157: The Long-term Relationship Between Trauma Healing, Diet & Lifestyle

Hi, and welcome back to Reclamation Radio. I am Dr. Kelly Brogan. And one of the things that I love about my containers is that the women I attract always have audacious questions to ask me. So it's my intention for the musings that I share on these topics to grow the permission field of what's possible and also to offer relatable reframes that can jailbreak you from your victim stories. So you might notice that I'm a bit more familiar and free when I'm answering these questions in our private spaces. So take a listen and enjoy. The doors are open to my 2026 live Audacious Embodiment event in Miami, May 15th through 17th. And I'm calling all of my ladies who are ready to stop pretending, performing, curating, and managing a rigid identity. This weekend, we will be focusing on four Ps because I love alliteration. Pattern disrupt. We are going to lay fresh snow on your mountain so that you can ski new tracks because experiences that take you out of your routine and stimulate all of the right conditions allow you to shift your identity even after one weekend. The next P is permission field because when you know what's possible, when you are modeled and templated a new breadth of experience for yourself as a woman, you get to be more of yourself. And here's the thing, when you're attending a retreat or a training, you need to choose a space holder who has owned more of his or her shit than you have because they can expand that permission field for you. And if you ask any of my friends or my family, They will tell you that I have done my share of pivots and am pretty practiced at being bad and wrong so that I can facilitate this expansion of your permission field in the space of just a few days, maybe even just a few minutes. The next P is pleasure because it deserves to sit in the proper place in the hierarchy of your priorities as an everyday experience. experience. I also am very focused on creating the conditions for the pleasure that we experience as women together. It is so healing and so powerful. The last P is polarity. Because your girl just came off of a David Data teacher training, I have many nuggets to share. And I have a very particular perspective on what it is to be a woman in her feminine power. And no, it is not rose petal baths and rage catharsis in groups on retreat. Okay. The second edition of Audacious Embodiment Live will feature more practice time with yours truly by request of the previous audience members. And also, of course, daily dance, sensual movement and transformational practices that will expand your experience of your own body as a woman and create the conditions for more aliveness in your daily life and a total rebrand on who you get to be as a woman in this world. I cannot wait to squeeze you in Miami this May. The link is in show notes and also at kellybrogenmd.com forward slash A-E. And today's audacious ask is what is the long-term relationship between diet and lifestyle and trauma healing in general. So as you know, I am very interested in the hero or heroine's journey, the individuation process and the archetypal nature of what it is that we all can go through should we choose, again, to descend into the underworld of our own self to reclaim what's down there, right? And to go on that journey, to walk that path. My biased, I guess, reduction of that process, which, you know, there are many, many ways to paint it, but it always has the same elements, is that the first initiation, okay, involves the recognition that the life you are living is over, Right. Sometimes I call it like the loss of something you imagined you would die without. Right. So this is like the sacrifice stage of the alchemical process. Right. So that is almost always part of a healing crisis, if you will. So when you get a diagnosis, right, which through many different means, we could find ourselves in the crosshairs of the system. I did, you know, after about 10 months postpartum on like a routine physical. And I had only, many of you know my blibbity blab about my story, but like I had only really started to come into the medical sovereignty world because of my own defiant, petulant, know-it-all nature in relation to the OB and then like med wife that I worked with because I had been specializing in reproductive psychiatry at the time. I knew how to read the literature. And I had been researching like all of these obstetrical interventions and basically said like, this is consensus medicine. Like this is like, whatever you obstetricians are doing, it is way worse than what we psychiatrists are doing because there's like literally, you know, like bottom tier evidence for all of these interventions. And that why I had an intervention birth a quote unquote natural birth in a birth center with my daughter It wasn because I had like you know was holding on to my feminine wildness and I needed to express it in this way. No, it was not like that. It was like an academic birth. I don't know how else to say it. So I was very much still asleep at that point. And when I went to this routine physical, I was hexed, right? So I got the hexing, I got the diagnosis. So the diagnosis comes, as we know, with