An Unconventional View on Autoimmunity – It’s Not a Death Sentence
- Brainz Magazine
- Aug 26
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 29
Written by Jessica Michel, Health Reset Consultant
Jessica Michel is a health catalyst for high-performing creatives. She marries her background in functional nutrition and holistic lab analysis with intuitive insights to fully and resolutely rebirth your body for deep resilience.
You finally received a diagnosis, a label. The validation of your experience is sweet, but then the hammer drops. The doctor tells you this condition is lifelong. This can feel like a death sentence. From hope to despair, you ride the waves, wondering if you’ll ever be free. Is there truly no hope? I am here to tell you there is. Autoimmunity does not have to be for life. In fact, autoimmunity is technically a condition or state that the scientific community has yet to fully grasp. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Healing and freedom are possible.
My unconventional interpretation of autoimmunity
Autoimmunity is often described as the body attacking itself. Now, it’s not that I fully disagree with this statement, but I would like to propose that it’s not entirely accurate. The body is always working for you. It may take actions that appear counterintuitive to what protection looks like, but the body will always prioritize keeping you alive over anything else. It focuses on the present moment over long-term needs when put in emergency mode. A body that often finds itself in emergency mode, also known as the sympathetic autonomic nervous system, begins to wear out resources at a heightened rate. It will burn through nutrients and deeper internal stores until it’s running at a deficit.
If you are experiencing symptoms, this is the body trying to save you in some way. It’s not only a message asking for help, it’s the body’s best option for clearing a toxin, keeping your cells functioning, or attacking an enemy. The body is brilliant and uses its present environment and resources well. It also learns when these elements shift. For example, if your magnesium levels are low, it funnels what stores you do have to the most important functions and leaves others wanting. You may be able to make it through the day, but you will experience cramps during your period or headaches throughout the next few days as a result. Everything has a rhythm and reason; everything is intentional.
In the case of autoimmunity, the immune system has decided that a specific cell, tissue, protein, or organ of the body is causing chaos and harm, so it attempts to resolve this. Instead of seeing this as bad, I want to invite you to see this as positive. The body is doing its job, but the job has seemingly created confusion and chaos. The scientific community is still uncertain about the cause and process of all the conditions that fall under the label of autoimmunity, and so I want to encourage you to consider the possibility that ten or twenty years down the road it may be discovered that what we thought was self-attack was actually self-preservation, keeping you alive and functioning at the primary level much longer.
The reality of living with autoimmunity
The frustration of living day to day with a body in chaos is brutal and not for the faint of heart. Receiving the diagnosis after potentially years of going from doctor to doctor can feel like a huge win. So celebrate the confirmation of your experience and never let anyone tell you it’s all in your head ever again.
That being said, there are trappings within a label that can be almost as disheartening as not having one. Being told you are stuck and never going to feel better is one. Being told you must remain on a medication until your final days is another. Many have fought against this and decided for themselves that they would not take this prediction lying down. They began searching and fighting for full health through alternative means. This is often how they find me.
Releasing the label
I would encourage you, outside of medical situations, to release your diagnosis and allow yourself to consider your body as a whole. It’s not just the symptoms, it’s a system, and if one area is suffering, then pulling back to see the full picture can give you the complete map and potentially some wisdom and guidance around the initial starting point of your present state. Where you’ve landed is not where it all started. It takes years to build the body to a point where it’s forced to choose between options that will save you in the now but harm you in the long run. The label will keep you too focused on one part of your body, and we need a wider lens.
There is also a secondary downside to receiving a label: the possibility of overidentifying with it to the point of it becoming your entire identity. I see this often in my practice. Relief at categorization turns quickly into an obsession with the condition, which can, in time, lead to full acceptance of a “forever” condition. When the brain reaches this state, it begins to see anything that could pull you out of your present dis-ease state as harmful to the ego, to your very personhood. This makes healing very difficult. The brain and body have a way of always looking to stay stable and safe. If losing the label would make you feel lost or unsure of who you are, that can be scary enough for your nervous system to avoid it at all costs. Holding your diagnosis lightly, with an acceptance of it as a temporary state, is what I recommend instead. I even advise reserving use of the term solely for medical settings, where it’s necessary for organization, or for explaining your needs to family, peers, or employers when they are not taking you seriously.
