Dr Maria Cronyn

03/01/2026

Epigenetics researchers at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and INSERM have completed the most definitive human study of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance ever conducted — following three generations of Holocaust survivor families, Cambodian genocide survivor families, and control populations across 25 years — finding specific, reproducible methylation changes in stress-response genes (particularly the FKBP5 and NR3C1 glucocorticoid receptor genes) that are present in trauma survivors, transmitted to their biological children, and detectable in grandchildren who never experienced trauma themselves. Emotional pain leaves molecular scars. Those scars are heritable. 🧬
The mechanism — once considered impossible in mammals because the genetic dogma held that acquired characteristics cannot be inherited — operates through the germline epigenome. During the formation of s***m and eggs, the genome undergoes near-complete epigenetic reprogramming to remove parental marks. "Near-complete" is the operative word. Certain loci, including stress-response gene promoters, resist this reprogramming when the parent's stress exposure has been sufficiently severe and prolonged, maintaining their trauma-induced methylation patterns through the reprogramming process and passing them to the offspring's genome. The trauma experience writes itself into the reproductive cells.
The clinical implications are profound and already actionable. Children and grandchildren of trauma survivors show elevated baseline cortisol levels, altered HPA axis responsiveness, and increased risk of PTSD, anxiety, and depression — not because of how they were raised, but because of how their grandparents suffered. Understanding this mechanism means targeted epigenetic therapies could potentially reverse inherited stress marks, liberating future generations from trauma they never personally experienced.
The Pasteur team is now working with EMDR and methylation-targeting drug combinations. This is no longer metaphor — the inheritance of trauma is molecular, measurable, and potentially reversible.
Source: Institut Pasteur Paris / INSERM, Nature Reviews Genetics 2025

02/10/2026

That’s mine nonprofit right there. Thank you Totus for putting me in your magazine. It’s so wonderful to be seen. I haven’t lived in Scottsdale terribly long and I worked very hard in 2025 organizing the foundation of this nonprofit and I feel like it will do great things for humanity.

Learn about this new non-profit service in Arizona, Adoption Evolution, helping people sort through adoption trauma in our latest issue of TOTUS Magazine.

https://totusmagazine.com/phoenix-metro-directory

02/06/2026

Oh this is so insidious

🌼 🌸 A.C.🌻 🌹 yup and abusive colleagues and neighbors do the same thing sometimes.

02/05/2026

It is a profound chemical change, and it doesn’t just snap back into place potentially. Also, at this time a person is particularly vulnerable to trauma.

The postpartum phase is not a mood shift, an emotional dip, or a “rough couple of weeks”. It is the single greatest hormonal crash in the human lifespan, a biological event so extreme that if it happened to anyone outside of childbirth, it would be treated as a medical crisis, not a personality change. Within just 72 hours estrogen and progesterone collapse more than 1,000% (meaning they fall to 1/10th of their level), dropping from the highest levels a human will ever experience to nearly zero. And, women endure this while healing from birth, producing milk around the clock, and surviving some of the worst sleep deprivation ever documented.
This crash doesn’t just affect mood, it impacts cognition, physical functioning, emotional regulation, and stress tolerance. Brain imaging shows that postpartum mothers temporarily shift into survival mode: heightened threat awareness, reduced cognitive bandwidth, and amplified emotional load - not because they’re overreacting, but because their brain is actively rewiring itself to protect a newborn who cannot survive without them.
At the same time, the body is rerouting nutrients, pulling minerals from the bones, healing tissues, stabilizing organs, and producing milk that costs 400-700 calories a day, and yet society expects mothers to “feel like themselves” within 6 weeks — a timeline completed disconnected from biology.
Postpartum isn’t weakness, it’s physiology under maximum load. If we truly want to support new mothers, we must start acknowledging the science: healing requires time, nourishment, help, support, and protection from overwhelm. When we honor the mother’s recovery, we strengthen the child she is raising, and that is how generational health begins.
SOURCES:
Schiller et al, Nature Neuroscience (2016): Hormonal shifts postpartum and brain remodeling.
Glynn, psychoneuroendocrinology (2010-2014): Postpartum hormonal crash and cognitive effects.
Buck Walter et al., Journal of Neuroscience (1999-2011): Postpartum brain structural changes and emotional regulation

02/04/2026

Buffalo’s homeopathic Hospital had an ambulance. I saw that picture in there. I was born in Millard Fillmore Hospital gate Circle, which was a homeopathic hospital.

