The Real Work with Maggie Sterling

Latest Episodes:

46 - How To Finally Heal Your Chronic Pain (and other symptoms) with Dr. Howard Schubiner Jun 05, 2026

Show notes

Buy the book "Unlearn Your Pain": https://amzn.to/3RFTxho Follow Dr. Schubiner on Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/hschubiner/ https://www.facebook.com/hschubiner/

Get my nervous system sensitization course

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Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz.

If you've been to doctor after doctor with no real answers, this conversation is for you. Dr. Howard Schubiner, MD, is a physician and researcher who has spent over 20 years studying chronic pain, fatigue, anxiety, and depression — and what he's found changes everything. His new book, Unlearn Your Pain, lays out the science behind why your brain creates these symptoms and how they can be fully reversed. In this conversation we cover why most chronic conditions are neuroplastic, what medicine keeps getting wrong, and why the way you've been trying to heal may be making it harder.

44 - What Your Symptoms Are Really Trying To Tell You May 26, 2026

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Get my nervous system sensitization course

Take the nervous system sensitization quiz

Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz.

If you've been trying to decode every symptom — chest tightness, flares, intrusive thoughts, dizziness — searching for the hidden meaning your body is trying to send you, this video is going to reframe what's actually happening. The message you're looking for is there. It's just not what you think it is. In this video, Maggie breaks down why trying to interpret every symptom keeps you stuck, the one message your sensitized nervous system is actually sending you right now, and how to know when your body is ready to give you the deeper signals you've been chasing. If you're exhausted from trying to figure out what every twinge, thought, and flare means — this is for you.

45 - What Nobody Tells You About Brain Retraining (When You're Already Sensitized) May 26, 2026

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Get my nervous system sensitization course

Take the nervous system sensitization quiz

Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz.

Brain retraining is being prescribed to the people it makes worse. If you have a sensitized nervous system and you've been doing brain retraining — monitoring every thought, interrupting cascades, redirecting hundreds of times a day — and it feels like you're getting more anxious, more vigilant, more obsessed with what's happening in your head, you're not failing the program. The program is asking the wrong thing of a system in your state. In this video, I break down why formal brain retraining backfires for hypersensitive nervous systems, what's actually retraining your brain whether you sit down to do it or not, and where mental work does have a place once you've desensitized.

43 - 5 Signs Your Nervous System Is Causing Your Pain (and other symptoms) May 13, 2026

Show notes

Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz.

Get my nervous system sensitization course

Take the nervous system sensitization quiz

5 signs your nervous system is causing your chronic pain, anxiety, gut issues, dizziness, fatigue, and other symptoms doctors can't explain. If your tests keep coming back normal and nothing has worked, this video walks you through the specific signs that point to a sensitized nervous system as the root cause — and what to do about it.

I spent 20 years dealing with chronic anxiety, panic attacks, and insomnia. Every test came back normal. Every specialist had a different prescription. Nothing actually moved the needle until I learned that my symptoms were being driven by my nervous system. Once I saw the pattern, everything changed.

42 - 5 Subtle signs your nervous system is actually healing May 08, 2026

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Nervous system healing rarely looks like what you think it should. For 20 years I waited for the day I'd wake up calm, symptom-free, and finally "fixed." That day never came. What did happen was much quieter — and I almost missed it. In this video, I'm sharing 5 subtle signs your nervous system is actually healing, even when it doesn't feel like it. Plus one bonus shift that surprised me the most. If you've been doing the work and wondering if anything is changing, this one is for you.

41 - I'm Addicted to Being OFF My Phone (It made my symptoms disappear) May 01, 2026

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Take the nervous system sensitization quiz

Your phone is sensitizing your nervous system. If you have chronic anxiety, chronic pain, or symptoms that won't shift no matter what you try, your screen time may be the layer of work you haven't addressed yet. In this video, I'm walking you through what's actually happening in your nervous system every time you pick up your phone — why your system can't tell the difference between real danger and observed danger, and how this keeps your baseline cranked up all day long without you realizing it.

40 - Can AI Help You Heal Your Nervous System? Apr 28, 2026

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Get my nervous system sensitization course

Take the nervous system sensitization quiz

Can AI help you heal your nervous system? ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini have become the go-to for people dealing with anxiety, chronic pain, and chronic symptoms — but my honest opinion on whether you should be using them is probably not what you'd expect.In this video, I'm walking you through when AI actually helps your nervous system recovery, when it makes things dramatically worse, and the one question to ask yourself before you ever open ChatGPT again. The answer has nothing to do with the tool itself. It has everything to do with the state you're in when you pick it up.

39 - How to reset a hypersensitive nervous system Apr 21, 2026

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Take the nervous system sensitization quiz

A hypersensitive nervous system can be reset. But not the way most people are teaching it. In this video, I'm showing you what actually works when your system is so sensitized that every sensation feels like an emergency — and why the tools you've been reaching for are keeping the alarm on. If you try the practice I share, come back and tell me what came up in the comments.

38 - How to Get Your Partner to Support Your Healing (It's Not What They Think) Apr 14, 2026

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If you're in the middle of nervous system healing, you've probably wondered how to get your partner to actually understand what you're going through — and what real support looks like when nothing they do seems to help. In this episode, Maggie sits down with her husband Ryan, who supported her through her darkest years of chronic anxiety, physical symptoms, a psychiatric hospitalization, and a full nervous system breakdown. They talk honestly about what made things worse, what actually helped, and what Maggie finally had to ask Ryan to do differently.

37 - I'm terrified of my symptoms—how to respond differently even when it feels impossible Apr 07, 2026

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Get my nervous system sensitization course

Take the nervous system sensitization quiz

Nervous system sensitization makes responding differently feel completely impossible — and that feeling is lying to you.

If you know what you're supposed to do but can't make yourself do it when symptoms are high, you're not broken. This is one of the most common places people get stuck — and it's exactly what's keeping them from getting better.

In this episode, Maggie breaks down why it feels impossible, why that feeling isn't a stop sign, and how to take action anyway — even in the middle of a flare-up.

You'll learn why waiting for symptoms to calm down before taking action makes everything worse, why fear and symptom spikes are not signs that something has gone wrong, and why bravery, confidence, and readiness only come after you're already in motion — never before.

If you've been stuck in this loop for months or years, this episode is for you.

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