What If Your Body Isn’t Attacking You? A Nervous System Perspective on Autoimmune Disease
- Mar 17
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 18
Written by Jenna Ellis, High Performance Somatic Coach
Jenna Ellis is a High-Performance Somatic Coach specializing in nervous system regulation for women with autoimmune conditions. With 17 years of lived RA experience, she guides women from symptom management to embodied self-leadership through evidence-based somatic practices.
At 21 years old, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Like many people receiving an autoimmune diagnosis, I was told that my immune system was attacking my own body. For years, that explanation shaped my self-perception. If my body were the problem, then the solution must be learning how to manage or control it.
But over my 17-year journey with autoimmune disease, I began to see things differently. The body is not meant to work against us. Every system within it, from the nervous to the immune, exists to protect and sustain life.
That realization led me to ask a different question, "What if autoimmune disease is not the body attacking itself, but the body responding to prolonged stress and perceived threat?" Emerging research in neuroscience and psychoneuroimmunology explores the powerful link between the nervous system, chronic stress, and immune function. Understanding this relationship may shift how we think about autoimmune conditions, from a battle with the body to a deeper conversation with it.
Understanding autoimmune disease
Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system mistakenly targets the body’s own tissues. Instead of only attacking harmful invaders, such as viruses or bacteria, the immune system begins to react to cells within the body itself.
There are more than 80 recognized autoimmune conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. These conditions often involve chronic inflammation, fatigue, and pain, and they disproportionately affect women.
While genetics and environmental factors play important roles, researchers are increasingly examining the influence of chronic stress and nervous system regulation on immune function. Most treatment models understandably focus on symptom management and immune suppression. These approaches can be essential, yet they often leave another important piece of the puzzle unexplored, the state of the nervous system.
The nervous system–immune connection
The nervous system continuously scans the environment for signals of safety or danger. This process happens largely outside of conscious awareness. When the body perceives a threat, the nervous system activates survival responses such as fight, flight, or freeze. These responses are designed to help us navigate short-term danger.
However, when stress becomes chronic, the body may remain in prolonged states of activation. Over time, this constant stress signaling can influence hormonal regulation, inflammatory pathways, and immune responses.
Research in the field of psychoneuroimmunology has demonstrated that chronic psychological stress can significantly alter immune functioning and increase inflammatory activity in the body.[1] Additional research suggests that stress-related inflammatory responses are associated with a wide range of chronic health conditions.[2] These findings highlight an important truth, the nervous system and immune system are deeply interconnected.
Why autoimmune conditions disproportionately affect women
Autoimmune diseases affect women at significantly higher rates than men. In fact, approximately 80 percent of autoimmune diagnoses occur in women.[4]
There are several biological and hormonal factors that contribute to this disparity. Differences in sex hormones, genetic expression, and immune system activity can influence how inflammatory responses develop in the body. However, biological explanations alone may not tell the entire story.
Social and psychological dynamics may also play an important role. Women are often conditioned from an early age to prioritize responsibility, caregiving, emotional containment, and high levels of achievement. Over time, these patterns can create chronic internal pressure and nervous system strain.
Research exploring stress physiology suggests that prolonged psychological stress can alter inflammatory pathways and immune responses.[5] Many women become highly skilled at managing external demands while suppressing their own emotional or physical needs. The nervous system, however, continues to register these internal signals.
When stress responses remain activated for long periods of time, the body may struggle to return to states of restoration and repair. Understanding this dynamic does not place blame on individuals. Rather, it invites a deeper conversation about how cultural expectations, chronic stress, and nervous system patterns may intersect with long-term health.
The body as a protective system
One of the most transformative shifts in my own journey was letting go of the belief that my body had somehow turned against me. The human body is fundamentally protective. Every biological system, from the immune system to the stress response, is designed to preserve life.
When we view symptoms solely as malfunctions, we may miss the possibility that the body is communicating something important. Pain, fatigue, and inflammation may sometimes be signals that the nervous system has been operating under prolonged pressure.
This perspective does not deny the complexity of autoimmune disease, nor does it replace medical care. Rather, it invites a more compassionate understanding of the body’s signals. Instead of asking, “Why is my body attacking me?” we might begin asking a different question, “What is my body trying to communicate?”
