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Triage | Stephanie Ohannesian

@triageyourbrain

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Burnout Isn’t Overwork. It's Inherited Stress.
Cultural Neuroscience | Biohacking Your Brains Receipts
Founder, Triage | 🎙️ Host, Raw Onion Podcast

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Sunday afternoon. Laptop opens. Inbox count is in the hundreds. You tell yourself you’ll clear a few hundred today. Hours pass. You start to feel that surge of panic. The Sunday Scaries have arrived… you know you won’t get ahead of the week, it’s already too late … your amygdala is already firing warning shots. Your vagus nerve is already taking credit for that upset stomach. Your nucleaus accumbens - that part of the brain telling you the reward you strive for … it’s already lost. Your anterior cingualte cortex calculates going for that reward ain’t even worth it. So… before Monday morning, you’ve already lost your drive. Sound familiar? That’s why we’re talking to someone who is changing the way we work and worry… @carlynbushmanconsulting is taking AI and making it work for US not in competition, not in companionship but in company cohesion… mainly, by taking all that endless tasking and training off your table. How does this make us better? What happens to our brains when we let of endless to-do’s so we can pursue a new semblance of what it means to be human today? Can AI and @carlynbushmanconsulting ‘AI hires’ help us regulate our systems back to our former ‘fun’ selves… she convinced me we can. She is doing big things. I’d listen to her if I were you 🧠 #ai #aigirl #sundayscaries #corporate #girlboss by @triageyourbrain

ROAD TRIPS ESSENTIAL FOR MENTAL HEALTH? 🚘 😲 Burnout is among us. It’s here in the room with us. So… get outside and leave it behind. Long drives shift our eyes from narrow optics to panoramic… that signals our subconscious that we can take time to literally take in the view… we’re not in danger. Our brains are built to soak in beauty. We operate on a system more ancient than you know… honor that. Let your eyes wander. #peace #neuroscience #burnout #roadtrip #brainhealth by @triageyourbrain

♥️ I try very hard to practice what I preach. It’s an ethos I stand by because I have seen what happens when I don’t… I burnout.
That’s why I went offline for a bit and as the kids say ‘touched grass’… why? 🌞 💫 Because we need to learn how to play again. 💫 Because building a business is beautiful as it is absolutely brutal. 💫 Because grown up stuff is a grind we need to find a way out of every so often. 💫 Because life as a human in this world gets more surreal by the day and we need to remind ourselves that there are people and places where we do belong, we do feel safe, where we can let that armor go once in a while. 🧠 And as a nerd in nature, 🌱 we know science agrees…
Giving the brain a break is vital because modern life requires constant attention. This type of attention capacity is limited and eventually we fatigue. We are not AI.
Natural environments provide what researchers call ‘SOFT FASCINATION’ which is about gentle engaging stimuli, birds chirping, water flowing, trees in the wind. These things stimulate involuntary attention allowing your prefrontal cortex (your decision making part of the brain) to rest. Take the rest to be your best. 🤍 #nature #selfcare #neuroscience #play #rest by @triageyourbrain

♥️ Nobody told you that betrayal would feel like a physical injury.
But your brain didn’t get that memo.
Here’s what the neuroscience actually confirms:
🧠 When a social bond is threatened - through betrayal, rejection, or loss of trust, the brain activates circuits directly related to physical pain processing. This isn’t metaphor. It’s measurable neural activity.
🧠 The anterior cingulate cortex … the same region involved in the emotional component of physical pain - lights up during experiences of social betrayal and exclusion. Your brain genuinely does not treat being hurt by someone you trusted as just an emotional event.
🧠 The body responds to betrayal with a real stress hormone cascade, cortisol and adrenaline flood the system the same way they do during physical threat. Which is why betrayal can disrupt sleep, appetite, concentration, and immune function. You’re not being dramatic. You’re being biological.
🧠 Research confirms that the inherited patterns running underneath how we process betrayal matter enormously - people whose early attachment experiences involved repeated broken trust have nervous systems that are primed to detect betrayal faster, feel it more intensely, and recover from it more slowly. The wound isn’t just current. It has history.
This week on The Raw Onion … we’re going there.
Because the betrayal that’s still living in your body deserves more than “just get over it.” 🎙️
Link in comments.
Save this if it landed. Share it with someone still carrying a wound they were told wasn’t that serious.#neuroscience #brain #betrayed #pain #selflove❤️ by @triageyourbrain