The invitation to reset the body
Let’s flip the script again. Your diagnosis is really an invitation to reconnect with your body. Autoimmunity has been demonstrated time and time again to be tied to emotional trauma, both big T and little t, and its repression. The messages you’re receiving from your body, though painful and frustrating, are actually just expressions of a body at its max.
When you turn inward and choose to love yourself and your body, through attention and care, you are changing the dynamic.
A closed body creates autoimmunity. An open body releases autoimmunity. So start here. It’s simple, free, and available to you in this very moment. Close your eyes and place your hands anywhere on your body that you feel led. Start gently talking to your body. Say what comes to your mind. If you get stuck, consider how you would talk to a little girl or boy who was hurt or lost. Take on that tone, speak at that pace, and use the kind and gentle words that would naturally flow out of you in that situation. Here are some examples: “I hear you.” “Thank you for letting me know something needs to change.” “You come before anyone else, now.” “I love you.” “I will not abandon you again.” “You are precious to me.” “I’ve got you.”
Study the connection between your body’s symptoms and your past and present emotional experiences. I often look to the ancient system of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for reference. Their body clock and emotion-to-organ pattern recognition are invaluable. For example, if you have been repressing years of anger, TCM has identified that this will impact your liver and gallbladder function and, as a result, affect your ability to balance blood sugar, maintain normal immune response, detox efficiently, and digest effectively. If TCM feels uncomfortable or strange, consider working with a somatic and complex-PTSD-trained therapist to navigate your mind-heart-body connections. Dr. Gabor Maté’s research is a great starting point.
What kind of environment did you grow up in? What does your current home and work life feel like right now? In the past decade? What do you hope to do with your life, and how much of your present is spent moving toward that? This all shifts your physiology, down to the level of cell function. Your body’s health state is the physical expression of all that your personhood has experienced thus far. Your story matters because your story is in your body.
How do I start my healing process?
You have the motivation to heal, but how do you go about it? As I’ve shared, considering the body as a whole is key. Get yourself supported with emotional education and understanding, and perhaps a professional guide, then start gently addressing the body.
While you may see symptoms flaring in one area of the body or in one system, such as the thyroid in Hashimoto’s or Graves, do not be misguided. If one area of the body is struggling, we need to review the entire entity.
Sustained healing occurs when we approach the body with a top and bottom plan. This is how I work. We bring in band-aid supports, like therapeutic-level supplementation, that will ease your everyday life and quickly reduce your symptoms. Once you’ve experienced some relief and your capacity for addressing your health expands, we can begin reviewing your body and identifying the foundational elements that have gone awry. We use data from lab work, your health story over the years, astrological mapping, and more to capture your unique patterns and needs. We then go all in and fully reset these systems. After you’ve been rebirthed, the band-aid supports become less and less relevant until you no longer need them. You’ve arrived.
My top and bottom strategy is often what sets me apart in my industry. I choose to recognize your need for immediate relief and provide you with tools to expand your abilities. You cannot work on deep system shifts like gut microbiome healing until you have the internal space to move through all the massive layers involved. Clients often come to me after spending years testing and trying to move through intense protocols, only to feel stuck, overwhelmed, or not see results. The body can’t move, shift, or heal if it’s overwhelmed and run down. Capacity is everything.
Consciously create room in the body for healing, then walk through a well-strategized and targeted protocol to reset the foundational causes, and you’ll be guaranteed results. This is how we bring both quick relief and establish long-term health. To work with me, start here.
There is always hope. Your body is brilliant and continually working for you. Let your diagnosis be a catalyst, the push you needed to step into renewal and rebirth. A return to the true, whole, and healthy you.
Read more from Jessica Michel
Jessica Michel, Health Reset Consultant
Jessica Michel is a health reset consultant specializing in artists and sensitives navigating chronic or mysterious dis-eases. Her drive comes from spending the last 20 years resolving her own body and experiencing firsthand the frustration of not fitting into the standard medical boxes. Known for her ability to find solutions to the seemingly impossible, Jessica brings an intuitive and practical approach to healing that allows her clients to fully rebirth into resilient, whole, healthy humans! In her world, where functional health meets ethereal insight, creatives are restored and empowered to live out their life's work with gusto and gumption.
