Episode 42: Unlocking the Role of Disguised Grief in Health with Dr. Joan Rosenberg
- THA Operations
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
When Grief Wears a Disguise
You feel angry all the time but can't identify what you're actually angry about. You experience chronic anxiety that seems disconnected from real threats. Your body manifests physical symptoms that doctors can't explain medically.
What if these aren't separate issues but all disguised expressions of grief you haven't processed or acknowledged?
Grief doesn't always look like grief in obvious ways. Sometimes it disguises itself as anger, anxiety, or physical symptoms that seem unrelated. And that disguised grief affects your biology and health in measurable ways.
Dr. Joan Rosenberg joins me today as a psychologist and author of 90 Seconds to a Life You Love. We explore how emotions, especially grief, impact your overall well-being and health at the biological level.
Understanding Disguised Grief
Grief often hides behind other emotions that feel more acceptable or manageable. You feel angry but grief is underneath driving that anger. You feel anxious but you're actually grieving losses you haven't acknowledged. Your body knows what you're feeling even when your mind doesn't recognize it as grief.
Unprocessed grief doesn't disappear just because you ignore it or stay busy enough to avoid it. It shows up in your biology through multiple pathways. Your immune system becomes compromised from the chronic stress. Your nervous system stays dysregulated. Your physical health bears the cost of emotions you won't let yourself feel.
Understanding the Biology of Trauma® reveals why emotions have such powerful effects on physical health. Your emotional state directly impacts your cellular function through stress hormones. Your inflammation levels rise with unprocessed emotions. Your nervous system regulation depends on emotional processing. This is biology and physiology, not just psychology or mindset.
Dr. Rosenberg explains why leaning into unpleasant feelings actually helps you process them effectively. Most people avoid difficult emotions through distraction, substances, or constant busyness. Avoidance keeps emotions stuck in your body where they create biological consequences. Allowing emotions to move through prevents them from becoming stored trauma.
The 90-Second Wave
Emotions have a physiological wave that peaks and passes through your system naturally. When you allow the wave without resistance, the intensity moves through in about 90 seconds on average. Resistance and avoidance make emotions last much longer and get stored in your tissues.
Your emotions serve you even when they're uncomfortable to experience. They provide information about what matters to you. They signal what needs attention or action. Dismissing emotions dismisses their wisdom and protective purposes.
The 90-second concept comes from neuroscience research about how long an emotional surge takes to move through your body physiologically. The chemical components of emotion flood your system, peak in intensity, and then dissipate if you don't resist or amplify them with stories and thoughts.
Dr. Rosenberg shares practical strategies for managing emotional responses effectively. How to stay with difficult feelings without being overwhelmed by them. How to let emotions move through your body naturally. How to build your capacity to tolerate intensity without shutting down or acting out.
This isn't about wallowing in emotions or making them bigger than they are. This is about allowing the natural biological process of emotional expression and release to complete instead of interrupting it through avoidance or suppression.
How Disguised Grief Affects Your Health
When grief stays disguised and unprocessed, it affects every system in your body over time. Your immune function decreases from chronic emotional stress. Your cardiovascular system suffers from unprocessed emotions. Your digestive system reflects the nervous system dysregulation that unprocessed emotions create.
The health impact of disguised grief shows up as chronic conditions that seem unrelated to emotional life. Autoimmune diseases often have roots in unprocessed emotions. Chronic pain syndromes frequently connect to grief that wasn't allowed expression. Digestive disorders commonly reflect emotions held in the body rather than processed.
Understanding this connection changes how you approach both emotional and physical healing. You can't separate your emotional health from your physical health because they're the same biological system expressing itself differently. Working with your Biology of Trauma® means addressing both the emotional and physical expressions of what you're carrying.
Dr. Rosenberg's work bridges psychology and biology by showing how emotional processing affects physical health outcomes. When you learn to feel your emotions for the 90 seconds they need to move through, you prevent them from becoming stored in your tissues where they create disease. When you recognize disguised grief and allow yourself to grieve properly, your health improves alongside your emotional wellbeing.
This Episode Is For:
✓ People who push down emotions or stay busy to avoid feeling
✓ Anyone with unprocessed grief showing up as physical symptoms
✓ Practitioners helping clients whose health issues connect to emotional avoidance
✓ Those with chronic anger or anxiety that seems disproportionate
✓ Anyone recognizing they've never properly grieved significant losses
✓ People ready to understand how emotions affect biological health
What You'll Learn
Listen to understand how disguised grief affects your biology and creates health problems when it stays unprocessed. Discover why learning to feel your emotions for 90 seconds can change your health outcomes. Learn practical strategies for allowing difficult emotions to move through instead of getting stored as trauma.
Your body knows what you're feeling even when your mind refuses to acknowledge it.
Disclaimer
This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The information shared reflects my clinical expertise and research, but every person's biology and healing journey is unique. Always consult with qualified healthcare providers before making changes to your treatment plan or starting new interventions. If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact emergency services or a crisis helpline immediately.
Join the Conversation
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode. What resonated with you? What questions came up?
Please keep comments respectful and supportive. This is a community of people committed to healing. We welcome diverse perspectives and honest questions, but we don't tolerate personal attacks, spam, or content that could harm others on their healing journey.
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