u/Interesting-Land-579

Hey everyone,

For the last month I’ve been doing somatic experiencing after years of antidepressant withdrawal and 29 years developmental trauma, and I’m noticing a shift I don’t fully know how to describe.
I feel more present, less reactive, and more in my body. There’s more space and flexibility instead of shutting down or getting overwhelmed.

What stands out most is the return of safety and pleasure. Music feels alive again (it was mostly gone for years), I have more clarity and ease, and even my sexuality feels more natural and less shut down.

For me, this feels like a huge shift like parts of being human that I’ve never experienced are coming online.

For context, I spent about a year+ doing TRE, plus yoga and Tai Chi, and they didn’t really give me this kind of regulation or containment. If anything, they brought up too much too fast like more activation and clarity without the capacity to handle it. SE feels very different in that way.

It’s not perfect. I still crash if I overdo it, and some practices (like pendulation) can be too activating, but orienting, grounding, and self-holding (favorite) have helped a lot.

Is this what people mean by increased capacity in SE? Or is there a better way to understand it?

I’ve been doing TRE + somatic tools (orienting, grounding, self-holding), and I’ve also been trying to reduce “inflammatory foods” (sugar, gluten, dairy, processed food) based on things I’ve read in trauma/nervous system spaces.

But I’m noticing something confusing:

When I restrict these foods, I feel a bit “cleaner” mentally like there’s less mental noise, but my nervous system feels less safe and more stressed overall.

When I include those l food items, I feel more regulated, grounded, and safe in my body, and TRE seems to work better, but I get some physical side effects and energy swings.

I also live in a high-stress, unstable environment and have a bad antidepressant withdrawal going on (3 years), so that might be a big factor.

So I’m confused:

Is this a “capacity” issue where restriction is too stressful for my system right now?

Or is diet restriction actually something that should come first in nervous system work?

Has anyone experienced something similar where dietary restriction increased dysregulation during trauma work?

Hello,

I’ve been doing somatic/trauma work for ~14 months and I do feel progress. When I’m away from stress, I feel more embodied, clear, confident, and alive.

But when I’m back in the environment, it drops hard. Like from 70–90% down to 10%. Shutdown, reactivity, no clarity.

Then it comes back again when I get space. So it feels real but very unstable.

I am working toward leaving, but it’s not immediate.

Is this normal? Does the healing still “count” even if it keeps getting overridden like this?