that healing from trauma related chronic panic. Invisible health conditions is possible, sure, it takes time, but every step that you take toward understanding your body, regulating your nervous system and embracing growth is a step towards freedom. If this episode resonated with you, I'd love to hear your thoughts. DM me on Instagram, Facebook, or via email. Links will be in the show notes. And I'd love for you to share this episode with someone who needs to hear it. And let's keep this conversation going. If you're ready to dive deeper into this work, stay tuned. As I've said, I have something really exciting coming soon. Until next time, thanks for listening. Thanks for tuning in. Keep growing, keep healing, and remember, you are so much more than your trauma. Bye for now. Thank you for joining me in this episode of Growing Tall Poppies. It is my deepest hope that today's episode may have inspired and empowered you to step fully into your post traumatic growth so that you can have absolute clarity around who you are, what matters the most to you, and to assist you to release your negative emotions and regulate your nervous system. So you can fully thrive. New episodes are published every Tuesday And I hope you'll continue to join us as we explore both the strategies and the personal qualities required to fully live a life of post traumatic growth and to thrive. So if it feels aligned to you and really resonates, then I invite you to hit subscribe and it would mean the world to us if you could share this episode with others who you feel may benefit, too. You may also find me on Instagram at growing tall poppies and Facebook, Dr. Natalie Green. Remember, every moment is an opportunity to look for the lessons and to learn and increase your ability to live the life you desire and deserve. So for now, stay connected, stay inspired, stand tall like the tall poppy you are. and keep shining your light brightly in the world. Bye for now.