The Biology of Trauma® With Dr. Aimie

By Dr. Aimie ApigianHealth & Fitness Mental Health Education Self-Improvement

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The Biology of Trauma® With Dr. Aimie episodes

August 13Can I Recover From Medical Trauma? Dr. Jim Jackson (Part 2)
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:
Take the free 2-Minute Assessment for Discovering Your Pattern of Stored Trauma. You cannot change a pattern you cannot see. Find your primary pattern of responding when life becomes too much, then see how the other four show up.

Get The Biology of Trauma. Avoidance and the pattern of disconnection are on page 117, chapter nine, The Patterns of Pain: Recognizing Stored Trauma in the Body.

Reclaiming Your Life from Medical Trauma by Dr. James C. Jackson, PsyD.
This episode is educational and is not medical advice. Please work with your own qualified healthcare provider for decisions about your care.
Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma
24 min
August 11 Medical Trauma Has a Name, with Dr. Jim Jackson (Part 1)
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.
Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma
26 min
August 06 What Type of Anxiety Do I Have? Dr. Nicole Cain (Part 2)
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?
02:53 — Which herb supports a nervous system worn down by stress?
03:42 — What blood work should I ask for?
04:37 — How did Charlotte's anxiety turn out to be her thyroid?
07:17 — What is immune system anxiety?
08:35 — Why does an antihistamine sometimes settle anxiety?
09:07 — How does inflammation in the brain create anxiety?
11:33 — Can my gums be affecting my anxiety?
13:01 — What is depressive anxiety, and what can an SSRI set off?
17:07 — What is anger anxiety, and how do I cool it down?
18:57 — Why am I angrier as I come out of freeze?
20:36 — Can trauma work change a condition like PCOS?

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:
Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma
30 min
August 04Why Do I Feel Anxious for No Reason? with Dr. Nicole Cain (Part 1)
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:
03:15 Why anxiety gets treated as one condition

06:33 Fear, anxiety, and panic as three different states

08:07 The green, yellow, and red zones

09:31 How your body measures how much danger you are in

11:08 Your canary, and why the first signal matters

12:25 High energy anxiety or shutdown

13:27 Flop, fawn, fracture, and perimenopause

15:24 The therapeutic order

17:09 Cardiac anxiety, and when to see a cardiologist

19:28 Gut anxiety and the gut-brain axis

21:11 What a food and mood journal revealed

22:34 Thought anxiety and looping thoughts

25:07 Parts work, and the moment it landed for Miguel
RESOURCES:
Get the free guide, Is It Stress or Trauma? For working out whether what you carry is ordinary stress, or something past that line.

Get The Biology of Trauma book. Read Chapter 3, on our critical line and our capacity. It covers how the body reads danger.

Panic Proof by Dr. Nicole Cain

Dr. Nicole Cain's website
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.
Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma
35 min
July 30Is Not Trying Laziness, or Survival? With Josh Trent (Part 2)
You know the thing that would help. You have known for a while. You still have not done it.

Dr. Aimie recognized herself in the research on learned helplessness. For a long stretch of her life she expected everything to be hard, expected to fail, and quietly stopped trying without ever deciding to. It is not laziness. It is a body that learned effort did not matter and powered the effort down.

In this Part 2 conversation, recorded in Josh Trent's Austin studio, they talk about what separates resting from escaping, why the drive built on your own wound eventually stops working, and how a little safety is enough to take the next step.
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:
02:04 How to tell resting from escaping

04:25 The three questions behind your purpose

06:48 Why the fuel of your own wound stops working

07:58 Grieving the old identity

10:05 Why showing up takes borrowed energy

13:24 Conditioned happiness and the opposite he found

17:18 The Seabiscuit story and learned helplessness

21:45 Recognizing the pattern in someone else

26:49 What most people misunderstand about a leader

30:20 Freedom fuels flow, fear fuels force

31:27 Why curiosity needs safety first

RESOURCES:
Take the free 2-Minute Assessment for Stored Trauma. Discover your primary pattern of responding when life becomes too much, then see how the other four show up.

Get The Biology of Trauma book. Read Chapter 13, on why the body will not rest until it feels safe, and how to start building that safety.