all sorts of nocebo effects, which are very, very real. Okay. I'll just tell you, this is a ridiculous aside on the nocebo effect because I just experienced this. So as many of you know, my daughters go to school against my will. Okay. So they go to school and my one daughter, so maybe you've heard me talk about like fleas and lice and like parasitic energies and whatever, and how I don't believe in catching things, right? So what I've been through with like fleas, I've like written blogs about this in my cats. Like I don't believe it's just about exposure, even in that realm, like the whole like parasite, you know, sort of that whole realm, parasites, fleas, lice, like all this stuff, right? So I don't believe that you can just like catch lice, for example. So my one daughter comes home and she's like, oh, mama, there's like, oh my God, is happening right as I'm talking about it. It's fucking crazy. I like literally feeling itchy just talking about it. So she comes home and she's like, mama, like, um, there's like lice in my school. She knows what I think. And I think she's like pretty on board with, you know, this kind of stuff in general. She doesn't like worry about it or whatever. She's like, oh, we're told that there's like lice in my school. And she's like, and I just started to feel like, um, I don't know, maybe like I have, I have lice. Right. so I'm like oh my god I don't know so I like look at her head and like maybe there's like a little white I'm like is this like dandruff is this a light like louse like what is happening here so she's totally chill about it and I for 24 hours okay following I am literally scratching my head like a monkey for 24 hours like it going everywhere I go I'm like I don't know I don't know like itching my head and I have become convinced that like now I must be an energetic match for these energies right so like I don't know maybe that's what's going on whatever and you know you if you've dealt with this kind of thing in whatever way like you just it's a whole gross ritual you brush them out whatever so there's like sadly this place like I don't know five minutes from my house where like women are in this little place and they like check your head for lice. Like that's their actual job. And so I was like, okay, I'm talking about it. I'm like, okay, let's, let's just go. And they can like cut my head. I love having my hair and face touched for any excuse. So anyway, I was like also kind of excited about it. So they like, you know, they kind of like look in your head or whatever. So we go and after 24 hours, I'm like, all right, like we're just going to have to like have our hair brushed out and have it, you know, dealt with then it'll be fine or whatever. And I was totally convinced that this was just like a thing we were going to deal with. And there's some spiritual reason why we both are like a match to this. Convinced, like convinced actually. And we get there and these lovely ladies, like, you know, like again, like very Simeon kind of vibes, like pick through our hair. And we don't, neither of us have lice. If you had asked me, Kelly, literally, Like, I will take all of the money you have in your bank account if this is like, I would have bet it all. So that is the power of the nocebo effect. I mean, it is so real. And it is actually inescapable because there are deep layers of your relationship to fear that have to be alchemized before it doesn't take hold. So I've talked to you about my experience with my earring and my girlfriend being like, you need to get to a hospital. And it just didn't take hold. Apparently, I haven't done that inner work with bugs, which I actually already know. I have a thing with roaches. I don't know. It still takes hold, even if I don't believe. Even though I don't fully believe that I could catch something. So all of that is to say, when you get a diagnosis, it is a major event. It is a major event in your life, in your psyche, in your inner landscape. And how it lands with regard to your self-concept is going to then, you know, sort of unfold in a very personal way. Right. So if I got a diagnosis, let's say when I got my diagnosis, my response was not to like worry about it. It was to fix it. Right. So you could even say that's like an immature masculine response, like fix it. This is bad. Fix it. Right. You may get a diagnosis and be terrified. Right. Be feel condemned. Feel you may get a diagnosis and feel like many of my patients have told me like affirmed in your deep belief that something is wrong with you. And now you can see that it has a name. Right. So that that reification of the belief that something is wrong with you. So that's where your narrative of your health story begins. It's like, what do you make the diagnosis mean? And because I made it mean like a problem that needed to be solved, I went about solving the problem in the way that I did, which was to go see a naturopath. Because I knew that solving the problem was not available through my own training. Like I had known thousands of Hashimoto's patients at that point. I knew that there was nothing that could be solved Like that how I was thinking about it not healed Like I didn want to live with the problem like