Lorwen Harris Nagle, PhD Profile picture
Jan 12, 2025 13 tweets 4 min read Read on X
The most taboo, weirdly romanticized, yet misunderstood topic of 2025:

Childhood trauma.

Dr. Jordan Peterson says it's why your Dad left, why your Mom cried alone, and why you're always anxious...

Here's how to reverse its damage naturally: 🧵 Image
Dr. Peterson says memories older than 18 months still stirring up emotions are a red flag of trauma that needs unpacking.

1st understand trauma happens in 2 stages:

1. Embodied terror
2. Conceptual processing
Terrible memories stay terrible until intentionally deconstructed.

When broken into manageable parts and challenged they dissolve.

Feel the feelings, but don't let them rule you.

As a Harvard-trained psychologist, here are 5 strategies I use with clients...
1/ Reframe distorted thoughts to loosen trauma's grip.

-Identify cognitive distortions
-Practice self-compassion over self-blame

You can't change what happened, but you can change the meaning you ascribe to it.
2/ Avoid trauma talk during an active crisis.

Dr. Peterson stresses not rushing to analyze trauma in the midst of a crisis.

When the house is on fire, just get out!

Well-intentioned "help" can backfire if mistimed.
3/ Old baggage loves to resurface in relationships.

-Focus on the current issues, not the past.
-Set clear conditions to resolve conflicts.
-Fight over what's happening NOW, not over everything.

One dispute pulls the thread, and suddenly every fight is about everything.
4/ You're not alone.

Shame from trauma is a universal human experience.

And, healing shame takes courageous vulnerability.

But you need to know: that vulnerable child isn't YOU anymore!
5/ Exposure therapy gradually desensitizes you to trauma triggers:

-Retrain your brain to lower reactivity.
-Always work with a trauma-informed therapist.
-Confront memories, situations, sensations in controlled doses.

It may feel slow-- even difficult --but you're reclaiming your life...
As a child, I experienced abandonment trauma.

By age 5, I'd crafted an alter ego that was tough and a tomboy. It
shielded the vulnerable side of me. And, I became self-alienated.

By 20, despite honors in school and blinding success, I fell into deep depression.

Years of therapy, spiritual work and working with others brought me to my true self. This could be your story too.
I have clients who've healed from horrible trauma.

Take the case of Rick, a 42 year-old founder I treated, he was riddled with chronic insomnia.

He would lie awake for hours, around 3 AM.
During therapy, he described growing up in a home where his father would come home drunk at 3 AM...
His father threw furniture and shouted waking the whole family every night.

As a little boy, Rick felt he must stay alert to keep safe and help his mother.
1 month into therapy, Rick was able to sleep through the night.
I've dedicated my life to helping people transform with mindfulness.

-Release anxiety naturally.
-End the cycle of overthinking.
-Transform fear through presence.

If you're facing these issues, schedule an Enlightenment Call to see if
I can help: calendly.com/lorwen_consult…
And, if this resonated with you, follow @LORWEN108 for similar threads on anxiety, stress, and mindfulness.

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More from @LORWEN108

Jun 1
The most dangerous condition doctors rarely test for:

High cortisol.

It quietly drives belly fat, broken sleep, brain fog, and burnout — even in people who “eat clean.”

Here are 8 science-backed ways to lower it:

1. Stop doomscrolling at night. Image
Your body cannot burn fat while your brain is scanning for danger.

Every scroll gives your nervous system more evidence that the world is unsafe:

• bad news
• comparison
• outrage
• sexual stimulation
• social rejection
• other people’s success

You call it “relaxing.”
Your cortisol calls it threat exposure.
2. Stop caffeine by noontime.

Using it to push through a depleted body creates a loop:

poor sleep → more caffeine → wired body → shallow sleep → higher cortisol → more caffeine

The problem is not coffee.
The problem is using stimulation to ignore the body’s distress signals.
Read 10 tweets
May 31
A Stanford neuroscientist warns high cortisol wrecks memory, enlarges your fear center, and make your brain feel broken.

