“Overwhelming experiences affect our innermost sensations and our relationship to our physical reality - the core of who we are. Trauma is not just an event that took place in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain, and body”.
“Many mental health problems, from drug addiction to self-injurious behavior, start as attempts to cope with the unbearable physical pain of our emotions...When you have a persistent sense of heartbreak and gutwrench, the physical sensations become intolerable and we will do anything to make those feelings disappear. People take drugs to make it disappear, and they cut themselves to make it disappear, and they starve themselves to make it disappear, and they have sex with anyone who comes along to make it disappear and once you have these horrible sensations in your body, you’ll do anything to make it go away.”
“Many mental health problems, from drug addiction to self-injurious behavior, start as attempts to cope with the unbearable physical pain of our emotions...When you have a persistent sense of heartbreak and gutwrench, the physical sensations become intolerable and we will do anything to make those feelings disappear. People take drugs to make it disappear, and they cut themselves to make it disappear, and they starve themselves to make it disappear, and they have sex with anyone who comes along to make it disappear and once you have these horrible sensations in your body, you’ll do anything to make it go away.”
- Bessel Van Der Kolk
Trauma is ...
caused by emotional/physical/sexual/financial abuse, neglect, natural disasters, serious accident/illness, domestic/community violence, historical trauma, developmental trauma (long term childhood neglect and/or emotional abuse).
Thinking about trauma is valuable because ...
Traumatic experiences activate the survival brain - when we sense threat (i.e. neglect, emotional/physical/sexual abuse), warming signals go off in the brain, making us hyper-active (alert) or hypo-active (numb). All rational thought is gone when this automatic fight/flight/freeze response is activated. We cannot reason ourselves out of being frightened or upset - this is why it can feel impossible to rationalize with someone experiencing road rage. The survival response is helpful in keeping us alive, but can create difficulties when it remains activated causing us to constantly feel unsafe and on guard (i.e. anxious).
Trauma shapes behavior. Focusing on a diagnosis (i.e. eating disorder, depression, chronic pain) can be a false target. It can be more beneficial to explore how trauma affects a person physiologically, to get to the source of presenting symptoms interfering with daily life. Symptoms of trauma can present as difficulty with concentration, regulating emotions/ mood states, academics/ work life, sleep etc.
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- The whole mind, brain and sense of self is changed in response to trauma
- Trauma shapes development - traumatic experiences have been proven to trigger physical changes in brain functioning on brain scan images. - A trauma-centered framework focuses on capacity building, hope and resiliency. |
Flight. Freeze. Fight. All automatic unconscious responses to threat.