Alexandra Kutnick, Ph.D., argues that the psychological aftermath of serious illness is widespread yet invisible in medical and mental health settings. Through clinical vignettes — a 32-year-old colon cancer survivor who remains hypervigilant, a man with ulcerative colitis struggling to live with an ostomy, and a woman whose lupus diagnosis took years after being dismissed as “psychological” — Kutnick illustrates how patients often endure dissociation, grief, body mistrust, and a destabilized sense of self long after physical recovery. Drawing on her own post-surgical ICU experience, she shows how survivorship metrics and siloed care miss the central task of repairing the relationship between person and body. Symptoms such as insomnia, brain fog, and emotional reactivity are frequently misread as anxiety or depression rather than recognized as medical trauma. Kutnick calls for trauma-informed clinical questions, routine post-discharge referrals, and mental health training to acknowledge and treat the hidden wounds of illness.