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        🏥&nbsp; What it means to have grown up with birth defects or early medical challenges
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<strong>Do you have physical differences from birth that required medical treatment you can't consciously recall? Does your body seem to react to medical situations in ways your mind can't quite explain?</strong>
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        Does this sound familiar?
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        💎 Early physical challenges shaped how your nervous system automatically handles stress—leaving you always scanning for danger, worried about getting sick, or just feeling generally on edge.<br><br>
        💎 Being born with physical differences taught you that your body was something to be worried about and fixed rather than trusted confidently.<br><br>
        💎 Medical settings trigger a visceral response—even routine check-ups can flood you with memories of vulnerability and loss of control.
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        You may have learned that your body was something to be worried about and fixed rather than trusted and celebrated. Early physical challenges shaped how your nervous system automatically handles stress—leaving you always scanning for danger, worried about getting sick, or feeling generally on edge. Being separated from your parents early on because of medical needs taught you that people you love might abandon you when you need them most.
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        You may have developed a complex relationship with your body—sometimes feeling betrayed by it, other times anxiously waiting for something to go wrong. The experience of being "different" from birth still influences how you see yourself in relation to others—at times feeling inferior, but at other times being fiercely defiant about what makes you unique. Your deepest belief is that there's something about you that is inherently flawed—a perception formed before you had words but that continues to shape your relationship with yourself.
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        💔&nbsp; The Core Wound
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        "You learned that your body is untrustworthy and defective, that your physical differences make you fundamentally flawed, and that love might disappear when you're most vulnerable and need it most."
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Tools & Learning

🏥13 Ways Birth Defects Trauma Affects Your Relationships

Acting Out for Love

Always Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop

Body That Doesn't Belong To You

Body That Remembers What You Forgot

Hair Trigger Alert

Hypnotized to Believe You're Damaged Goods

Same Dance, Different Partners

The Advocate

The Lightning Rod

The Love Earner

The Outsider

The Radar Always On

The Volcano