If I wanted to fix it naturally, I'd do these 8 things every day:

1. Walk barefoot on grass for 5–7 minutes.
Your feet contain ~200,000 nerve endings.

When they touch grass, soil, or sand, your brain receives a flood of sensory information from the body.

That sensory input pulls attention out of rumination and back into physical awareness.

Direct contact with the earth lowers cortisol and reduce stress-related inflammation markers.

That’s why barefoot walking can feel so regulating.Image
2. Get sunlight in first 30 minutes upon awakening.

Cortisol naturally spikes 30-60 min after waking — to fuel the day.

Without morning light, the spike never crashes. It stays elevated by 2 PM.

Your brain is bathing in cortisol it should've cleared hours ago.
Read 16 tweets
May 31
Sticking your tongue out for 40 seconds may relax your jaw.

But it won't free your life.

Here are 7 hidden patterns nervous-system hacks can’t fix:

1. The inner dictator Image
Image
You don' say “should” because you lack discipline.

You say “should” because some part of you learned that obedience was safer than desire.

The problem is not the word.

The problem is the self that had to disappear beneath it when you were young.

Now, as an adult, you say it automatically and think it's the way life is.
2. The false self

You built a version of yourself that performs well, responds quickly, stays agreeable, and gets things done.

But the body knows when your life is being lived from compliance vs. real joy.

Anxiety is often the cost of abandoning your true self.
Read 9 tweets
May 30
High cortisol doesn’t just make you stressed.
It physically remodels your brain.

It shrinks the hippocampus — the brain’s calm/context center.

And enlarges the amygdala — the fear center keeping you anxious, reactive, and scanning for threats.

Stanford’s Robert Sapolsky explains why.

Here are 8 signs it’s already happening to you — and how to change it: 👇

1. You wake up exhausted even after 8 hours of sleep.
Your body was in bed.

But your brain was still on patrol.

High cortisol keeps the amygdala alert through the night — so you wake up tired, tense, and already behind.
2. Your eyes fly open at 3am.

It's not insomnia.

It's your HPA axis — the cortisol signaling chain between your brain and adrenal glands.

It has lost natural timing and fires early.

It means your body is running a threat scan at 3am.

Because your amygdala has convinced your nervous system there is no safe hour.
Read 13 tweets
May 29
High cortisol doesn’t just wake you at 3 AM.

It ages your face, kills your creativity, and makes a delayed text feel like rejection.

Most people think stress is “mental.”

But once cortisol stays high long enough, your body starts living as if danger is everywhere.

Here are 9 ways to lower it before it turns your body against you:

1. Stop doomscrolling before bed.
Your brain cannot enter deep sleep while processing:

• fear
• comparison
• constant stimulation
2. Stop using caffeine to override exhaustion.

Using it to push through a depleted body creates a loop:

poor sleep → more caffeine → wired body → shallow sleep → higher cortisol → more caffeine

The problem is not coffee.
The problem is using stimulation to ignore the body’s distress signals.
Read 11 tweets
May 29
Jay Shetty just had one of the world's top orthopedic surgeons on his podcast.

Dr. Vonda Wright.

She revealed why belly fat, brain fog, anxiety, and muscle loss are not separate problems.

Here are 5 facts that will change how you age:

1. Walking is brain medicine.
Most people think walking is just for burning calories.

But walking changes your brain.

Movement increases blood flow, supports brain health, and helps protect cognitive function as you age.

The way you move shapes the way you think.
2. Muscles are your 'longevity organ'.

Most people think muscle mass is about looking fit.

But muscles are metabolic just like your heart, lungs, & liver.

They help regulate blood sugar, support bone health, protect mobility, and change how your body ages.

This is why walking outdoors and strength training matter after 35.
Read 11 tweets

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