What are common beliefs we form about ourselves that leave us unable to connect, trust and receive love later as adults?

Have you ever wondered why success doesn't automatically translate to feeling fulfilled?

Or why, despite all our achievements, there's still that nagging feeling that we need to prove ourselves? Today's episode sharing an adoption story might just explain why.

Today, JJ Virgin joins me to share a deeply personal story that is part of her reason for her remarkable professional success. In this episode, JJ talks openly about the challenges of growing up feeling like she had to rely only on herself, how those feelings drove her to professional success, and the breakthroughs she’s experienced that have helped her heal old wounds, become a proud mom and find love.

Yet, this conversation isn’t just for those who have been adopted— though it will help you understand yourself better if you have and help you understand anyone in your life who has been. Rather, this episode is about recognizing the unconscious pain that we carry from our childhood.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How early experiences shape our beliefs about love, trust, and self-worth
• The conundrum of relying only on ourselves
• Simple ways to build trust when we haven’t been able to trust others
• How to better support those in your life who have a history of being adopted

For more information and show notes, please visit our website: https://biologyoftrauma.com/biology-of-trauma-podcast/

Have you ever wondered why you are so reactive - to people, foods, smells, sounds and stress - while other people around you seem completely fine? Y

ou are going in overdrive or even going into overwhelm, and think you just must be having a bad day or looking for what triggered you.

The answer might surprise you. A specific cell of your immune system, mast cells, could be actually causing trauma responses in your body, putting you into emotional states, that have less to do with the people around you and more with a compound those cells release, histamine.

Today we're tackling a commonly overlooked underlying reason for anxiety. We will be answering the question, How do mast cell activation and mold toxicity keep us stuck in our responses and triggers to trauma?

Before we dive in, I want to dedicate this episode to the loving memory of our guest Beth O'Hara, who passed away in July 2024.

Beth was a pioneering functional naturopath who transformed countless lives through her work with Mast Cell 360, helping people understand and heal from complex cases of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), mold toxicity, and related conditions. She was a friend to me and I am sad to not have more time and conversations with her.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• How to recognize if histamine is driving your anxiety
• Why mold exposure can keep your body stuck in trauma responses long after exposure
• How mast cells bridge your immune system and emotional overwhelm
• Why and how mast cells will block your ability to create inner safety
• Practical tools to decrease reactivity and build resilience

For more information and show notes, please visit our website: https://biologyoftrauma.com/biology-of-trauma-podcast/

How does mold and stored trauma in the body create a feedback cycle that makes us susceptible to the other?

Studies are confirming that common mental health symptoms, like depression and anxiety, are associated with brain inflammation. I want to share with you some two often overlooked sources of brain inflammation and emotional fragility, toxins from mold exposure and Lyme infection. More importantly, the feedback cycle that they create with stored trauma in the body.

This is important because we have a mental health crisis with unprecedented numbers of anxiety, depression and related effects like, burnout. While we usually assume a person, place or situation is causing us stress, we want to consider the increasing amount of mold exposure and undetected chronic Lyme disease. Many are unaware of the association between the two and without knowing to investigate, get on a recommended mood and sleep medications that cause problems and are difficult to get off of later, and are addressing the real problem.

My good friend Kirkland Newman, is my guest for this episode. She is a journalist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, who faced postpartum depression and couldn’t find answers in the traditional healthcare approach. So she did her own research and created Mindhealth 360 an integrative Mental Health website to be a resource on information for others also trying to find mental health solutions.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How trauma responses from adverse childhood events cause brain inflammation
• How brain inflammation can pre-dispose you to a long-haul syndrome with mold or Lyme
• What mold does to our nervous system to lead to anxiety and depression
• How we might know if we have mold or Lyme toxins
• How to approach our trauma work or therapy when we also have mold or Lyme
• The different modalities we want to integrate for therapy

For more information and show notes, please visit our website: https://biologyoftrauma.com/biology-of-trauma-podcast/