Why is it so hard to recover from trauma?

When an event overwhelms us our brain switches into survival mode, we either fight, flight or freeze. These events can get stored in an area of our brain called the amygdala. This part of our brain is not accessible to our usual methods of processing and the experience remains fresh and untouched. This is why it feels as though we relive it over and over again when something triggers the trauma memory. These events do not fade like other experiences.

Why are only some of us affected
by trauma?

This has a lot to do with our resilience, which can develop from a variety of places; some is genetic, some is from life experiences and some comes from what we have learned and had hardwired into our nervous system from our attachment style. Certain people have a greater capacity to cope with overwhelming events compared to others, it is not something we can alter easily.

What tells us it is trauma?

Some people experience flashbacks where they feel as though they are right back in the event. These can be terrifying debilitating episodes. Others experience terror and are unaware of its origins. Trauma, especially old experiences, get woven into our behaviour. We learn to develop coping mechanisms which can look as though we are recreating disturbing events or becoming totally avoidant of anything related to the event which affected us. For others, it can manifest in things such as extreme anxiety, panic attacks, obsessive compulsive behaviours, agoraphobia, eating disorders and substance misuse. Although these coping mechanisms have a detrimental effect on our life, they help us deal with the effects of our sympathetic nervous system firing off, sending alarming levels of adrenaline and cortisol into our bodies causing panic and terror. If we try to just change our behaviour we have to find new coping mechanisms, sometimes worse than the previous ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But nothing terrible has happened to me?

There are two types of trauma, the first being a ‘big event’ trauma more associated with PTSD and the second being developmental trauma. The second type comes from seemingly less impactful events whilst we were growing up. When we are little we are more easily overwhelmed and more likely to have a freeze response. These developmental wounds are very present in the body and can be so much a part of us they go below our conscious thoughts, meaning we hardly notice them. We react without knowing why and learn coping mechanisms from a very early age, we may be unaware of the original events.

 

Long term trauma often means that we have to develop different parts of ourselves in order to cope with situations and effects which trigger the trauma. These parts of us can be difficult to recognise and manage on our own, and feel as though they are controlling us, rather than us controlling them.

Why can't we just talk it through?

Just talking about the events does not shift trauma, it can be a re-traumatising experience. Because the trauma memory is stored in a different part of our brain to ordinary memories it doesn’t age or fade. When this gets triggered our nervous system fires up and our ‘thinking’ part of the brain shuts down. Trauma affects the body as much as the brain, all the responses to the triggers, fight, flight and freeze, are actioned by your body. Unless we include the body in the healing process we never get to have a new safe experience. We may need to help our body to do something different instead of freezing. When we can have a different experience mindfully with our body, then we have a new neural pathway.

Sensorimotor psychotherapy allows us to work with the body and mindfully track our sensations, it allows us to manage the activation and lets us be in control. EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing) allows us to process the trauma memory locked in the amygdala. The events can then fade and become memories which don't fire off the nervous system.

Can we recover from trauma?

Yes we can, we can learn how to control the activation, we can process the trauma memories and we can feel in control of our bodies. We can learn how to manage the different parts of ourselves and feel safe and free in the world.

 

We don't just have to learn to live with it, we can heal.