Most trauma has a place you can avoid. Medical trauma lives inside your body, so there is nowhere to go.

Dr. Aimie sits down with Dr. James Jackson for the second half of their conversation on medical trauma. What will surprise you is how much recovery is available while the symptoms are still present.

This is Part 2 of a two part conversation. Part 1 is here.

➡ Full show notes + resources: https://bit.ly/BOT190

Dr. Jackson works with people recovering after critical illness, and he is direct about something most clinicians avoid saying. Patients have been taught that recovery means every symptom is erased. That standard fails most bodies. He offers a different measure, along with the markers that actually move.

Dr. Aimie also shares why she left general surgery residency after four years, and the one question she started asking her patients that changed everything about how she practiced.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

02:55 — Why do you carry the source of a medical trauma with you?

05:35 — What is acceptance and commitment therapy?

06:37 — How can you be fine right now?

07:09 — Why did Dr. Aimie leave general surgery residency?

08:17 — What happens when you ask a patient what their diagnosis means to them?

11:40 — Why should no one else decide what counts as a big trauma?

13:33 — Why is overselling recovery a problem?

14:46 — What does a rich recovery actually look like?

15:32 — What are the objective markers that recovery is happening?

17:02 — How should we talk about post-traumatic growth?

20:22 — Why can no one recover from medical trauma alone?

"If the trauma happened in your body, you're carrying that around. You're carrying it around, and you can't avoid it. It's always there." — Dr. James Jackson

If you have quietly decided you are not recovering because something still hurts, this episode is for you.

RESOURCES:

This episode is educational and is not medical advice. Please work with your own qualified healthcare provider for decisions about your care.

A hospital saved your life, and now you plan your route so you do not drive past it. That has a name, and the name is medical trauma. 

Medical trauma is a trauma response that comes from a medical experience. It can follow an ICU stay, a hard surgery, or an emergency C-section. Post-intensive care syndrome, or PICS, describes new or worsened problems in thinking, mood, and physical function after critical illness. 

Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/why-do-i-avoid-the-doctor-now-medical-trauma-and-post-intensive-care-syndrome-with-dr-james-jacks

Dr. James Jackson of Vanderbilt co-founded one of the first clinics in the country for survivors of critical illness. He sat on front porches across the South asking people what their life was like after the ICU, and he heard the same story hundreds of times. In this Part 1 conversation with Dr. Aimie, he names the one sign he watches for above all others, why so many doctors have never heard of PICS, and how long recovery actually takes. 

This is Part 1 of two. Part 2 is here: 

Take the free 2-minute assessment for stored trauma at biologyoftrauma.com/quiz. Find your primary pattern of responding when life becomes too much. You cannot change a pattern you cannot see. 

The Biology of Trauma book: biologyoftrauma.com/book 

Reclaiming Your Life from Medical Trauma, by Dr. James C. Jackson, PsyD. 

Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/why-do-i-avoid-the-doctor-now-medical-trauma-and-post-intensive-care-syndrome-with-dr-james-jacks

This content is educational and is not medical advice. It is not intended to diagnose or treat any condition. Always consult your own qualified health provider.

A new mom was losing weight without trying. Her heart raced. Waves of panic arrived without warning. Her doctor congratulated her on the weight and offered her something for the anxiety.

Her anxiety had been doing its job the whole time. It was a message from her thyroid.

In Part 2, Dr. Aimie and Dr. Nicole Cain, author of Panic Proof, walk through the last six of the nine body systems that can produce anxiety. Nervous system, endocrine, immune system, depressive, anger, and trauma anxiety. Each one leaves a different signature, and each one asks for something different.

You will hear why anger rises as you come out of chronic functional freeze, and how trauma work shifted one woman's biology down to what showed up on objective testing.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

01:00 — What is nervous system anxiety? 

Resources/Guides:

Get the free guide, Is It Stress or Trauma? Discover your primary pattern of responding when life becomes too much.

Read Panic Proof by Dr. Nicole Cain. All nine types, with quizzes and checklists.

The Biology of Trauma book. The biology underneath these anxiety types.

