Recap of Previous Weeks:
- Week 1: What is Trauma? We defined trauma and explored its various types and emotional impacts.
- Week 2: Signs and Symptoms of Trauma: We discussed the physical and emotional signs of trauma.
- Week 3: The Impact of Trauma on Behavior: We examined how trauma shapes our behaviors and coping mechanisms.
- Week 4: The Brain and Trauma: We explored how trauma affects the brain and the healing process.
- Week 5: Navigating Trauma Triggers: We defined triggers and shared personal experiences and strategies for managing them.
Have you ever noticed that when you’re stressed, your body responds physically? Maybe your shoulders tense up, or your stomach starts to feel uneasy. This is no coincidence. As Dr. Bessel van der Kolk famously wrote in his groundbreaking book The Body Keeps the Score, trauma isn’t just a psychological issue—it’s also a physical one. Trauma manifests in the body in various ways, leading to muscle tension, chronic pain, headaches, or even long-term health conditions.
In this week’s post, we’ll delve into the profound impact of trauma on our physical health, how it is stored in the body, and most importantly, how this understanding can empower us on our journey towards healing.
The Amygdala: The Brain’s Alarm System
The amygdala is like the brain’s internal smoke detector, constantly scanning the environment for signs of danger. It’s a small, almond-shaped structure located deep in the brain, and it’s essential for survival because it helps us react quickly when we sense a threat. When you’ve been through trauma, the amygdala can become overactive, always on high alert, even when there isn’t real danger.
Imagine living with a fire alarm that goes off whenever you burn toast. That’s what it can feel like when your amygdala is hypervigilant. This heightened sensitivity can cause intense emotional and physical reactions to everyday situations, even ones that don’t seem threatening to others.
Effects of Trauma on the Amygdala:
- Hypervigilance: After trauma, the amygdala becomes overactive, making you constantly scan for danger. This can cause panic or anxiety at the slightest trigger.
- Emotional Flooding: When triggered, the amygdala floods the body with fear, leaving you feeling overwhelmed and unable to think clearly or calm down.
Why It’s Important: The amygdala is crucial for keeping us safe—our early warning system for danger. But when it’s stuck in overdrive because of trauma, it creates false alarms, leading to fear and anxiety that can disrupt daily life.
The Prefrontal Cortex: The Brain’s CEO
The prefrontal cortex, located at the front of your brain, is like the brain’s CEO or control center. It plays a crucial role in decision-making, emotional regulation, and considering consequences. In other words, the prefrontal cortex is your ally in staying calm, rational, and in control.
But trauma disrupts this process. When the amygdala goes into overdrive, it can hijack the brain’s functioning, overriding the prefrontal cortex. This makes it harder to think, control emotions, or rationalize when triggered.
Effects of Trauma on the Prefrontal Cortex:
- Impaired Decision-Making: Trauma can shut down the prefrontal cortex, making it difficult to think clearly or make decisions, especially when triggered.
- Emotional Dysregulation: When the prefrontal cortex is less active, it’s harder to control emotional responses, leading to outbursts, panic, or numbness.
Why It’s Important: The prefrontal cortex keeps us grounded and rational, helping us make decisions and regulate our emotions. Trauma disrupts this balance, making us feel like we’re out of control or stuck in survival mode.
How Trauma Affects the Body
Trauma doesn’t just live in the brain; it also gets stored in the body. As Bessel van der Kolk explains in The Body Keeps the Score, trauma can manifest as chronic pain, tension, fatigue, or other physical symptoms. This happens because the body holds onto stress long after the traumatic event has passed. When triggered, the body reacts with tight muscles, rapid heartbeat, or shallow breathing. Over time, these stress responses can affect our physical health.
Peter Levine’s work shows that the body needs to complete its trauma response to heal. In the animal world, you’ll often see animals physically shake after escaping danger—releasing the pent-up energy. Humans can also “shake off” the trauma through physical movement or somatic practices.
Understanding Physical Symptoms of Trauma
When we experience trauma, the effects can extend beyond our emotional state and manifest physically. As Bessel van der Kolk highlights in his book The Body Keeps the Score, trauma can become “stuck” in our bodies, leading to a range of physical symptoms. I often experience fatigue, which feels amplified by the heaviness of emotions, even if they are just memories. Muscle tension, particularly in my shoulders, is another common physical manifestation I deal with.
Heavy crying can trigger symptoms such as jaw clenching, facial tension, and fast, shallow breathing. After particularly intense emotional moments, I sometimes find myself with headaches or a racing heart. In those moments, the walls are closing in, making breathing difficult.
The Link Between Trauma and ACEs
It’s also important to consider how Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) affect long-term health. The ACES study shows that early childhood trauma significantly increases the risk of chronic health issues. The more traumatic experiences a person has in childhood—such as abuse, neglect, or family dysfunction—the more likely they are to face mental health challenges or conditions like heart disease, autoimmune disorders, and even a shortened lifespan.
Let’s read that again. Research shows that individuals with higher ACE scores—indicating multiple childhood traumas—are more likely to experience significant health issues later in life!
Reflecting on my ACEs, I realize how they influence my physical reactions. Recognizing this connection has been vital in my healing journey. Understanding how trauma affects the body helps us be more compassionate toward ourselves. We aren’t overreacting—our bodies are simply trying to cope with what they’ve been through.
Moving Forward with Healing
In his work on somatic experiencing, Peter Levine emphasizes the importance of allowing our bodies to process trauma. He explains how animals instinctively shake off the remnants of trauma after a stressful event; humans can learn to do the same. Since learning about the technique of shaking off trauma, I actively try to practice it whenever I feel the ball of energy associated with trauma in my chest. It helps considerably, especially when I am aware of a trigger.
Awareness of what I’m feeling in the moment and allowing those feelings to pass—often through physical movement—has been transformative for me. Regular exercise, whether a brisk walk, dancing, or yoga, has been crucial for releasing pent-up energy and stress and promoting both physical and mental well-being.
Healing and Rewiring the Brain
The brain’s incredible ability to change and heal is called neuroplasticity. Even though trauma rewires the brain, causing anxiety, hypervigilance, and emotional dysregulation, healing can reverse these effects. By using specific practices, we can strengthen the prefrontal cortex and calm the overactive amygdala, creating new neural pathways that support healing and resilience.
Healing Practices That Rewire the Brain:
• Mindfulness: Mindfulness teaches us to observe thoughts and emotions without reacting. This gives the prefrontal cortex a chance to take control over the amygdala.
• Tapping (EFT): Tapping releases stored emotional energy, allowing the body to complete its trauma response and calm the nervous system.
• Breathwork: Slow, deep breathing soothes the amygdala and engages the prefrontal cortex, helping you feel grounded and in control.
• Physical Movement: Exercise and somatic movement release trapped energy from the body, preventing physical symptoms like muscle tension and fatigue.
By regularly practicing these tools, we can create healthier brain patterns. Healing allows us to move from survival mode to a state of emotional balance and resilience, enabling us to respond to triggers with calmness and clarity.
Conclusion
Understanding how trauma affects the body is a vital step in the healing process. If you’ve experienced trauma, know that these physical reactions are not your fault—they are manageable. Healing is possible, and it often begins with awareness and self-compassion.
As we continue this journey together, I encourage you to reflect on your experiences. What physical symptoms have you noticed in your body related to past trauma?
Let’s foster a supportive community. I invite you to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, please don’t hesitate to reach out—remember, you are not alone. Together, we can learn from one another and inspire healing.
Resources for Further Reading
- The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
- Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma by Peter Levine
- ACES