In my last post, I shared how over 80% of autoimmune diseases affect women, and more than half of those cases are linked to chronic stress. What I didn’t share was just how personal this topic is for me.
This isn’t just a professional interest or something I read about in a textbook—this is my lived experience.
For years, I moved through life with a low hum of exhaustion, inflammation, and inner chaos that I couldn’t quite name. I pushed through. I performed wellness. I kept going. And for a long time, I didn’t connect the dots between my symptoms and the stress my body had silently been storing for decades.
This blog post is my story—but it’s also an invitation to explore yours. Because if you're reading this and something in you whispers, "Me too," then you're exactly who I wrote this for.
Stress Isn't Just Mental - It's Cellular
Most of us are taught to think of stress as mental—worrying about deadlines, juggling relationships, managing finances. But chronic stress is so much more than mental strain. It lives in the body. It embeds itself in the fascia, the gut, the immune system, the breath.
And the longer it stays unaddressed, the louder the body speaks.
In my case, my body didn’t whisper. It roared.
The Slow Creep of Symptoms
My symptoms didn’t show up overnight. They layered in slowly, over years:
- Frequent headaches and sinus pressure
- Digestive issues I chalked up to “just stress”
- Brain fog and word recall difficulties
- Skin sensitivity and mysterious rashes
- Fatigue that sleep didn’t touch
- Heightened anxiety and emotional fragility
And still, I kept moving. I had businesses to build, clients to serve, a family to care for. I told myself it was perimenopause, aging, adrenal fatigue—anything but something serious.
Until I couldn’t ignore it anymore.
The Implant Wake-Up Call
One of the most pivotal moments in my health journey came when I began to suspect that my saline breast implants, which I had for over 20 years, were contributing to my declining health. My doctors started to consider mold, biofilm, and fungal growth inside the implants as a possible source of my immune symptoms—something I had never imagined.
What’s important here is not just the implants—it’s what they represented:
A lifetime of putting external expectations over internal well-being.
I had normalized stress, normalized hustle, normalized silence. And my body had been keeping score.
Connecting the Dots: Autoimmunity and the Nervous System
At some point, I had to step back and ask: What if my body isn't failing me—what if it’s protecting me in the only way it knows how?
This question changed everything.
You see, autoimmune diseases aren’t random acts of betrayal by the body. They are messages. They’re the immune system on high alert—because it thinks it’s under threat.
And what puts the body in a constant state of threat?
Chronic, unresolved stress.
Especially the kind that comes from:
- Emotional trauma
- People-pleasing and perfectionism
- Suppressed anger and grief
- A dysregulated nervous system that's forgotten what "safety" feels like
The Cultural Pressure Cooker Women Live In
As women, we live in bodies that are constantly expected to do more, be more, give more.
We are taught to:
- Smile even when we’re crumbling
- Nurture everyone else before ourselves
- Push through pain because rest is “lazy”
- Be strong, but not too strong
- Stay silent if it makes others uncomfortable
That pressure doesn’t just impact our minds. It gets metabolized. Stored. Encoded. And eventually, the immune system responds.
This isn’t just about cortisol levels or hormone panels—it’s about the energetic cost of a lifetime of over-functioning.
When the Diagnosis Isn't Clear, But the Suffering Is Real
One of the hardest parts of navigating autoimmune-like symptoms is that they often don’t show up “clearly” in labs for years.
I was in that gray zone: the “normal” labs, but abnormal life experience.
This is where so many women fall through the cracks. We’re told:
- “You’re just stressed.”
- “Your labs look fine.”
- “Maybe it’s anxiety.”
- “It’s probably early menopause.”
And because we’ve been conditioned to doubt ourselves, we believe it.
I did, too—until I didn’t anymore.
The Turning Point: Listening Inward
There was no single moment of awakening, no dramatic collapse. Just a slow unraveling that brought me to a simple truth:
If I wanted to heal, I had to stop overriding my body and start partnering with it.
That meant:
- Slowing down
- Unlearning my addiction to busyness
- Regulating my nervous system
- Feeling long-buried emotions
- Exploring somatic healing and spiritual practices
- Releasing trauma from the body—not just the mind
- And yes, eventually—removing my implants
Healing wasn’t a protocol. It was a reorientation.
What I Know Now (That I Wish I Knew Then)
- The body never lies. Symptoms are communication, not malfunction.
- Chronic stress is not a badge of honor. It’s a signal to pause, not push.
- Autoimmune symptoms are often the result of accumulated overwhelm—emotional, physical, and energetic.
- Healing doesn’t begin with a diagnosis. It begins with curiosity and compassion.
There is no quick fix. But there is a path. And it's one you can walk with support.
If You're On This Path, Here's What I Want You to Know
- You’re not imagining things.
- You don’t have to earn rest.
- You are not a burden.
- You are not broken.
- And you are allowed to say, "This is too much."
Your body is not the enemy—it’s the wise messenger of everything that’s been too heavy to carry silently.
From Surviving to Reclaiming
This journey cracked me open. It brought me into deeper alignment with the sacred feminine, with the rhythms of nature, and with my own intuitive knowing. It also inspired me to create programs, circles, and spaces where women could reclaim their health not through willpower, but through wholeness.
If you’re navigating autoimmune symptoms, burnout, or chronic stress and don’t know where to begin, I see you. I was you.
And I’d be honored to walk with you.
What's Coming Next
In the next post, I’ll be breaking down how to regulate your nervous system to reduce autoimmune flares—including practices I use daily that have helped me rebuild trust with my body.
We’ll explore:
- Vagal nerve toning
- Somatic safety
- Breathwork for immune support
- How to shift out of freeze or fight-or-flight states
- Tools for women with trauma or burnout who feel stuck in survival mode
Because stress may be the silent root of many autoimmune issues—but nervous system safety is the soil where healing begins.
If this story resonates with you...
…You’re not alone. Share this with a sister, a mother, a friend who might be quietly suffering and needs permission to pause. And if you’re ready to explore this healing journey with support, keep following along—I have something for you.
Your body remembers how to heal. Let’s help her feel safe enough to begin.
With love and reverence,
Marcie
Marcie
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