Episode 49: How Unresolved Anger Affects Autoimmune Conditions with Dr. Keesha Ewers

Listen to Episode 49 with Dr. Keesha Ewers →

When Your Body Attacks Itself

You've been diagnosed with an autoimmune condition and told your immune system is attacking your own tissues. Doctors prescribe medication to suppress your immune response. But nobody asks why your body turned against itself in the first place.

What if the answer lies in stored trauma, chronic freeze response, and anger that had nowhere safe to go?

Autoimmunity isn't just about your immune system malfunctioning randomly. It's often about freeze response and unresolved anger turned inward against your own body.

Dr. Keesha Ewers joins me to explore the connection between freeze and autoimmunity. We look at how traumatic triggers create nervous system reactivity patterns and why unexpressed anger shows up as your body attacking itself.

The Freeze Response and Immune Dysregulation

Your body's freeze response during trauma doesn't just affect your nervous system in isolation. It affects your immune system too through pathways that medicine rarely acknowledges. This connection explains why many autoimmune conditions have trauma roots that conventional treatment ignores.

Traumatic triggers create patterns in your nervous system that persist long after the original events. Your nervous system learns to react in specific ways to certain situations, emotions, or stimuli. Those patterns continue running even when the original threat is gone and you're objectively safe.

Understanding the Biology of Trauma® reveals why freeze is more common in children than adults. Children can't fight or flee from dangerous situations or caregivers. They're dependent on adults for survival and can't escape. Freeze becomes their primary response when fight or flight aren't options. This sets patterns that last into adulthood and affect multiple body systems.

Childhood freeze experiences create beliefs about yourself and the world that shape your entire development. Adaptive behaviors form around those beliefs to keep you as safe as possible. They persist long after they're needed because your nervous system never received the message that circumstances changed.

When Anger Has Nowhere to Go

Anger that couldn't be expressed safely in childhood gets turned inward against yourself. Your body holds that unexpressed emotion in your tissues and cells. Your immune system eventually expresses that anger by attacking your own tissues in what we call autoimmune disease.

When you couldn't express anger outward as a child because it wasn't safe or allowed, your body directs it at itself instead. This is what autoimmunity often looks like from a biological trauma perspective. The anger finds expression through immune system dysfunction rather than healthy emotional release.

Unresolved anger doesn't disappear just because you couldn't express it safely when it arose. It gets stored in your Biology of Trauma® where it affects your physiology over time. The immune system becomes one pathway through which that stored anger expresses itself decades later.

Chronic freeze keeps your immune system dysregulated in ways that predispose you to autoimmune conditions. Your body stays in defense mode constantly scanning for threats. Eventually that hyperactivated defense system turns against your own tissues because it can't distinguish self from non-self properly anymore.

Breaking the Autoimmune-Trauma Cycle

Understanding this connection changes how you approach autoimmune treatment fundamentally. You can't just suppress immune function with medication and expect sustainable healing. You have to address the freeze response and unexpressed anger underneath the immune dysfunction.

The freeze response behind autoimmunity needs to be addressed through nervous system work that releases the chronic immobilization pattern. Your body needs to complete the protective responses it started years or decades ago. Your system needs to learn it's safe to come out of freeze before your immune system can regulate properly.

Working with stored anger means finding safe ways to express and release what couldn't be expressed when it originated. This isn't about amplifying anger or acting it out but about allowing the emotion to move through your system in appropriate ways. Your body needs to discharge the energy that's been held for so long.

Dr. Keesha Ewers emphasizes that addressing trauma alongside immune system support creates better outcomes than either approach alone. Functional medicine that supports immune function while also addressing the nervous system and emotional roots of dysregulation offers comprehensive healing. Medication may still be necessary but it works better when you're also healing the trauma creating the dysfunction.

Autoimmune conditions aren't separate from your trauma history but often direct expressions of how unresolved trauma affects your biology over time. When you recognize this connection, you can address root causes rather than just managing symptoms through immune suppression alone.

This Episode Is For:

✓ People with autoimmune conditions seeking root causes beyond genetics 

✓ Anyone holding chronic unexpressed anger in their body 

✓ Practitioners working with autoimmune clients who need trauma-informed approaches 

✓ Those whose autoimmune symptoms don't fully respond to medical treatment 

✓ Anyone recognizing the connection between their trauma and physical illness 

✓ People ready to address both immune function and stored emotions

What You'll Learn

Listen to understand how the freeze response and unresolved anger contribute to autoimmune conditions from a biological trauma perspective. Discover why addressing stored trauma matters for immune system healing. Learn how unexpressed childhood anger can manifest decades later as your body attacking itself.

Your immune system isn't randomly malfunctioning but responding to signals from unresolved trauma.

Listen to Episode 49 with Dr. Keesha Ewers →

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.

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