The Hidden Connection Between Trauma and Chronic Pain

When Trauma Takes Up Residence in Your Body

For years, I carried the weight of childhood trauma, rejection, and emotional neglect—and not just emotionally. My body became the unwilling storage unit for years of suppressed fear, pain, and anxiety. If trauma were luggage, my gut was the overstuffed suitcase struggling to close.

As a child, I experienced physical punishment, abandonment, and fear, and in response, I did what so many of us do—I buried it deep. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Wrong. 

While my mind tried to push the memories away, my body found another way to express them: debilitating gut pain and IBS. I spent years running from doctor to doctor, undergoing CT scans, colonoscopies, and endoscopies, yet no medical test could pinpoint why my intestines felt like they were staging a rebellion.

The Diagnosis That Wasn’t a Diagnosis

"It’s just IBS."

That’s what I was told—again and again.

Maybe you've heard the same? You sit in a sterile office, vulnerable and desperate for relief, only to be handed a vague diagnosis that’s more of a shrug than a solution. IBS, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome—medical terms that often serve as placeholders when nothing concrete can be found. Translation: We don’t know what’s wrong with you, but here’s a label.

I left those appointments feeling unseen and unheard. The message was clear: my pain was real, but no one could tell me why.

The Breakthrough: When I Stopped Looking at My Gut and Started Looking at My Past

I learned how chronic stress and unresolved trauma rewire the nervous system, keeping the body in a perpetual state of fight-or-flight. And for many of us, that stress manifests as gut issues, migraines, chronic pain, or autoimmune conditions.

One day, in a moment of frustration, I stopped obsessing over probiotics, elimination diets, and prescription medications. Instead, I asked myself: What if my gut wasn’t the problem? What if it was the messenger?

The Power of Storytelling in Healing

Something remarkable happened when I started speaking up about my past. Each time I shared my story, I felt my pain lessen.

For years, I had held onto memories of being hit, slapped, and locked in a dark room to cry myself to sleep. Those experiences shaped me in ways I didn't fully understand. But when I finally acknowledged them—not just internally, but out loud—it was as if my body exhaled a breath it had been holding in for decades.

It turns out, healing isn’t just about being treated—it’s about being heard.

HHH: A Space for Your Story

I created Hear Her Heal (HHH)—a platform where women can share their stories and, in doing so, begin their journey toward healing.

So, if you’ve been carrying your pain in silence, I invite you to share it.

Because when we speak, we heal. And when we listen, we help others heal too.

You are not alone. I hear you. We hear you. And together, we heal.

With understanding and compassion,

Dr. Su