indefinitely And so I didn want to just like take Synthroid for the rest of my life So as I approached the lifestyle change, it was from this very determined energy to no longer have this problem. Okay, sorry, this is like very lengthy, but I'm getting somewhere with this, which is that my consciousness was still in like a victim oriented space, even as I healed on paper, my Hashimoto's, even as I got off, I was like on armor nature's right at the time for like a year, even as I got myself off of hormone and never took it again, ever again, even as, I checked my labs and found them to be normal, my Hashimoto's journey was not over. And you could even say it's still not over because the underlying consciousness, the orientation towards what my body calls me to attend to, which in this case is like speaking my truth, asserting my I am, right? Like integrating this space. You might have a sense that supporting your energetic and subtle body is important, but how exactly does one do that? Like short of scheduling regular sessions with an energy healer, how do you do that? Most of the time I find that when we take supplements, it's from the energy of fixing ourselves. And honestly, it's really no different than taking a medication at that point. That's why I love flower remedies and specifically my girl Katie Hess's elixirs from Lotus Way. The formulations that she creates are so nuanced that sometimes it feels like I wrote the descriptions myself. The last one I took was designed to dissolve go-go-go mentality as well as fatigue, weakness, apathy, and resistance to self-care. Relatable? Okay. I have a monthly membership called Flower Revolution where I get a new and super powerful on point remedy sent to me every month. And it blows my mind how resonant each one is with exactly where I am in my process. I think of this as a truly feminine investment that harmonizes my process and allows me to walk, talk and interact with grace. You can try it for a month or six at the link below. And if you just want to dip a toe in to learn more about how flowers heal, you can take their quiz. I would say the deeper levels of my healing in this regard have occurred even in the past few years. And maybe specifically when I started to become interested last year in singing, right? Because if you are somebody who's, you know, has a, let's say a center of attention in your throat, right? It could be that you have an unspoken story, right? So I lost my my mainstream credentials, if you will, at two hospitals, because I started to speak out, you know, about like natural health and stuff like that. So I had a loss that felt, you know, scary to me, certainly something that I had never anticipated coming my way. And then I had a commensurate expansion, right? So I published a book and all this stuff about the subject matter. So you may be somebody who has something like a choice point, right? Where you're either going to suppress it, take the Synthroid, or you're going to say the thing, right? You're going to speak your truth. You're going to like come out with it. It might be that on the nose, but like, if you have stuff in this area, it could be that maybe, you know, you're supposed to say the thing publicly. Maybe you're supposed to say the thing to your husband. Maybe you're supposed to say the thing to your parents, right? Like the journey, right? Into your self-expression is totally personal. And I, I think, you know, I can assert potentially a generalization about like speaking and singing, you know, that I do think that this, we're meant to move energy as humans, you know, we're meant to walk and we're meant to dance. We're meant to talk and we're meant to sing. Right. And so in my case, the shame that I had to work through was immense, like inexplicably immense for me to sit in front of a computer with a lovely, nurturing woman, right? A voice teacher, and just allow sounds to come out of my mouth. I mean, it was an initiation, right? So the invitations keep coming from that original so-called pathology. And when you look at the arc of an invitation home to yourself through a specific diagnosis or an identification with a particular label, it's like a beautiful process. right? And if you just think it's a problem to be fixed, which is fine, because it can be, okay? Obviously, you know, that's what my outcomes pages on VMR, you know, on the website is like, look at all these problems that were fixed, right? Like it's amazing. It's satisfying. It's fun. It's an adventure, right? We love to win. Of course, you're the main character in your story. You must triumph. And there is like a deeper, more languid, more mysterious, like process that unfolds over the long term, that I think continues beyond the win. I don't know how else to say it. And it has that signature element and essence, like from your initial break, the initial rupture that led to your awakening process and beginning. So the question about like how do you know when it healed Even just from like okay like my maybe you had symptoms of like brain fog or your hair was falling out or like weight stuff or constipation or you know slowness and fogginess Did I say that right? That's ironic. Slowness or, you know, flat mood and you feel