Guess what guys… I got fired 😬 According to neuroscience, 🧠 it was a great sign. According to me, I’d never been so proud. 💪… 👂 LET ME EXPLAIN: Most of us have been in situations where something wrong was happening in plain view and said nothing.
We told ourselves it was strategy. Pick your battles. Not the right moment. Wait until you have more standing. And then the moment passed, and another one came, and that one passed too.
We call that a willpower problem. We tell ourselves we should have been braver, more disciplined, more principled. We add it to the running list of ways we are falling short of who we thought we would be by now.
It is not a willpower problem.
Your standards are not held up by resolve. They are held up by a body that feels safe enough to carry them. When your nervous system is running on threat, staying small is not a character failure. It is the most efficient thing your biology knows how to do. Speaking up requires a brain that is online. Chronic stress takes that offline.
Which is why so many of us end up in the same room twice. The same kind of company. The same kind of behavior. The same knot in the stomach on a Sunday night. Trust yourself and the standards you hold dear, and those standards will find a way of trusting you too… #neuroscience #worklife #value #nervoussystem #manifest by @triageyourbrain

We’re nerds for nerves over here 🤓 not only exploring how we remove stress from our lives at Triage but also looking at the big, dramatic relationship that CAUSES our stress on the Raw Onion 🧅 Podcast 🧠 and this week’s episode might change how you think about every relationship in your life.
Because the most important one? It’s not who you think.
It’s your brain and your body. And the vagus nerve is the connection running between them.
Here’s what the research actually says:
🧠 The vagus nerve is a complex network of more than 200,000 fibers connecting the brain to vital organs — regulating heart rate, breathing, and immune responses. It is not a small thing. It is the infrastructure of your entire inner world.
🧠 80% of vagal signals travel upward — from body to brain. Your body is not waiting for instructions. It is sending them. Constantly. The brain responds to what the body reports.
🧠 The vagus nerve is like the brake lines in a car — it is the brakes on inflammation. Chronic stress doesn’t just exhaust you mentally. It physically impairs this brake system — which is why burnout shows up in the body, not just the mind.
🧠 Decades of research have established a critical role for the vagus nerve signaling in peak physical and cognitive performance — including attention, working memory, and stress recovery. Your vagal tone isn’t just a wellness metric. It’s a performance metric.
🧠 Vagus nerve stimulation is currently being used to help individuals with treatment-resistant depression — people who didn’t respond to therapy or medication. The nerve is that powerful.
The twin flame relationship you’ve been neglecting has been inside you the whole time.
This week on The Raw Onion — we’re going there. Link in bio. 🎙️#peace #vagusnerve #nerd #nervoussystemregulation #science by @triageyourbrain

How cool is this?? My culture in action. This is inherited knowledge in action… because what we inherit matters. From inherited stress patterns, traditions, strengths and challenges… we inherit more than we know. We also inherit what heals us, and the ancient wisdom our ancestors inherently knew… we’re just understanding through science. This is the pomegranate man. This is fresh pomegranate being pressed the way it has been pressed in Armenia, Persia, and across the Middle East for over 4,000 years.
Here’s what science now confirms about what ancient generations already understood:
🧠 Pomegranate contains compounds called ellagitannins that the gut converts into urolithins — one of the few plant-derived substances that can actually cross the blood-brain barrier and protect neural tissue directly.
🧠 Clinical research shows daily pomegranate consumption measurably improves verbal memory and functional brain activation — and reduces inflammatory markers linked to chronic stress and nervous system dysregulation.
🧠 Its antioxidant capacity is among the highest documented in any food — directly protecting brain cells from oxidative damage caused by chronic stress.
Middle Eastern cultures didn’t need a peer-reviewed journal to tell them this. They watched it work. They pressed it at funerals and weddings. They gave it to the sick and the grieving. They passed the knowledge hand to hand across thousands of years.
That’s not superstition. That’s ancestral data.
And the most interesting thing about inherited wisdom? It often turns out to be the most accurate research we have.
Save this. Share it with someone who still has a grandmother who knows things science hasn’t caught up to yet. 🌿#inheritance #ancientwisdom #middleeast #healing #nutrition by @triageyourbrain

Do you really mean what you say, and say what you mean? Be honest. Really. Do our cultural cords get crossed by mixed meanings and messages? Our conversation this week on @therawonionpodcast revolves around the voice and power of words with professional singer and renowned speaking strategist @martaspirk… where we were raised, language, traditions, experiences and expectations shapes us. Shapes what we believe we can say, who we believe ourselves to be… and sometimes we need to be reminded that WE control the volume of our voice. There are endless versions of us in our voice, and truly, what we want is all we can speak into existence… let Marta guide the way as we poke fun at cultural nuance, nerd out on the neuroscience of words and unpack what it means to speak from your true identity… follow and subscribe to @therawonionpodcast and check out Marta here: @martaspirk!! Listen. Learn. Enjoy x #voice #speak #identity #words #power by @triageyourbrain

