(And Why Unlearning It Is Part of Healing)
Trauma survivors don’t ignore their intuition because it’s broken.
They ignore it because their nervous system was trained to.
Overriding gut feelings is not a personality trait — it’s a survival skill learned under threat.
1. Trauma Punishes Listening to Intuition
In abusive or unsafe environments, intuition often says:
- “This isn’t safe”
- “I need to leave”
- “Something is wrong”
But acting on that intuition may have led to:
- punishment
- escalation
- ridicule
- abandonment
- danger
So the brain learns a brutal lesson:
“Listening to my instincts makes things worse.”
The nervous system adapts by suppressing intuition to survive.
2. Gaslighting Rewires Trust Away From the Body
Repeated gaslighting trains the brain to distrust its own signals.
When someone repeatedly hears:
- “You’re imagining it”
- “You’re too sensitive”
- “That didn’t happen”
- “You’re overreacting”
The prefrontal cortex starts overriding bodily input from:
- the amygdala
- the insula
- the gut–brain axis
Neuroscience translation:
External reality replaces internal truth.
Over time, the brain learns:
“Other people’s interpretations are safer than mine.”
3. Appeasement (Fawn Response) Overrides Instinct
Many trauma survivors survive by appeasing, not resisting.
The fawn response teaches:
- suppress anger
- ignore discomfort
- prioritise others’ emotions
- smooth things over quickly
Intuition becomes inconvenient because it threatens connection — and connection once equalled safety.
So the nervous system learns:
“Ignore the warning. Keep the bond.”
4. Chronic Stress Blunts Interoception
Trauma disrupts interoception — the brain’s ability to accurately read body signals.
When cortisol stays elevated for long periods:
- body signals become noisy
- sensations feel confusing or delayed
- intuition feels unreliable
This doesn’t mean intuition is wrong — it means the signal was drowned out by stress.
5. Trauma Teaches Delayed Self-Trust
In unsafe environments, survival often depends on:
- waiting
- watching
- enduring
- tolerating
So intuition gets reframed as:
- impulsive
- dangerous
- selfish
- inconvenient
The survivor becomes highly skilled at endurance, not exit.
6. Why Logic Gets Used Against the Body
Trauma survivors are often praised for being:
- reasonable
- calm
- understanding
- rational
So the brain learns to use logic to override instinct:
- “There’s no proof”
- “It’s not that bad”
- “Others have it worse”
- “I should be fair”
This isn’t wisdom — it’s fear dressed as reason.
7. Healing Means Re-Authorising the Body
Recovery isn’t about becoming hyper-intuitive or reactive.
It’s about re-establishing partnership between body and mind.
Healing intuition looks like:
- pausing instead of pushing
- listening without immediately acting
- trusting discomfort as data
- letting safety — not explanation — lead
Each time intuition is honoured and nothing bad happens, the nervous system updates:
“I’m allowed to listen now.”
That’s neuroplasticity.
The Reframe That Changes Everything
Ignoring intuition once kept you safe.
Listening to it now keeps you free.
Your instincts were never broken.
They were silenced by necessity.
And the moment safety returns, intuition doesn’t need to be rebuilt —
it just needs to be given permission to speak again.