better, but you kind of still want the proof, right? You kind of still want to see on the outside. I required that. Like for me to see in black and white was a part of the ritual for me. Now, I know women who have gone entire pregnancies without taking a pregnancy test, let alone any ultrasounds, any anything of any kind, right? To me, that is, right, like self-alignment, right? You talk to yourself, you listen to yourself, you don't need these third-party elements, people, and administrators of your own self-awareness to reflect to you what's up inside of you, right? However, if you do these kinds of protocols, and yes, VMR is the only protocol I know of with outcomes that I have enjoyed, experienced and been privileged enough to bear witness to, that does not take out nuts and eggs. right so like GAPs and all these other SIBO diets and paleo diets like are more way more restrictive and I don't know what to make of that right like I don't know what to make of the fact that I have watched all sorts of conditions that have been diagnosed come into remission without these more austere measures however you're you know it's just a ritual right so and you're going to know like what version is for you and you're going to see results. Like it's just, I don't know. It's just how it works. When you commit on this higher level to a pattern disrupt, you disrupt your pattern. And if you can hold your fear as a part of you, rather than blending with it, you begin to feel empowered. That empowerment translates into regenerative neurophysiology and things chill out, right? What I have since discovered and researched with my colleagues and my own about autoimmunity, I wouldn't even call it autoimmunity anymore, right? I don't have an appreciation for lab work the way that I used to. I have actually come to understand that antibodies are not like you fighting you as much as like scavengers basically cleaning up cellular debris that only exists because there is a process underway, right? There's a process underway. And through a GNM perspective, I'm sure there's an even more, I don't know the detailed expression of Hashimoto's through a GNM perspective, but I'm sure it's like fascinating and explains like even the role of microbes in that cleanup process. So the like neurotic fixation with getting your antibodies, let's say to zero or your TSH, you know, between, I remember like really fixating on all this, like between, you know, 1.2 and 1.8 or whatever. Now I would hold that lighter. Like, I still think it's interesting. And I think we don't have a complete understanding. And you just have to look at things like, you know, this double speak about antibodies in the medical industry where like, if you have antibodies, let's say to a quote unquote, virus, it means that you were exposed to the virus, especially, you know, IgG antibodies means you were exposed to the virus. And now you've recovered, you have evidence of immunity, right? Like you can get your, you can get tested to prove that you don't need a vaccine, let's say in some pediatric settings. But then if you have antibodies to quote unquote HIV virus, then that means you have it and you're going to die, right? Like it's, there's just so much inconsistency, our understanding of what these, you know, proteins even are, what they're doing. There's a lot of hand-waving, a lot of assumptions. And to imagine that we've figured it out, it's just not true. It's like simply not true. So that being said, I would, you know, hold the lab work bit lightly and it doesn't mean like, forget it, don't check it. It's still interesting and I think can reflect a process that is underway. If you see antibodies that are high and then they're low, there is potentially something that's being tagged and marked and it could be meaningful to you. Again, you could make it mean something very powerful for yourself, which I encourage, right? And then there's a point at which you get to this place and you're like, I'm just going to trust myself to know the next thing, you know, that this experience of my body is wanting of me and I'm going to close that chapter. There will be a time when you close the chapter of healing the thing, right? And then it just becomes a journey that was initiated by what would I mean it's almost hard for me at this point to relate to these you know diagnoses and whatever as being like these horrible scary things and I've been reflected by some that I can appear highly uncompassionate and unempathic you know when people are struggling with like a new diagnosis and it's part of me is just because I know like it's like I was called in you know 2016 I'm an ableist like I know you can do it like I know you can do I know everyone can do it and you know there is a point at which you will know you've done it. And now it's time to move on because otherwise you will become a professional functional medicine patient. And there are many people I know who get stuck in that loop of being literally like on the clinician side of things. We call those people, and I could have been that person too, professional patients. Like they literally just, you just get caught in the loop and as deep as it takes me and I'm ready, you know? Outro valeur.