Tag Archives: survival
Complex PTSD From An IPNB Perspective: Survival Adaptations and the Roots of Symptoms
When people talk about Complex PTSD or other trauma-related conditions, they often focus on the symptoms. They make lists of patterns, put them into clusters, and give them names. That sounds organized, but it hides the bigger picture. It puts … Continue reading
Posted in PTSD
Tagged Complex PTSD, CPTSD, IPNB, labels, Medicine, Nervous System, psychiatry, recovery, relationships, survival, survival adaptations
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Symbols as Mirrors: Building Coherence Through Tarot
I pulled three cards from a tarot deck without looking: the Knight of Swords, the Six of Swords, and the Five of Wands. At first glance, they are just symbols: energetic, chaotic, transitional. But when I looked at them together, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged archetypes, cohesive narrative, Nervous System, story, survival, symbolic, tarot
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Truth-Telling is Refusing to Let the Story End the Way They Wrote It
Trauma recovery doesn’t come from “getting over it.” It emerges from changing your relationship with what happened. There are many ways to do this: through story, compassionate witnessing, individual work, and collective work. But a key way to reclaim your … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability
Tagged abuse, ChristianaCare, painting, recovery, Rockford Center for Behavioral Health, speaking, survival, systemic abuse, truth, writing
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“Lexapro, NO! Cannabis, YES!”
I want to share some tools I use to survive and integrate my experiences, compared to what the mental illness industry offers. After the non-consensual surgery, my nervous system desperately needed support to regain a sense of safety. Instead, the … Continue reading
Posted in Mental Health
Tagged Behavioral Health, cannabis, cuckoo's nest, dependence, drugs, hypocrisy, integration, medical marijuana, Mental Health, MMJ, Nervous System, polypharmacy, psych meds, psychiatric hospital, psychiatry, psychotropic medications, Regulation, Stress, survival, Trauma
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From Personal Trauma to Systemic Abuse, the Antidote is the Same
The same dynamics I experienced as a child–unpredictable abuse, bystanders who froze, and systems that protected the abuser–are now playing out on a much larger scale in the world. In medical systems, the same patterns repeat. People suffer abuse, neglect, … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, Politics
Tagged authoritaianism, Community, creating, dancing, Domination, laughter, politics, resistance, singing, support, survival
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Understanding the Predator-Prey Dynamic Through IPNB
The dynamic between the predator and the victim involves complex layers of relational manipulation, nervous system responses, and emotional regulation (or dysregulation), which deeply affect both the predator’s and the victim’s neurobiological processes. Through the lens of Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB), … Continue reading
The Shame-Busting Power of IPNB
Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) is inherently shame-busting because it shifts our understanding of human behavior, emotion, and relationship from a lens of personal blame to one of compassionate, embodied context. Here’s how: Normalizes Survival Responses IPNB teaches that many behaviors people … Continue reading
Posted in Mental Health
Tagged connection, Interpersonal Neurobilology, IPNB, safety, survival, survival adaptations
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From the Family to Empires: How Hierarchies Harm Us All
From an Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) perspective, all hierarchies that operate through domination dynamics are fundamentally the same. They impose the same relational structure: an imbalance of power where one party exerts control over others, often at the expense of connection, … Continue reading
Posted in IPNB of Hierarchy
Tagged agency, Empathy, harm, interpersonal neurobiology, IPNB, Mental Health, Psychology, survival, well-being
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