Josh Trent hosts the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast

Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/why-is-not-trying-a-survival-response-not-a-weakness-with-josh-trent-part-2
Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma
35 min
July 28Josh Trent on Why We Escape Instead of Rest (Part 1)
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:
01:22 How one question from childhood shaped an entire life

05:11 What happens when you know something is missing

09:24 How patterns get passed down through a family

13:49 The moment feeling became the way back in

17:12 Feeling an emotion in your body for the first time

18:38 Why practitioners carry grief in their bodies

19:31 What worries a wellness leader most about his own industry

23:57 Why social media makes it harder to feel

26:20 The difference between rest and escape
RESOURCES:
Take the free 2-minute assessment for stored trauma. Find your primary pattern of responding when life becomes too much, then see how the other four show up.

Is it stress or is it trauma? The guide that walks through the difference.

Josh Trent hosts the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast.
Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/why-do-we-escape-instead-of-rest-josh-trent-on-emotional-epigenetics
Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma
29 min
July 21Why Do I Crash Every Time I Finally Slow Down?
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:
01:34 — Why do I crash every time I finally slow down?

04:03 — What is the pattern of disconnection, and why do I feel numb or distant?

04:33 — What is the pattern of disruption, and why do I feel stuck and unable to move forward?

05:03 — What is the pattern of depletion, and why do I feel like I'm running on empty?

05:15 — What is the pattern of dysregulation, and why does my nervous system overreact or under-react?

05: 32 — What is the pattern of disease, and how does stored trauma become physical symptoms?

06:30 — Why is the pattern of depletion the one that hides?

08:52 — Why does the crash come with the rest, if the rest did not cause it?

11:22 — How are stress and burnout different to my biology?

12:53 — What is capacity, and why does low capacity turn stress into overwhelm?

16:33 — What does it mean to live at two speeds, fast and stopped?

18:35 — How does depletion show up in my biology, from magnesium to ferritin?
Resources/Guides:
Stress or Trauma Guide — a free guide to tell a stress response from a trauma response, and see the sequence your nervous system needs next.
➡️ 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
Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma
23 min
July 16Grieving Is a Skill: HRV, Intention, and the Biology of Resilience with Dr. David Rabin (Part 2)
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
01:03 — Why is heart rate variability the key marker for resilience?

03:08 — What is intention, and what is it in the nervous system?

04:08 — Where does intention fit if you have lived in hypervigilance?

08:18 — What practices in therapy get in the way of healing?

11:28 — How do you apply these principles in a full, busy life?

16:33 — How do you grieve a loss, and why is grieving a skill?
Listen to Part 1 here.
Resources/Guides:
Get the "Is It Stress or Trauma" Guide. Know whether what your body is carrying is stress or something deeper.
➡️ Full show notes with links and resources: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/why-grieving-is-a-skill-what-hrv-reveals-about-resilience-david-rabin
Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma
24 min
July 14Why Stress Was Never the Enemy, with Dr. David Rabin (Part 1)
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:
01:25 — What does the equation eustress × time = ease actually mean?

06:19 — How does the meaning you carry from the past shape your stress response?

07:37 — Can a person experience post-traumatic growth decades later?

09:19 — What creates safety so the body can reorganize?

11:00 — Why is a soothing touch such a powerful signal of safety?

13:55 — Why is rest the key to resilience, and where do you start if you cannot rest?
Resources/Guides:
If you want to know whether what you are carrying is stress or something deeper, this free guide walks you through the difference. Get the Stress or Trauma? Guide
➡️ Full show notes with links and resources: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/eustress-distress-difference-means-for-your-body-david-rabin
Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma
19 min
July 07EP 181: What Your Food Cravings Reveal About What You Survived | Dr. Tian Dayton
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:
01:11 — The difference between hunger and an unmet need

05:27 — When a craving is really about connection or a memory

08:03 — What states does a parent go into when food becomes survival?

09:49 — Why children learn a parent's relationship with food so early

12:27 — How do our parents shape our earliest relationship with food?

16:18 — What happens to a parent in survival mode for food

19:00 — Why do we crave sweets when we feel low or shut down?

24:14— Why does the fear of connection drive us to food?

29:41 — How to draw your own craving map
Resources/Guides:
If you want to know whether what drives your reaching is stress or something your body is still carrying, this free guide walks you through the difference. Get Stress or Trauma? guide
➡️ Full show notes with links and resources: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/what-your-food-cravings-mean-nervous-system
Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma
33 min