Your labs confirmed the autoimmune diagnosis. The hardest symptom turned out to be the one nobody prepared you for.

Dr. Aimie goes solo on depression and autoimmunity, and which one actually comes first. The answer is less orderly than the one most people are given, and it changes what to do about it.

➡️ Full show notes and research: CLICK HERE

Most people are told depression is a reasonable response to being ill. Dr. Aimie interrupts that conclusion with what the research shows: each condition carries close to double the risk of the other, depression turns up in the two years before a diagnosis is made, and roughly a quarter of the link between early adversity and autoimmune disease appears to travel through mental health on the way.

She also walks through why this depression rarely feels like sadness, and why the medication may have underperformed. She was on two of them herself, and the hardest part was not the depression.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:
0:00 The hardest symptom of an autoimmune diagnosis
02:41 — Why is depression treated as the reasonable response to a diagnosis?
04:49 — What does double the risk actually mean for you?
07:58 — What is a dose-response pattern and why does it matter?
09:45 — Where does the childhood adversity evidence stop?
12:19 — What does it mean that depression mediates part of the link?
13:54 — What happens when your cells stop responding to cortisol?
15:55 — Why does this feel like the flu rather than sadness?
20:48 — Why has working on your thoughts not moved it?
22:55 — Why do antidepressants underperform here?
24:54 — What does the infliximab trial actually prove?
28:48 — Where do you start when both are running?

"Depression is part of the road from I was healthy to I now have an autoimmune diagnosis." — Dr. Aimie Apigian

If the antidepressant did not do much and you quietly concluded something was wrong with you, this episode is for you.

RESOURCES:

Take the FREE 2-Minute Assessment for Discovering Your Pattern of Stored Trauma: You cannot change a pattern you cannot see. Find your primary pattern of responding when life becomes too much, then see how the other four show up.

Get The Biology of Trauma: Disease is one of the five patterns of stored trauma.

Nothing in this episode is a recommendation to change or stop a medication. Talk to the prescriber who knows your history.

This episode is educational and is not medical advice. Please work with your own qualified healthcare provider for decisions about your care.