It wasn’t until the age of 41 that I realized that I had lived my entire life in survival brain mode, due to multiple heart concussions.  Heart concussions are traumas to the heart, some known and some unknown until years later.  Similar to brain concussions, the effects of these injuries don’t often occur at the time of the injury but manifest many years later.Three years ago, I went through a long period of extreme fatigue and weakness.  I was lethargic on a daily basis, no matter how much sleep I had gotten the night before and was lightheaded every time I stood up or got out of bed.  The smallest task brought extreme muscle fatigue, causing my body to severely ache in unusual places.  I was jumpy, irritable, and my heart would race at unusual times.  The scariest thing was that I also had trouble concentrating, had moments of confusion, and couldn’t remember simple, everyday words. 

At first, I thought I was dealing with a brain tumor, an autoimmune disease or thyroid issues, but all of my blood work came back normal.  My primary physician couldn’t explain why I was having these strange symptoms and instead of digging in deeper, she quickly prescribed me an anti-depressant.  Refusing to fill the prescription, I instead continued to research and pray into what was going on in my body while surviving on a steady medical diet of ibuprofen, Aleve, and Bio Freeze.  I would force myself to get out of bed each day and go to work, despite feeling like I was wearing a weighted body suit.  Each breath, each step felt heavy and labored, like I was trudging through thick mud or quicksand.  And while those sound similar to symptoms of depression, I wanted to treat the root of the problem and not just the symptoms.

One of my very best friends, Esther, works for a chiropractor/health and wellness doctor.  She would not relent in praying and hunting for answers to what was going on with my body.  She was even more of an advocate for my health than I was!  Esther called me at work one day and asked me an unusual request.  She wanted the nurse at our school to take my blood pressure while I was laying down and then stand up and have her immediately take my blood pressure again.  This is called the Ragland’s test.  When doing this, your systolic pressure should go up 8 to 10 mm.  Well, not only was my blood pressure low, but it dropped 6 mm when I stood up!  Esther had suspected that something was wrong with my adrenals and she was exactly right.  

Adrenal Fatigue occurs when the body can no longer cope with stress. Basically, my adrenal hormones had been pumping at such high levels for so long that they dropped to very low levels.  In a dream, the Lord showed me a picture of a rubber band that symbolized my adrenals.  Each time something traumatic happened in my life and my fight or flight response was triggered, the band would stretch more and more.  (If you know me well, you have heard my life’s story and if you don’t… well, stay tuned for the book… or ask me out for coffee 😉).  In short, my life had been filled with so much trauma and drama that the “rubber band” had been stretched so many times and finally snapped.  Therefore, my body could no longer tolerate stress of any kind and had been thrown into extreme mental and physical exhaustion.  

Knowing now what was causing the symptoms, we went after the root cause. I went to see Esther’s boss, Dr. Hutsell, and he helped save my life.  He prayed and prescribed natural supplements to support and strengthen my adrenal glands back to where they should be. It didn’t happen overnight.  It took many months, if not a year, to feel like I was back to my old self.  Through that entire process, Esther and Dr. Hutsell helped me learn how to listen to my body and feed it what it needs, to be the best me I can be.  It was a combination of prayer, supplements, healthy food, resting more, and me giving myself permission to put myself first.  It was also a time of searching my heart to make sure I did not hold any unforgiveness in my heart to those that had hurt me in the past.

I can’t tell you that I have been completely cured.  Every time I suffer an injury to the heart or am in a super stressful situation, I feel my adrenals weaken and the symptoms start trying to rise back up.  But I know better how to pray through and take care of my body through those intense times of stress and hurt.  You see, our brains process the world differently when it has experienced a traumatic event (or heart concussion) and thus goes into survival brain mode.  This quote sums up what survival brain mode is to me: “After a traumatic experience, the human system of self-preservation seems to go into permanent alert, as if the danger might return at any moment.”  Judith Lewis Herman.  I hadn’t realized that I had been living my life in survival brain mode.  I just did what I needed to do to get through each situation, not realizing the effect these heart concussions were having on my physical body. 

Sadly, I see more and more people walking around with heart concussions and living in survival brain mode.  I see them shopping in the grocery store, sitting in restaurants, walking down the halls of our schools, and even in the pews of our churches.  It’s become a silent epidemic that doesn’t even cross someone’s mind until they hear about a teen suicide or an active shooter.  But the bottom line is, 1 in 5 of us are suffering from heart trauma.

What’s the solution?  Knowing me, the obvious answer I am going to give you is Jesus, which is true.  But the other answer, the other solution… is YOU! Day after day, you are constantly crossing paths with people that you have no clue what condition their heart is in. And yet the interactions you have with them can have a lasting impact, because the way that you respond to someone suffering with heart concussions and living in survival mode is either contributing to their trauma or contributing to their healing. It can be as simple as a frown vs. a smile or a mean comment vs. a kind word.  It can also be as unintentional as ignoring or overlooking those that God puts in your path. Studies show that the best thing you can do for someone living in survival brain mode is to help make them feel safe as that activates the calm part of their brain.  You can do that by making everyone you come into contact with feel valued, appreciated, and loved. That takes being intentional and paying attention! It also requires you to be a good listener; to other people and to the Holy Spirit.

To put it simply, my friends: kind hearts lead to healed hearts… and what does it really cost you to be kind?