Did you know that nearly half of the U.S. population suffers from at least one chronic disease? While many of these illnesses can be traced back to a common cause (i.e. heart disease as a result of being overweight), it’s rarely as straight forward as one might assume. Even something as common as being overweight begs a deeper question – what underlying emotional toxicity has led to the manifestation of disordered eating and/or the inability to loose weight?
For some people, the cause and/or diagnosis of chronic health issues remain elusive. The answer, however, is often more emotional than it is medical. Toxic stress can play a significant role in the way our bodies function, including the unexpected side effect of causing all kinds of health problems.
The key to treatment and recovery is learning how toxic stress and your health are connected. In understanding the emotional source of your physical pain or illness, you can learn how to address your symptoms in a healing way.
Toxic Stress – The Root Cause
To understand how toxic stress affects us, we have to understand what it is and where it comes from.
What is toxic stress?
Toxic stress is the ongoing emotional distress from intense frequent and/or prolonged adversity, abuse and/or neglect. This can be caused by physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. This includes violence, family dysfunction, financial hardship or witnessing traumatic events.
However, this elevated state of distress doesn’t leave us as we grow older. If we don’t work through these issues and remediate the attached negative emotions, this toxic stress becomes part of us, often manifesting in physical ways.
Identifying Trauma
Many people may not even realize they suffered abuse or trauma when they were younger, but even mild difficulties growing up can result in health disorders. Unfortunately, modern Western medicine has no way of officially diagnosing chronic illnesses linked to emotional roots, such as toxic stress. This can lead to mounting frustration and even an exacerbation of symptoms as sufferers are dismissed by one doctor after another.
While it’s advised to continue working in partnership with your medical team, sometimes that alone is not enough. I encourage you to work with a trauma-trained counselor or coach to approach your issues from an emotional standpoint. With a trauma-informed wellness coach, you can identify the trauma in your life that’s led to toxic stress. In my own healing journey, it wasn’t until I took a deep dive into the emotional side that I became aware of my body’s response to my emotions and finally learned how to avoid and mitigate my symptoms in a way that allowed me to regain control over my life.
We can start right now by determining your ACE score. This Adverse Childhood Experiences quiz will help you understand the severity of your childhood trauma. Knowing your score will help uncover potential behavioral issues as well as mental and physical health risk factors due to your past.
Moving Forward
The only question left is how do we move forward?
As someone who lives with chronic illness, I understand more than most what you’re going through. I know how hopeless life can feel. How it all feels outside of your control.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can work together to learn how to address the root causes of your toxic stress, pain, or other health issues. You can start taking back control in your life, no longer being a victim of seemingly unmanageable symptoms and unpredictable flare-ups.
To help you take the first step toward empowerment, I want to offer you a free gift – a 3 step guide designed to help you take the first steps to gain control over chronic illness in a ways that supports your needs. This is the foundation needed to begin living your life in a big way without your illnesses and symptoms constantly holding you back.
Are You Ready to Do the Work?
The path ahead isn’t easy. Healing from toxic stress means uncovering deep-rooted emotional trauma.
This process can be incredibly painful, but it’s necessary. That’s why it’s so important to work with someone who’s been in your shoes and knows how to overcome toxic stress. I would love to be the one who helps guide you through this process.
Contact me today or call to book a Discover Call to learn how I can help you.
Here’s to reclaiming your life!
Amy
