Each person goes through a series of experiences in their life. While some situations evoke happiness and excitement, some can damage a person’s emotional and mental state. The negative feelings caused by awful circumstances can also affect one’s physical well-being. Additionally, it can lead to stress, anxiety, or trauma.
However, not everyone that walks through our doors at Peak Brain Centers realizes they’re living with unresolved trauma. In many cases, they’re even living with PTSD, and their bodies have learned to operate in a heightened state of arousal or awareness. Because their brains are on constant alert, they may have scattered thoughts, lack motivation, or even find it difficult to maintain healthy relationships in their lives. By the time they come to us to explore neurofeedback therapy, their bodies are experiencing all of the signs of acute and prolonged stress. But how exactly can you identify how your body stores trauma? Allow us to explain…
What is Trauma?
Trauma is an emotional reaction to a stressful, terrifying, or upsetting incident or set of circumstances. Traumatic experiences may vary in form and degree, and they can impact anyone at any stage of their life. It can create feelings of anxiety, sadness, and hopelessness that can lead to disorders like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and chronic stress.
Examples of traumatic events may include a death of a loved one, personal struggles, natural disasters, divorce, or illnesses. Although almost everyone has experienced trauma at least once, some have difficulty recovering from it. That is because everyone has a stress threshold that, when crossed, causes a person to feel unable to handle its consequences.
Trauma and the Human Body
Understanding our thoughts and emotions and being aware of their impact on our bodies is essential. As we live increasingly busy lives, it is common for our bodies to experience trauma. Since the mind and the human body have a powerful connection, trauma can harm our physical and mental states. Many studies claim that our bodies naturally react positively or negatively to our health depending on our thoughts and feelings.
Ways Your Body Stores Trauma
If you are struggling with trauma, it is vital to understand your body’s unique way of storing traumatic memories and emotions. The body can keep trauma from a single event or a series of them. Researchers believe that trauma affects your brain and body, placing your nervous system in a state of alarm, always ready for the next potential danger. When not processed completely, trauma can linger and eventually get stuck. So, let’s explore some common ways the body stores trauma.
Your Mind
Trauma can have a wide range of effects on the structure and function of your brain. Many studies reveal that people struggling with past trauma tend to have more amygdala, the part of the brain that activates one’s ‘fight-or-flight’ response. This survival mechanism puts your brain in an emergency mode to react quickly in serious situations. If not treated, there could be lasting adverse effects on the brain.
Your Memory
Past traumatic events can cause your memory processing system to shut down. When the explicit memory malfunction, the memory is not stored properly. When this happens, our brain returns to a more straightforward method of signal transcription and decodes traumatic memories as body sensations and images. This is known as dissociation: memories are fragmented, hindering the brain’s natural recovery process.
Your Physical Being
Trauma can make a person’s physical health suffer as it is more prone to various health conditions. It has been shown to cause inflammation throughout the physical body, leading to heart disease, arthritis, and cancer. It can also cause gut bacteria changes, increasing the risks of obesity and other health problems. When it comes to how the body stores trauma, these are just scratching the surface.
Ways to Heal Trauma
The aftermath of trauma can be just as traumatic as the event itself. If you have experienced any traumatic event, you know how much power it has over you. By understanding what these negative experiences does to the body, there are ways to release trapped emotions and heal trauma to return to a balanced state.
If you or someone you know is struggling with trauma, there are many available resources to help them. Here are some ways to heal trauma:
Reach out to friends and family
One way of releasing trauma is to be with the ones who understand you the most. Talk to any of your trusted family members or friends about your well-being and ask their opinions that could help you. Feeling comfortable with these people can help you greatly in releasing stored trauma. After all, your friends and family are in your life for a reason: to be there for you.
Listen to Your Body
Listening to your body plays a crucial role in healing from trauma. It means being mindfully aware of what your body feels and needs. It also gives you a chance to assess your body and when to make changes in terms of nutrition, exercise, and mindset toward life. Taking proper care of your mind, body, and your immune system allows you to move from your past traumas in a healthy way.
Seek Professional Help
Seeking professional help is essential in helping you navigate challenging obstacles and manage your emotions to keep you on track. Mental health professionals can help you understand your thoughts and feelings and give you support and coping strategies to deal with unresolved trauma. Here are various kinds of therapy that can help you heal from trauma faster and better:
Cognitive processing therapy
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy that aims to help people stuck in their thoughts about a traumatic experience. Your therapist will help you examine and modify your irrational trauma-related beliefs. In CPT, you will learn how to handle challenging thoughts and emotions. With this therapy, patients develop a new perspective on the traumatic experience to lessen PTSD and its continuous adverse effects on life.
Prolonged exposure therapy
Most people with trauma tend to avoid anything that brings them back to those traumatic experiences, which can only increase fear. Prolonged Exposure (PE) Therapy, also known as talk therapy, is focused on helping you face your fears. It teaches patients to gradually approach their memories and feelings because of these awful situations. By speaking about the details of your trauma, you will learn to re-engage in life by facing thoughts you have been avoiding. With this therapy, you can reduce PTSD symptoms and take charge of your life.
EMDR
While talk therapy and medications are the commonly used treatments for trauma, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) can also be an option. This technique focuses on helping you get through painful experiences using your body’s natural functions. EMDR is a method that entails rhythmic eye movements to change how traumatic memory is stored in your mind, allowing you to process it effectively.
Start Your Journey Toward Recovery Today!
With the proper support, overcoming trauma is possible. Here at Peak Brain Centers, we help you train your brain to become healthier and stronger. Neurofeedback therapy helps your brain navigate all the emotions associated with trauma so your body no longer stores it elsewhere.
Remember: We will be with you every step of the way in your healing process.
Unleash the power of your brain and start training your brain today! Schedule your free consultation with us now!
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