Maybe you lived through a traumatic event, and you haven’t felt quite right in your own skin ever since. Or perhaps you experienced repeated traumatic incidents as a child. For as long as you can remember, you’ve struggled with mental and physical symptoms that seem to be related to those childhood experiences.
If you feel like your trauma and your physical wellbeing are connected, you’re not imagining things. The mind-body connection is very powerful. Understanding this connection is key to navigating the healing process and recovering from trauma. Here’s why trauma has such a profound influence on your physical health.
Changes to Brain Structures
The physical symptoms that you experience after going through emotional trauma are a result of signals that your brain sends to your body. This occurs because trauma can actually affect multiple structures in your brain.
For example, parts of your brain such as the amygdala and the hippocampus store and process traumatic memories. But when something happens that reminds you of your trauma, these memory and emotional centers are activated, which makes you feel as though you’re in an unsafe situation again.
Fight-Flight-Freeze Response
When your physical safety is threatened, your body can respond in a few different ways. Human beings evolved to survive through several different threat responses, including fight, flight, or freeze.
If you’re faced with a traumatic situation, your brain might tell your body to fight off the threat, run away, or freeze in an attempt to remain unnoticed. But after surviving trauma, these responses can kick in an inopportune times. For instance, you might find yourself getting angry at people for no clear reason, or freezing up and becoming exceptionally anxious out of the blue.
Stuck in Stress Cycle
If you’re facing a threat, your body needs to produce cortisol and adrenaline to help you escape the situation. These hormones serve a purpose. They give you the energy you need to get away from danger.
In fact, cortisol is often known as “the stress hormone” because your body generates higher levels of cortisol when you’re under stress. It’s critical for survival, but if you always have high cortisol levels, you’ll feel stressed, anxious, and jittery even when there’s no reason for this extra energy.
Physical Reactions to Triggers
Sometimes, you end up seeing something that directly reminds you of your trauma, and you can’t help but physically react. These reminders are known as triggers. For example, you may see a person who looks like an individual who harmed you or enter a room that reminds you of the place where you experienced trauma.
In response, you might experience a racing heart rate, sweaty palms, a dry mouth, physical shaking, or even a panic attack. These triggers occur because your brain and body are working together to try to protect you, even though you’re not technically under threat anymore.
Hyper-vigilance
Maybe you feel as though you constantly have to stay on high alert for potential threats. You simply can’t relax. If you let your guard down for a moment, you might be exposed to another traumatic situation. Perhaps you’re easily startled and often feel jittery. You may even struggle to fall asleep at night because the slightest sound could wake you up.
This leaves you feeling exhausted and irritable throughout the day. Unfortunately, exhaustion can exacerbate hyper-vigilance, and the cycle continues. Hyper-vigilance is another way your brain tries to protect your body from future trauma.
Are you struggling with physical symptoms after living through trauma? A therapist can help you address these symptoms. Complete our online contact form to schedule your first appointment.