How Your Body Remembers Trauma
Trauma is one of the most difficult things to recover from. If you or someone you love has experienced something traumatic, healing might feel impossible. While the trauma might feel like a defining moment in your life, that doesn’t mean it has to define who you are. Unfortunately, trauma lives in both the brain and the body.
Despite the impact a traumatic moment has on your life, it’s important to note that it is possible to work through trauma and heal. Throughout this article, we will discuss how your body remembers trauma and why this occurs.
Why the Body Remembers Trauma
You’ve probably heard it before, but most people go into fight or flight mode when a traumatic event happens.
This leads to the release of multiple different stress hormones. If the trauma is intense or lasts long, the nervous system can easily become overworked and overwhelmed. It can also occur if the person feels shame or guilt because of the event.
How Trauma is Stored
Unfortunately, trauma can live in the form of physical struggles for a person both in the short and long-term aftermath. It’s been shown that trauma can impact both your brain and your body.
Trauma can hard-wire your brain to protect yourself from any anticipated or perceived threats. For some, this can be known as post-traumatic stress and exists for years after the traumatic event.
One of the most common things is experiencing physical tension due to the body’s response during the traumatic event to stress. Depending on the event’s severity, it can also lead to issues with the digestive system, heart, and lungs in someone. It can also show up for someone if they:
Have depression or depressive episodes
Feel on edge or easily overwhelmed
Suffer memory loss or have trouble concentrating
Have overall muscle tension or chest tightness
Struggle to sleep or have nightmares regularly
Have anxiety or avoid certain situations that they perceive as threatening
If someone had a a previous diagnosis of chronic pain, headaches, or migraines, trauma can exacerbate these conditions.
Possible Triggers
While triggers will be different for everyone, it’s important to understand what some of those triggers could be.
A trigger can be anything that reminds you of the trauma and activates a survival response. Even if specific details are hard to remember, your body will recognize them. Those triggers can include specific places, sounds, smells, people, or situations. For example, if it was raining on the day of the trauma, you might struggle during extended rainy periods.
How to Move Forward
Outside of therapy and various therapy techniques, there are things you can do to help heal and move forward after a traumatic event.
Get into a routine.
Traumas will inevitably have an impact on your life. Creating consistent routes can help mitigate the fear of the unknown.
Don’t rush the healing process.
To be able to heal from trauma, do not ignore problems or symptoms, take shortcuts, or rush the healing process. It takes time to heal after any type of trauma. It also takes an immense amount of understanding and patience from not only the person directly impacted but also those loved ones in their lives.
Focus on your well-being.
This can include getting adequate amounts of sleep and rest, eating a well-balanced diet, and focusing on your emotional self-care by doing things you enjoy or that help you relax.
Finally, one of the best and most proven methods of recovering from trauma is therapy. Recovering from trauma is a long road, but it doesn’t need to be traveled alone. Contact our office today to set up your first appointment for trauma therapy.
