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479: [SELF-BRAIN SURGERY] Not Everything Hard is Trauma. Dr. Lee Warren on What it Means to Take a Thought Captive, What to Do When You Can’t Stop the Anxiety Spiral, Challenging Automatic Thinking, and What Scientists Botch on a Regular Basis

Podcast · February 11, 2026

We live in a moment where difficulty is quickly labeled as damage and discomfort is often treated as pathology. While trauma is real and serious, not every hard moment is trauma—and confusing the two can quietly undermine resilience, clarity, and growth. When every struggle is interpreted as injury, we lose the ability to endure, discern, and respond wisely. This week on Win Today, Dr. Lee Warren returns to continue our Self-Brain Surgery miniseries. We talk about what it actually means to take a thought captive, why anxiety spirals feel uncontrollable even when they’re not, and how automatic thinking patterns quietly shape the brain. Dr. Warren also challenges common scientific blind spots that ignore meaning, responsibility, and agency in the healing process. This episode helps you separate pain from pathology, suffering from trauma, and awareness from action—so you can move from mental reactivity to intentional renewal.

You’ll learn:
  • Why not every hard experience qualifies as trauma
  • What taking a thought captive looks like in real time
  • How anxiety spirals form and how to interrupt them
  • Why automatic thinking is powerful but changeable
  • Where modern science often oversimplifies human healing

Guest Bio

Dr. Lee Warren is a practicing neurosurgeon, author, and speaker known for integrating neuroscience, faith, and personal experience to help people heal from trauma and transform their lives. A survivor of profound personal loss, he has spent decades studying how thoughts shape the brain and how intentional mental practices can lead to lasting emotional and spiritual renewal. He is the author of multiple books, including The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery.

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Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Substack

Resources Mentioned This Week

  • The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery: Connecting Neuroscience and Faith to Radically Transform Your Life
  • Healing What You Can’t Erase: Transform Your Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Health from the Inside Out

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  • 479: [SELF-BRAIN SURGERY] Not Everything Hard is Trauma. Dr. Lee Warren on What it Means to Take a Thought Captive, What to Do When You Can’t Stop the Anxiety Spiral, Challenging Automatic Thinking, and What Scientists Botch on a Regular Basis
  • 478: Hustle Culture Creates Burnout. Brad Stulberg on The Biology of Excellence and the Art of Becoming, Rugged Flexibility, How to Curate Your Content Better, and the Two Kinds of Burnout
  • 477: [SELF-BRAIN SURGERY] Therapy Culture is BLOCKING Your Ability to Heal. Dr. Lee Warren on The “Problem” with Our Brains, Addressing the Resistance that Shows Up When We Try to Heal, Getting Out of Survival Mode, and Compulsive Rumination
  • 476: [Formed.] Lisa Bevere on Being Spiritual But Not Religious, What an Exorcist Said About Tarot and Oracle Cards, How the Progressive Movement is Connected to Self-Deification, and Why The Church is Too Comfortable Preaching Catchy Phrases Instead of the Word
  • 475: [Formed.] Are You Suffering? Dr. Craig Keener on The Necessary Theology of Suffering, How to Develop a New Mindset About Affliction, Hurdling Unresolved Disappointment, Why God is Not in a Hurry to Mature Us, and the Pressure That Shapes Us

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