93: Can Your Brain Keep You Stuck in Chronic Illness? The Missing Role of Neuroplasticity in Healing with Faith Ashenden

What if you've optimized your thyroid hormones, improved your nutrition, reduced inflammation, and addressed the underlying biochemistry, but you still don't feel fully well?

In this episode of Modern Thyroid and Wellness, McCall McPherson welcomes chronic illness recovery educator Faith Ashenden for a fascinating conversation about the neuroscience of healing and how the brain may continue reinforcing chronic symptoms long after the body has begun to recover. After overcoming Graves' disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, IBS, panic attacks, and years of debilitating illness, Faith now teaches women how to retrain subconscious patterns, regulate the nervous system, and rebuild confidence in their health.

Together, McCall and Faith explore why healing is about more than lab work alone, how chronic illness can shape identity, and why combining functional medicine with nervous system work may help people move from simply managing symptoms to truly thriving.

Key Topics Covered

Faith's journey with Graves' disease and chronic illnessThe challenges of delayed diagnosis and years of debilitating symptomsGraves' disease versus Hashimoto's diseaseWhy treating thyroid disease doesn't always resolve every symptomThe role of functional medicine in Faith's recoveryWhat neuroplasticity is and how the brain adapts to chronic illnessHow chronic symptoms can become learned neurological patternsThe difference between biochemical healing and nervous system healingChronic illness identity and fear of relapseWhy trauma from chronic illness itself mattersCommon limiting beliefs that keep people feeling stuckPractical ways to begin retraining the brainWhy healing is rarely linearBuilding resilience through new beliefs and daily habitsCombining functional medicine with mindset and nervous system work

Faith's Story of Chronic Illness

Faith developed Graves' disease while attending college after experiencing severe anxiety, rapid weight loss, heart palpitations, overwhelming fatigue, and multiple unexplained symptoms. After months of searching for answers, she was finally diagnosed when an endocrinologist recognized the signs almost immediately.

Although treatment addressed her hyperthyroidism, Faith continued struggling for years with chronic fatigue, digestive issues, anxiety, and other persistent health challenges. Her experience eventually led her into functional medicine, where she began addressing the underlying physiological contributors to her symptoms before discovering the important role that neuroplasticity and the nervous system would play in her long-term recovery.

Why the Brain Matters in Chronic Illness

Faith explains that when symptoms persist for months or years, the brain naturally adapts.

Through neuroplasticity, the brain learns patterns that associate certain situations, environments, or activities with symptom responses. Even after many underlying physical issues have improved, these learned pathways may continue reinforcing chronic symptoms.

Rather than suggesting illness is "all in your head," Faith emphasizes that biochemical healing and nervous system healing often work together.