Is Your Body Still Running a Trauma Response?

Is Your Body Still Running a Trauma Response?

Curious about how others manage co-occurring health issues while recovering from trauma? This solo session with physician and trauma and addiction specialist Dr. Aimie Apigian looks at why anxiety, chronic fatigue, digestive issues, blood sugar swings and even autoimmunity may share one common thread: a nervous system stuck in an unfinished trauma response. Speaking both as a doctor and as someone who’s walked through her own trauma recovery, Dr.

Aimie explains how trauma is less about *what happened* and more about "whether it caused a trauma response in my body." She breaks down the five physiological steps the body takes from startle, to stress, to "hitting the wall", into freeze and finally shutdown, and shows how that same pattern can get locked in and replayed years later.

You’ll hear practical examples: family gatherings that trigger migraines or rashes, emotional eating that quietly soothes the vagus nerve, and coping habits that bring short-term relief but "come at a cost" in health, energy and relationships. She also walks through the landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences research and how early-life stress links to adult conditions like obesity, diabetes, cancer and autoimmunity. Dr.

Aimie spends time on resilience too, swapping the cliché of the "good, adaptable child" for a more honest definition: if it makes you sick, it’s not resilience. Using a surfing metaphor, she describes resilience as having the skills, energy and inner resources to ride life’s waves instead of being drowned by them.

For anyone dealing with stubborn symptoms or addictions that don’t fully make sense, this conversation offers new language and a biological map: from trauma physiology and coping mechanisms through to concrete supports like better sleep, movement, somatic practices and key nutrients. It might leave you asking: is your body still running an old trauma response, and what would change if it wasn’t?