PTSD & Other Conditions: Understanding the Whole Picture
Because the Body Keeps the Score
By the time I was 35, I had been diagnosed with endometriosis, multiple sclerosis, and migraine disease — three conditions that can all be triggered or worsened by prolonged stress and inflammation. In my case, it was growing up in a violent home as a child. I didn’t struggle with a diagnosed mental illness, but I did meet the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We just weren’t talking much about that back then.
Looking back, I can see how my body had been carrying the burden of stress for years — long after the danger had passed. That’s the thing about trauma: it doesn’t just live in your memories.
It lives in your body.
PTSD & Physical Health Diagnoses
Research shows that up to 80% of people with PTSD experience chronic inflammation (Michopoulos et al., 2017). When we live through repeated or extreme stress, our bodies release pro-inflammatory cytokines — chemicals meant to help us fight infection. But when they stay elevated, they begin to affect mood, cognition, and immunity.
These inflammatory responses can interfere with neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, reduce neuro-growth factors, and throw the nervous system out of balance. That’s why you might feel constant fatigue, brain fog, mood swings, or like you’re sick when you’re not.
PTSD & Mental Health Diagnoses
If you’ve been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, ADHD, or even borderline personality disorder — but treatment hasn’t helped — trauma could be part of the picture. In large-scale studies, over 90% of people with PTSD have at least one other mental health diagnosis (Kessler et al., 1995). That’s because trauma affects the same brain regions and chemical systems that regulate mood, attention, and emotion.
Neither of these reactions is weakness. It’s your body doing exactly what it was designed to do — stay on alert to keep you safe. The challenge is that when the threat never fully resolves, your system doesn’t either.
This is why many treatment plans fall short — they focus on symptoms instead of the source.
You are not broken.
Your body is protecting you.
The good news is the adaptations that are now causing problems can be reversed. Healing is possible and it’s within your grasp.
5 Ways to Calm the Impacts
When your nervous system and body are ramped up, healing has to start there — not just with your mind. We’ve talked about how trauma impacts both your mental and physical health, often leaving you feeling dysregulated, depleted, or detached. If you live with PTSD, chances are you also face other mental or physical health challenges — and that’s the norm, not the exception.
So where do you begin?
You start by helping your nervous system find safety again.
Here are five ways to find calm and decrease your body’s inflammation:
Mindfulness — learning to be present in your body, so you can recognize triggers and recover with greater ease.
Exercise — movement helps release stored stress, even if it’s just a 20-minute walk each day.
Sleep — because your brain restores balance while you rest; prioritize deep, consistent, quality sleep.
Diet — because food becomes new cells and new parts of you; focusing on avoiding things like refined carbohydrates and fried foods.
Social Support — connection with people who truly see and support you; connection releases calming chemicals and lowers stress hormones.
Some of these may be harder than others to implement, and that’s okay.
Each one helps your body remember it’s safe and reduces inflammation — and that’s where healing begins. It doesn’t require you to overhaul your life or start a completely new routine in all five areas. Even small, consistent steps can make a meaningful difference.
Final Reflection
Trauma doesn’t just affect the mind — it reshapes the brain, body, and biology.
But the same systems that once adapted to protect you can adapt again to help you heal.
Whether through body-based practices, diet changes, or compassionate self-awareness, each step toward a calmer you is a step toward repair.
You are not defective. You are adaptive.
And healing is within your grasp.
Let’s rise, together!
References (APA Style)
Kessler, R. C., Sonnega, A., Bromet, E., Hughes, M., & Nelson, C. B. (1995). Posttraumatic stress disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey. Archives of General Psychiatry, 52(12), 1048–1060. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1995.03950240066012
Michopoulos, V., Powers, A., Gillespie, C. F., Ressler, K. J., & Jovanovic, T. (2017). Inflammation in fear- and anxiety-based disorders: PTSD, GAD, and beyond. Neuropsychopharmacology, 42, 254–270. https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2016.146
