Understanding Autoimmune Disease – The Impact of Stress and Trauma and 5 Healing Strategies
Written by Emma Toms, The Confident Wellness Coach
Emma Toms is an Integrated Wellness Coach, IEMT Practitioner, Reiki Master Teacher, and Certified SSP Provider. Drawing on her own healing journey through autoimmune illness, she empowers clients to restore balance, build resilience, and reconnect with their true nature.
Autoimmune diseases affect over 80 million people worldwide, yet most of the answers people find when searching “what causes autoimmune disease” are vague. Genetics, environment, lifestyle, “we don’t really know.”
This limited narrative leaves many patients stuck managing symptoms of inflammation, fatigue, joint pain, and brain fog without understanding the deeper systems at play. Medications, diets, and exercise routines dominate the conversation, but they rarely address the silent thread weaving through it all, stress and nervous system dysregulation.
The missing piece: Stress and autoimmune disease
The immune system and the nervous system are in constant dialogue. Together, they determine how the body responds to threats, repairs itself, and maintains balance. When the nervous system feels safe, the immune system can operate with precision, identifying pathogens, repairing tissues, and recognising self from non-self.
But chronic stress changes the conversation. Daily stress from modern life may keep the body in a subtle state of vigilance.
Early life stress and trauma have been shown in research to shape immune function for decades, altering the way the body regulates inflammation.
Chronic nervous system dysregulation, being stuck in fight, flight, or freeze, continually signals danger to the immune system.
Over time, this pattern can lead to an immune system that is over-alert, hypervigilant, and prone to attacking the very body it was designed to protect.
Trauma and the immune system
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) studies and subsequent research have demonstrated that early adversity, neglect, abuse, and chronic household stress have a profound effect on lifelong health. These experiences don’t just live in memory, they become imprinted into the nervous system, shaping how the immune system operates.
This may explain why many people with autoimmune conditions can trace flare-ups or disease onset back to periods of major stress, unresolved grief, or trauma.
The real problem: Lack of education
The tragedy is that most people are never taught how deeply stress and trauma affect immunity.
We medicate inflammation but ignore the fire that fuels it. We prescribe diets and exercise plans without addressing nervous system safety. We dismiss trauma as “psychological” while it quietly drives immune chaos.
This lack of education keeps millions fighting their symptoms without ever addressing the root.
From symptom management to system healing
Autoimmune healing requires a shift in perspective, away from fighting the body, toward supporting it. By focusing on nervous system regulation, stress reduction, and whole-person wellbeing, people can begin to change their relationship with their condition.
5 practical steps to begin getting well and staying well
1. Learn the language of your nervous system
Healing starts with awareness. Notice when your body feels safe, grounded, or calm and when it tips into stress, overwhelm, or shutdown. Tools like breath awareness, body scanning, and journaling can help you track patterns.
2. Prioritise regulation over perfection
It’s tempting to chase the “perfect diet” or “perfect lifestyle,” but what your immune system needs most is a regulated nervous system. Practices such as breathwork, somatic movement, yoga nidra, or meditation calm the stress response and bring the body into repair mode.
3. Address early stress and trauma gently
Unresolved trauma shapes immune health. Working with trauma-informed practitioners, whether through therapies like IEMT (Integral Eye Movement Therapy), somatic practices, or safe talk-based approaches, can help release survival patterns that keep the immune system stuck in overdrive.
4. Build rest into your routine
Autoimmune bodies don’t thrive on constant productivity. Deep rest isn’t laziness, it’s medicine. Schedule downtime, honour your sleep, and experiment with restorative practices like yoga nidra, deep relaxation, journaling, or quiet time in nature.
5. Create a supportive lifestyle, not a restrictive one
Instead of framing your life around what you can’t do or can’t eat, focus on what nourishes you. Choose anti-inflammatory foods, nurture healthy relationships, and spend time in environments that reduce stress rather than add to it. Healing is not about deprivation, it’s about building safety and abundance.
Final word: You are not broken
If you live with an autoimmune condition, your body is not betraying you, it is responding exactly as it was trained to under years of stress and survival. Healing is not about battling yourself but about rebuilding harmony between your nervous system and immune system.
With the right tools, knowledge, and support, it is possible to move from symptom management into true restoration.
Work with Emma. Book a free introductory call now!
Read more from Emma Toms
Emma Toms, The Confident Wellness Coach
Emma Toms is an Integrated Wellness Coach, IEMT Practitioner, Reiki Master Teacher, and Certified SSP Provider. With more than 30 years of lived experience following an autoimmune diagnosis, she combines expertise in neuroscience, somatic practice, and energy work to deliver a comprehensive approach to wellness. Her background spans both healthcare and holistic settings, giving her a unique perspective on the intersection of science and spirituality. Having overcome her own challenges with Graves’ Disease and chronic stress, Emma now guides clients to restore balance, build resilience, and reconnect with their true nature.
References:
Miller, G.E., Chen, E., & Parker, K.J. (2011). Psychological stress in childhood and susceptibility to the chronic diseases of aging: Moving toward a model of behavioral and biological mechanisms. Psychological Bulletin, 137(6), 959-997.
Dhabhar, F.S. (2014). Effects of stress on immune function: The good, the bad, and the beautiful. Immunologic Research, 58(2-3), 193-210.
Chrousos, G.P. (2009). Stress and disorders of the stress system. Nature Reviews Endocrinology, 5(7), 374-381.
Black, D.S., & Slavich, G.M. (2016). Mindfulness meditation and the immune system: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1373(1), 13-24.
Harvard Health Publishing. (2020). Autoimmune diseases and stress: understanding the connection.