Part 1 of this conversation covers cardiac, gut, and thought anxiety.

This episode includes a description of a child being physically hurt by a parent, and discusses SSRIs, benzodiazepines, and herbs. This podcast is for educational purposes and is not medical advice. Always consult your own qualified health provider before changing any medication, supplement, or herb.

➡️ Full show notes with links and resources: 

You feel anxious. Nothing has happened. Nothing is wrong on paper.

Dr. Aimie learned in the emergency room that anxiety is never one thing. Someone would come in and say the word, and her job was to work out why. It could be a hard week. It could be a heart attack. Same word, two entirely different bodies.

She still runs that checklist on herself. Then she read Dr. Nicole Cain's book Panic Proof and found the same approach mapped into nine types, each one named for the body system driving it.

In this Part 1 conversation, they cover the first three. Cardiac, gut, and thought anxiety. You will learn how to tell fear from anxiety from panic, why the first place you feel it is your best clue, and why the same word describes both high energy activation and shutdown.

This is Part 1 of two. 

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

RESOURCES:

Full show notes

This episode includes a personal disclosure about thoughts of suicide connected to a food reaction. Content here is educational and is not medical advice.

You know the thing that would help. You have known for a while. You still have not done it.

This is Part 2 of two. Part 1 is here: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/why-do-we-escape-instead-of-rest-josh-trent-on-emotional-epigenetics

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

RESOURCES:

Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/why-is-not-trying-a-survival-response-not-a-weakness-with-josh-trent-part-2 

You finally have an evening with nothing in it. Twenty minutes later you are on your phone.

Josh Trent spent most of his life in a body that did not know how to rest. A clench in his stomach. A breath that stayed high in his chest. His first memory is of being a boy watching the adults around him be angry, unable to change it and unable to leave. The bracing stayed for thirty years.

Dr. Aimie and Josh talk about why stillness can feel unsafe, what separates real rest from escape, and why so many practitioners hold grief in a diaphragm that will not drop.

This is Part 1 of two. Part 2 releases July 30.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

RESOURCES:

Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/why-do-we-escape-instead-of-rest-josh-trent-on-emotional-epigenetics 

Why do I crash every time I finally slow down? Maybe you feel fine all week, then crash on the weekend. Maybe an open Saturday fills you with a quiet dread. So you fill it. An early bike ride. A full list. Anything to keep moving. Many people call this high-functioning burnout. It has a name, and it has a cause.

➡️ Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/episode-184-why-you-crash-when-you-slow-down-the-pattern-of-depletion

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

Resources/Guides:

➡️ Full show notes with links and resources: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/episode-184-why-you-crash-when-you-slow-down-the-pattern-of-depletion

Most of us were told to grieve, to rest, to be present. Nobody taught us the skill. In Part 2, Dr. Aimie and neuroscientist Dr. David Rabin get into heart rate variability and resilience, why anxiety masks itself as focus, and why grieving is a skill your body has to learn. Feeling safe enough to feel is where the work begins.

➡️ Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/why-grieving-is-a-skill-what-hrv-reveals-about-resilience-david-rabin 

Listen to Part 1 here.

Resources/Guides:

➡️ Full show notes with links and resources: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/why-grieving-is-a-skill-what-hrv-reveals-about-resilience-david-rabin

Stress was never the enemy. Your body was built to use it. What wears the body down is chronic stress with no recovery on the other side. Translational neuroscientist Dr. David Rabin splits stress into two forms. Eustress builds capacity. Distress, carried over time, moves the body toward disease.

➡️ Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/eustress-distress-difference-means-for-your-body-david-rabin

In This Episode You'll Learn:

Resources/Guides:

➡️ Full show notes with links and resources: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/eustress-distress-difference-means-for-your-body-david-rabin

Cravings point to a need underneath. This episode covers the three unmet needs behind food. It looks at the childhood roots of reaching for it. And it helps you tell stress from something deeper.

➡️ Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/what-your-food-cravings-mean-nervous-system

In This Episode You'll Learn:

Resources/Guides:

➡️ Full show notes with links and resources: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/what-your-food-cravings-mean-nervous-system