Living with chronic illness is complicated and it is not uncommon for it to be accompanied by anxiety, depression, stress, and feelings of overwhelm.
But as I had to find out for myself, there is an element that is not often identified or treated properly: complex trauma due to living with chronic illness, or as proposed by Dr.
Donald Edmondson, the Enduring Somatic Threat Model or EST form of PTSD. Yet it is not only the diagnosis that is often not made, but the treatment normally offered does not recognize our body’s important role in what is called “mental” illness but is actually a biopsychosocial one that in the case of chronic illness-induced trauma, requires the body and nervous system to be addressed directly in what is often called a bottom-up approach.
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