02/03/2026

If you’re a sober woman, dealing with anxiety, sleep, problems, or per menopausal symptoms and you’re done being dismissed – you can message me.
If not, this post isn’t for you – then that’s OK too

02/03/2026

Some people need surface solutions.
Some people need depth – long conversations, careful listening, an individual individualized treatment.

I work with the second group.

Drmariacronynnd.com

02/03/2026

It’s OK to say no to more psychiatric medications after they don’t work.
It’s also OK to want serious medical care anyway.
Both can be true.

02/03/2026

A lot of women I work with art, looking for reassurance. They’re looking for a clinician. They don’t have to convince, educate, or perform Wellness for.
If that’s you, you’ll know.

01/29/2026

I’m in here! Take a look there’s a whole page on my nonprofit Adoption evolution

Our latest issue, and first issue of 2026 is now available! While we wait for the prints, you can view it on our website! Thank you for your continued support and encouragement!

https://totusmagazine.com/phoenix-metro-directory

01/26/2026

If you can relate to this statement, then you are definitely someone with complex post traumatic stress disorder. Working with this kind of situation requires step-by-step approach of validation and self-awareness exercises. But as an enteropathic doctor, I can tell you, your body needs step-by-step approaches to repair also. Body first, then the mind, then the spirit is the order healing comes in

One of the most invisible aspects of surviving a narcissistic mother is how proficient you become at appearing fine when you are absolutely not. You learnt early that falling apart was not safe; that showing vulnerability, struggling visibly or asking for help was met with dismissal, mockery or punishment. So you developed an immaculate mask. You go to work, smile at colleagues, fulfil your responsibilities, show up for others, all whilst internally you are barely holding it together. Nobody knows you cried in the car park before walking in, or that you have been dissociating for three days straight, or that the panic attack you had this morning left you physically shaking. You have spent a lifetime learning to function through crisis because survival depended on it.

This ability to blend in, to look "normal" whilst in profound distress, is both a skill and a prison. It protected you as a child; if your mother could not see you struggling, she could not use it against you or make it about herself. Appearing fine meant you were less likely to be targeted, dismissed as "dramatic," or told you were overreacting. As an adult, that same skill means people rarely know when you need support. You can be in the middle of a breakdown and still respond to emails, make dinner, ask others how they are doing. From the outside, you look capable, together, unbothered. Inside, you are drowning and terrified that if you let the mask slip, you will confirm what your mother always said; that you are too much, too broken, too difficult.

The "muggles"; people who did not grow up in trauma, often cannot fathom this level of compartmentalisation. They assume that if someone is in crisis, it will be visible; missed work, dishevelled appearance, withdrawn behaviour. They do not understand that trauma survivors are trained performers. You have been managing a nervous system in overdrive for so long that crisis mode is just another Tuesday. You know how to smile through dissociation, how to have a coherent conversation whilst your chest is tight with anxiety, how to look engaged when you are mentally three steps from collapsing. That capacity to function under extreme duress is not strength in the empowering sense, it is survival masquerading as competence.

The danger of being this good at hiding your struggle is that help rarely comes. People assume you are fine because you look fine, so they do not check in, do not offer support, do not notice when you are slipping. You also do not ask for help because you have internalised the belief that needing anything makes you a burden. So you continue managing alone, pushing through, keeping the mask intact until you physically or emotionally cannot anymore. By the time people realise something is wrong, you have often been in crisis for weeks, months or longer. The assumption that visible distress equals real distress is a dangerous one, particularly for survivors who were punished for showing pain and rewarded for pretending everything was fine.

Nobody is better at looking like they are holding it together than a trauma survivor who is, in fact, falling apart. If you recognise yourself in this, know that you do not have to keep performing functionality to prove you deserve care. You are allowed to fall apart. You are allowed to say, "I am not okay," even if you look like you are. You are allowed to stop blending in with people who have never had to develop a crisis mask just to survive childhood. The skill that kept you safe with a narcissistic mother; the ability to hide your struggle, does not have to define how you navigate the rest of your life. You deserve to be seen, supported and cared for, even when the crisis is invisible. Especially then.

01/23/2026

We’re in our prime

We were told everything peaks early. But science says otherwise. New research shows that women's overall mental functioning, when you combine reasoning, knowledge, emotional intelligence, judgment, and decision‑making, actually peaks between ages 55 and 60, not in youth.

Yep! It only keeps getting better. A 2025 study led by Gilles E. Gignac at the University of Western Australia analyzed decades of data across 16 cognitive and personality traits, from emotional intelligence to conscientiousness and decision-making.

The takeaway? These years mark a cognitive sweet spot, fueled by greater emotional stability, a strong sense of self, and sharper judgment.

Turns out, the brain doesn’t slow down; it levels up.