What do you think of company lingo used to bond but perhaps psychologically break the employee?? #workfamily #wordsmatter #corporateidentity #psychology by @triageyourbrain

What’s the most powerful antidepressant in the world? WATER 💦… Before you took your first breath — you were held in water.
Your nervous system formed in it. Your first sense of safety was fluid, warm, and weightless. And somewhere in your biology — that memory never left.
Here’s what the science says about what water actually does to your nervous system:
🧠 The Vagus Nerve Activates Immediately
The moment water touches your face your body initiates the diving reflex — a hardwired vagal response that slows your heart rate, redirects blood flow, and shifts your nervous system from threat mode into recovery. Research published in 2025 confirms that both facial immersion and chest-level water immersion measurably increase cardiac vagal activity — the biological signature of a nervous system finding its way back to safety.
Water tells your nervous system it can stand down.
🧠 You Share This Reflex With Every Marine Mammal on Earth
The dive reflex isn’t uniquely human. It’s mammalian. Whales, dolphins, seals, otters — and you — share the same ancient hardwired response to water contact.
The moment cold water hits your face three things happen automatically: your heart rate drops by up to 25%, blood vessels in your limbs constrict to redirect oxygenated blood to your brain and vital organs, and your spleen contracts to release a reserve of oxygen-rich red blood cells into circulation.
Your body does this in seconds. Without being asked. Without training.
This reflex is estimated to be over 25 million years old. It existed before stress culture. Before burnout. It is one of the oldest regulatory mechanisms in mammalian biology — and it is available to you every time you splash cold water on your face.
🧠 Ancient Civilizations Already Knew
Mikveh. Hammam. The Ganges. Roman baths. Indigenous cold river plunges. The Japanese practice of Misogi. Every ancient civilization built rituals around water — not because it was poetic. Because they observed what we are now measuring in labs.
The neuroscience is catching up to what our ancestors knew in their bones. #water #nervoussystemregulation #stress #vagusnerve #nerdinnature by @triageyourbrain

The Neuroscience of Old Friends… Ive known these gems for (gulp) going on 30 years! I bet you’ve got your own crew of OG’s too… Why are they so special? Your oldest friends are literally good for your brain. Here’s why:
🧠 Long-term friendships lower cortisol — the primary stress hormone linked to burnout
🧠 Shared history activates the brain’s safety response — your nervous system doesn’t have to work as hard to feel secure
🧠 Being truly known by another person — across time, across versions of yourself — is one of the most powerful antidotes to the isolation that drives chronic stress
🧠 Studies show people with long-term close friendships live longer, recover from illness faster, and report significantly higher life satisfaction
🧠 And here’s the one that stopped me in my tracks — science now shows that chosen lineage is as neurologically real as blood lineage. Researchers studying epigenetics and social bonding have found that long-term friendships can activate the same oxytocin and stress-regulation pathways as family attachment bonds. Your nervous system doesn’t distinguish between inherited belonging and chosen belonging built over decades. Ancestry isn’t only who you came from — it’s also who stayed.
The old Girl Scout song got it right before neuroscience caught up:
“Make new friends but keep the old — one is silver and the others gold.”
The gold ones? They’re not just friends.
They’re chosen ancestors.
Who’s your gold? Tag them. 💛 #oldfriends #neuroscience #og #stressreliever by @triageyourbrain

Burnout is not a lack of life balance, it’s a chronic inherited systems issue. I, for example am from proud immigrant parents, first generation and I love this about my lineage and myself. My Moms side were stewards of the land in Eastern Europe… hence my adoration of nature and being outside. Part of that heritage though was mired in memory of war, uncertainty and refugee fight or flight… two sides of the same epigenetic coin. Earlier in life, I listened too much to the inherited idea of ‘work hard, don’t speak up, stay quiet and one day someone will notice and reward your hard work’ … as was the way refugees stayed (stay) alive (we know now that today, these ideals translate to self betrayal rather than survival) and these behaviors no longer translate to success within American work life. I was eaten alive; I crashed and burned. Badly...
Once I pivoted back to that DNA deep love of nature instead, I realized work (for me) gained glorious momentum once I stepped outside with my laptop as much as possible… same tasks, different alignment. Sure, not doable every day, but when I can, I do. And look at that smile… inherited stress can become inherited strength if you learn to listen to the past while honoring yourself. Regulate the system by rewriting the space. #lineage #honor #alignment #worklifebalance❤️ #findyourself by @triageyourbrain