Five somatic shifts that support nervous system regulation
Rebuilding trust with the body is not about fixing or forcing change. Instead, it involves creating conditions where the nervous system can begin to experience safety again. Below are five somatic shifts that can support nervous system balance and deepen the relationship with the body.
1. Developing felt sense awareness
Felt sense refers to the ability to notice physical sensations within the body. Many people spend most of their time in cognitive awareness, thinking, analyzing, and problem-solving. Somatic awareness invites attention back into the body. Simply noticing tension, breath patterns, or subtle sensations can help reconnect the mind and body. Over time, this awareness allows individuals to recognize stress signals earlier and respond with regulation rather than reactivity.
2. Regulating the breath
Breathing patterns have a direct influence on the nervous system. Slow, diaphragmatic breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which supports rest and restoration. Research on interoception, the awareness of internal bodily states, shows that practices involving breath awareness can improve emotional regulation and nervous system balance.[3]
3. Understanding survival patterns
Many behaviors that appear counterproductive are actually survival responses shaped by the nervous system. Patterns such as overworking, people-pleasing, perfectionism, or chronic overthinking often develop as strategies to maintain safety or acceptance. Recognizing these patterns with curiosity rather than judgment can allow the nervous system to begin releasing them.
4. Expanding nervous system capacity
Instead of pushing the body to do more, nervous system regulation focuses on increasing the capacity to experience life without becoming overwhelmed. Practices that support rest, emotional expression, and embodiment help create more internal space for regulation and resilience.
5. Rebuilding trust with the body
Perhaps the most important shift is changing the relationship we have with our bodies. Instead of viewing the body as something that needs to be controlled or corrected, we can begin to see it as a source of intelligence and information. This shift alone can profoundly change how individuals experience both their health and themselves.
A different relationship with the body
Living with autoimmune disease often leads people to feel as though they are in a constant battle with their own bodies. The language we use around illness frequently reinforces this idea, fighting disease, battling symptoms, pushing through pain. But what if the goal is not to fight the body at all?
One of the most transformative shifts individuals can make is changing the way they relate to their bodies. When we begin to see symptoms not as enemies but as signals, the conversation with the body changes. Instead of overriding physical cues, we become curious about them. Instead of pushing harder, we begin listening more closely.
From a nervous system perspective, this shift matters. The body responds to signals of safety and danger continuously. When we approach ourselves with curiosity and compassion, the nervous system can begin to soften out of survival states. The body is not something to control. It is something to understand.
Reconnecting with the body’s intelligence
If you are living with an autoimmune disease, know that your experience is not only physical. It is also deeply connected to the nervous system, emotional landscape, and the relationship you hold with your body.
Learning to regulate stress, listen to the body’s signals, and cultivate internal safety can become transformative parts of this journey. Through my own 17-year experience living with autoimmune disease, this understanding led me to develop a somatic framework that helps women reconnect with their bodies and nervous systems.
Your body is not broken, it is responding. More often than not, it is communicating.
Perhaps the real invitation is not to fight the body harder, but to learn a new language, the language of the nervous system, sensation, and the body’s intelligence.
Read more from Jenna Ellis
Jenna Ellis, High Performance Somatic Coach
Jenna Ellis is a High-Performance Somatic Coach who specializes in nervous system regulation for women with autoimmune conditions. Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at 21, she was told she'd never run again, today, she's in better physical condition than 17 years ago. Through her transformation journey, Jenna discovered that autoimmune conditions aren't the body attacking itself, but the body's intelligent attempt to protect and survive. She now guides women beyond symptom management to authentic self-leadership, serving clients globally from her base in New York. Her mission is to help women with autoimmune conditions reclaim their power and create lives aligned with their authentic truth.
References:
[1] Segerstrom, S. C., & Miller, G. E. (2004). Psychological stress and the human immune system: A meta-analytic study of 30 years of inquiry.
[2] Slavich, G. M., & Irwin, M. R. (2014). From stress to inflammation and major depressive disorder: A social signal transduction theory of depression.
[3] Farb, N. A., Segal, Z. V., & Anderson, A. K. (2015). Mindfulness meditation training alters
cortical representations of interoceptive attention.
[4] Fairweather, D., & Rose, N. R. (2004). Women and autoimmune diseases.
[5] Dhabhar, F. S. (2014). Effects of stress on immune function: The good, the bad, and the
beautiful.
