Aimie Apigian, MD: The Biology of Trauma

Today Dr. Aimie Apigian joins us again to continue our conversation from episode 37 on the biology of trauma.Dr. Aimie is a Double Board-Certified Medical Physician in both Preventive and Addiction Medicine and holds Double Masters Degrees in Biochemistry and in Public Health.She is the leading medical expert on addressing stored trauma in the body through her signature model and methodology, The Biology of Trauma™: a new lens that courageously uplevels the old methods of trauma work and medicine by reverse-engineering trauma's effects on the nervous system and body on a cellular level.In our last conversation, Dr. Aimie shares why everything we have been taught about trauma was wrong!We pick up this week digging into how to tell where trauma is showing up in our lives, and how your patterns may be covering up who you really are.We all create patterns around coping mechanisms.Over Responders and Under RespondersWe tend to use these patterns in order to avoid feeling a certain emotionLonliness, grief, etc…fill in the blank.These unresolved emotions will always come back up.These patterns are programmed from early experiences (before we can remember) and we think that it is just how we are…our personality, when it isn’t!Over RespondersTend to not be able to calm the system down and react to even the smallest disruptions as if they are big.Our amygdala is designed to take in sensory information and decide in a millisecond if it is a current threat or not…often in an over responder, everything seems like a current threat.Under RespondersTypically experience overwhelm early on and utilize the dorsal-vagal brake as an infant to stop the runaway train.  This creates a collapse, an escape within oneself…The freeze response. Always an under reaction.Many under responders physically have a posture of shame.The gift of acute stress is sacred!It is designed to protect us.It is never too late to grow and heal!As long as you are still breathing, you can step into neuroplasticity and retrain.There is an essential order and timing to the steps to heal, in order to avoid further trauma and damage.It can be dangerous to pick up a practice such as meditation or breathwork if you aren’t ready.Meditation can reinforce the disconnect or be too much too fast for some, depending on where they are in their journey.There is an essential order to feel safe while growing.Physical symptoms are messages of the body feeling unsafe.How do we examine our patterns?Ask the question “why.”“Why am I doing this?”Extend NONJUDGEMENTAL CURIOSITY.