The Hidden Connection Between Betrayal and Gut Health That Many
Practitioners Are Missing

The Case That Changed Everything

Sarah sat across from me, frustrated and exhausted. For three years, she’d been battling digestive issues that seemed to have no clear cause. She’d worked with gastroenterologists, functional medicine practitioners, and nutritionists. She’d tried elimination diets, expensive probiotics, gut healing protocols, and countless supplements. Her labs showed chronic inflammation, but nothing specific enough to explain her symptoms.

“I’ve done everything right,” she told me. “I eat perfectly, I take all the supplements, I follow every protocol. But I still wake up with stomach pain, bloating, and this constant feeling like my body is fighting against me.”

What Sarah’s other practitioners didn’t know was that her symptoms had started shortly after discovering her husband’s affair. The betrayal had shattered more than her marriage—it had fundamentally altered her nervous system’s ability to feel safe, directly impacting her body’s capacity to heal.

The Shocking Reality

Here’s what most health practitioners don’t realize: 45% of people who’ve experienced betrayal develop gut issues. Yet this connection is rarely explored in traditional health protocols.

Betrayal trauma affects a huge amount of the population at some point in their lives—whether through infidelity, workplace betrayal, family betrayal, or institutional betrayal. That means millions of people are walking around with unresolved trauma that’s manifesting in their physical health, particularly in their digestive systems.

The Science Behind the Connection

When someone experiences betrayal, their nervous system shifts into a state of chronic hypervigilance. The body doesn’t distinguish between physical danger and emotional threat—betrayal registers as a survival threat, triggering the same stress response as a physical attack.

The Gut-Brain Axis Under Siege

The enteric nervous system—often called our “second brain”—contains more than 500 million neurons and produces 90% of our body’s serotonin. When betrayal trauma keeps the nervous system in a constant state of fight-or-flight, it directly impacts:

• Digestive enzyme production: Stress hormones like cortisol suppress digestive function
• Gut motility: Chronic stress can cause both constipation and IBS-like symptoms
• Intestinal permeability: Prolonged stress increases gut barrier dysfunction
• Microbiome balance: Chronic stress alters beneficial bacteria populations
• Inflammation markers: Persistent stress elevates inflammatory cytokines throughout the body

Beyond the Gut

The physical manifestations of unhealed betrayal extend far beyond digestive issues:

• Autoimmune conditions: The chronic inflammatory response can trigger autoimmune reactions
• Sleep disruption: Hypervigilance interferes with restorative sleep cycles
• Chronic fatigue: The nervous system’s constant state of alert depletes energy reserves
• Hormonal imbalances: Elevated stress hormones disrupt thyroid, adrenal, and reproductive function
• Cardiovascular issues: Chronic stress impacts heart rate variability and blood pressure

What Practitioners Are Seeing (But May Not Recognize)

If you’re a health practitioner, you’ve likely encountered clients who present with these patterns:

The Plateau Client

They follow your protocols perfectly but hit a wall in their healing journey. Labs improve slightly, but symptoms persist. They seem to be doing everything right, yet something is blocking their progress.

The Anxious Eater

They’ve developed food fears or digestive anxiety that doesn’t correlate with actual food sensitivities. They may have physical reactions to foods that test fine in sensitivity panels.

The Hypervigilant Healer

They research obsessively, follow protocols rigidly, and seem almost desperate to find “the answer.” Their health anxiety seems disproportionate to their actual symptoms.

The Stress-Symptom Cycle

Their symptoms worsen during times of stress, but traditional stress management techniques (meditation, yoga, breathing exercises) provide minimal relief. Their nervous system seems “stuck” in high alert.

The Disconnected Client

They describe feeling disconnected from their body, having trouble identifying hunger/fullness cues, or feeling like their body has “betrayed” them through illness.

The Training Gap

Medical and health professional training focuses on biochemistry, nutrition, and physical interventions. While trauma-informed care is gaining recognition, the specific connection between betrayal trauma and physical health symptoms remains largely unexplored in most circles.

Most practitioners learn to ask about physical stressors, environmental toxins, and lifestyle factors. Few are trained to recognize the signs of betrayal trauma or understand how it specifically impacts physical healing.

This creates a gap where practitioners may successfully address symptoms temporarily, but miss the underlying nervous system dysregulation that keeps clients stuck in chronic illness patterns.

The Missing Piece in Your Practice

Understanding betrayal trauma doesn’t mean necessarily becoming a trauma coach or practitioner. It means recognizing when trauma may be impacting your client’s physical healing and knowing how to work with their nervous system to create safety—a prerequisite for any lasting physical healing.

When practitioners understand this connection, they can:

• Recognize when emotional trauma may be blocking physical healing
• Adapt their approach to work with, rather than against, a dysregulated nervous system
• Provide more comprehensive support that addresses root causes
• Achieve better outcomes with clients who previously seemed “treatment resistant”

Your Experience Matters

Have you noticed clients whose physical symptoms don’t fully resolve despite perfect protocol compliance? Have you worked with someone whose health anxiety seemed disproportionate to their actual condition? Have you encountered clients who describe feeling like their body has “betrayed” them?

I’d love to hear about your experiences. The more we understand these patterns, the better we can serve the clients who need this deeper level of support.

What patterns have you noticed in your practice that might connect to this betrayal-health relationship?

If you’re a health practitioner interested in learning more about recognizing and addressing the betrayal-health connection in your practice, I’d love to connect with you. Understanding these patterns has transformed how I work with clients—and it could transform your practice too.

Dr. Debi Silber, Founder and CEO of The PBT (Post Betrayal Transformation) Institute and  National Forgiveness Day is a WBENC-Certified WBE (Women’s Business Enterprise), an award-winning speaker, bestselling author, holistic psychologist, a health, mindset and personal development expert who helps (along with her incredibly gifted Certified PBT-Post Betrayal Transformation Coaches and Practitioners) a predictable, proven multi-pronged approach to help people heal (physically, mentally and emotionally) from the trauma of shattered trust and betrayal.