When Your Health Feels Like a Rollercoaster: Finding Stability in the Chaos of Chronic Illness | Amy KurtzWhen Your Health Feels Like a Rollercoaster: Finding Stability in the Chaos of Chronic Illness | Amy Kurtz
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Eric Zimmer and Amy Kurtz talk about her long journey to a late-stage Lyme diagnosis and the emotional aftermath of chronic illness. Amy explains Medical Trauma Brain and shares practical tools for regulating stress and reclaiming agency when health feels chaotic.
1:02:29•7 Jul 2026
Amy Kurtz on Medical Trauma Brain and Finding Steady Ground in Chronic Illness
Episode Overview
- Chronic illness can leave people stuck between "sick" and "well", and that grey area deserves recognition and validation.
- Medical Trauma Brain describes how long-term health crises rewire the nervous system, keeping the mind in survival mode even after physical recovery.
- Cognitive behavioural techniques can help interrupt catastrophic thinking, but trauma stored in the body also needs somatic and nervous-system-focused care.
- Creating a personalised toolkit and using the Four Rs—Ready, Routine, Reality check, Reframe—can reduce the intensity of stress responses over time.
- Patients benefit from reclaiming agency: choosing doctors who believe them, asking clear questions, and committing to daily habits that support their wellbeing.
“Patients are 50% of the healing team and 100% responsible for how they treat themselves, making self-advocacy not optional, but essential.”
This episode dives deep into the challenges and triumphs of living with chronic illness when your health feels like a never‑ending rollercoaster. Amy Kurtz talks with host Eric Zimmer about spending years in painful uncertainty, seeing 36 doctors before finally hearing the words "late stage Lyme disease and co‑infections" from a specialist who truly understood her case.
You’ll hear Amy describe what it’s like to grow up with intense, undiagnosed symptoms, look "glowingly healthy" on a book cover, and yet feel like a shell of herself off‑camera. She shares how society’s strict "sick or well" mindset leaves out the vast grey area where many people actually live, especially those whose illness is invisible to others.
A key part of the conversation is Amy’s term "Medical Trauma Brain" (MTB) – the emotional and neurological imprint of long‑term health crises. Even after her physical health improved, her mind stayed locked in survival mode, jumping from zero to eleven at the slightest symptom. Amy explains how anxiety, hypervigilance and fear loops can persist, and why simply "pushing through" with willpower doesn’t work.
Eric and Amy talk about therapy, including how cognitive behavioural tools can help question catastrophic thoughts, and why trauma stored in the body calls for nervous‑system‑based approaches like somatic work and simple orientation practices. Amy lays out her "Four Rs" framework – Ready, Routine, Reality check and Reframe – to help people recognise stress signals, use practical coping tools, and shift their response when fear surges.
Threaded through the episode is a message of agency: patients are half of the healing team, and the way they treat themselves matters. The goal isn’t to never get knocked down again, but to pivot more quickly when life hits hard. If your health story feels chaotic or unseen, this conversation may help you feel less alone and more equipped to face the next wave.
What small step could you take today to support your nervous system and honour your experience?
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