Antifragilient OS – NowShift Daily Transmissions

Your Thoughts Are Not Broken: Understanding the Cognitive Impact of Trauma | NowShift August 13, 2025

Dr Abhimanyou Raathore Season 1 Episode 16

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Your mind is not failing you — it’s protecting you.
 In Episode 4 of the Trauma Symptoms Mini-Series, Dr. Abhimanyou Raathore, founder of the Antifragilient OS, explores the cognitive ways trauma reshapes how we think, decide, and see ourselves.

We look at seven key patterns:

  • Decision paralysis that keeps you stuck
  • The relentless inner critic that won’t let up
  • Brain fog and trouble concentrating
  • Confusion and disorientation
  • Memory gaps that shield you from pain
  • Rumination loops that replay worst-case scenarios
  • Negative self-beliefs that feel impossible to change

Rather than treating these as flaws, Dr. Raathore reframes them as sophisticated survival strategies your brain created in response to overwhelming experiences. With awareness and the right support, these patterns can be rewired — and your relationship with your own mind can transform.

This episode offers both validation and clarity, giving you language for experiences you might have struggled to explain. It’s a step toward reclaiming your mental space and preparing for our next instalment, where we’ll explore the physical symptoms of trauma.

A podcast by Dr. Abhimanyou Raathore
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Speaker 1:

Today is August 13th 2025. My name is Dr Abhimanyu Rathore and I'm the founder of the Anti-Fragilient Operating System. Today's anti-fragilient transmission for the day is about cognitive symptoms of trauma. So I welcome you back to our trauma series and in this episode we are talking about cognitive symptoms. That's the way trauma can shape our thinking, our decision making and beliefs about ourselves and the world. So what are cognitive symptoms? In simple terms, let's understand that. See, trauma can leave an imprint on how we think, the way we process information, make choices and see ourselves.

Speaker 1:

And now let's talk about some common signs. The first one is inability to make decisions. You know feeling stuck. When choice comes up, choices come up right. Second, guessing yourself or fearing that you'll make the wrong move that's a cognitive symptom of trauma. Second is constant self-criticism. You know that harsh inner narrative or narrator you know that is always pointing out flaws, mistakes or what you should be better or ways you should be better, yeah. Third is difficulty concentrating. You know struggling to focus on tasks, conversations or even enjoyable activities, and your mind just keeps drifting. This could also be a cognitive trauma symptom.

Speaker 1:

Fourth is frequent confusion. You know feeling mentally foggy, easily mixed up or unsure of what's happening around you. Fifth is memory problems Okay, forgetting things from small details to entire events, sometimes because the brain is trying to protect you from painful recall. Sixth is negative or anxious rumination. You know going over the same worries or worst case scenarios again and again, and again. And you're going over the same worries or worst case scenarios again and again, and again, and you're unable to break the loop. Seventh is negative beliefs about self. You know holding on to ideas like I'm not good enough or I'm broken, even when others see your worth. So if these patterns sound familiar, know that you're not broken. You know your brain has adapted to protect you by developing these parts that think, feel, you know this way. That is, the managers, the firefighters and the exiles, and with awareness, you can begin to shift these patterns.

Speaker 1:

In our next episode we'll explore the physical or somatic symptoms. That is, how trauma can speak through your body. Do let me know how you're finding these episodes, because the aim of these episodes is that if you listen to them line by line, just one episode a day, also, it can begin the change for you, not just these mini-series, but the very first episode onwards. You could do that, or you could begin wherever you're starting from, whatever feels okay to you, right, you could begin there. Do let me know how it is going. Share it with people. Let's make more and more people in this world anti-fragilient. Thank you so much and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye-bye.