“Why does my body still feel ‘broken’ years after my traumatic experience?”

Before we begin, I want to reassure you that while this article discusses how trauma affects your body, it also offers practical, actionable steps to help with healing. This article will explore how trauma rewires your body, why these changes happen, and how to work with—not against—them. Some of what you read may feel personally concerning or frustrating, so please take breaks as needed and try to stay grounded. Remember that understanding these changes is the first step toward addressing them.

Important Note:
This article is intended for educational and self-help purposes. While it reflects current understandings of trauma and its physical impacts, it is not a substitute for personalized medical or mental health care. If you’re experiencing significant or distressing symptoms, please seek evaluation from a licensed healthcare provider. Self-diagnosis can sometimes lead to unnecessary anxiety or missed medical conditions, so consider this article a companion to—not a replacement for—professional support.

Ash’s Story

Ash stared at their reflection in the bathroom mirror, barely recognizing the person looking back at them. Three years had passed since they discovered their partner’s betrayal and left the marriage that had nearly destroyed them. But the stranger in the mirror still carried the physical imprints of that trauma—and of the years of subtle narcissistic abuse from their family of origin before that. They also carried deeper imprints from childhood medical trauma, having spent months in the NICU as a premature infant, their tiny body subjected to necessary but painful procedures before they had words to understand them.

Their skin seemed different somehow. Their digestion was unpredictable. They caught every cold that came around. And sometimes, they swore their body even smelled different than it used to, especially when they were stressed. Despite therapy and emotional healing work, their body still didn’t feel like home.

“Why can’t I just get over this?” they wondered, the same question that haunted them daily. Their mind knew they were safe now, but their body hadn’t gotten the memo. It continued to operate as if danger lurked around every corner.

Complicating matters further was the fact that their ex-partner continued to send harassing texts and emails, each one like a floating ember that threatened to reignite the trauma response they were working so hard to calm. Complete safety remained elusive, even as they built a new life. And with two young children to parent—including their five-year-old who needed extra support for sensory processing challenges—Ash rarely had moments of true calm to focus on their own healing.

What Ash didn’t yet understand was that their body wasn’t broken—it was adapting. Like a forest after a wildfire, their body’s systems had transformed in response to threat. And just as forests eventually recover—sometimes with even greater diversity than before—their body held the capacity to heal, even if it would never be exactly the same.

Note to readers: This article is written with both accessible everyday language and more detailed clinical information. The clinical sections are in italics and marked as “Optional Deep Dive.” You can skip these sections and still understand all the main points of the article. This structure allows you to engage with the information in a way that works best for you, especially if reading about these topics feels overwhelming.

Neurodivergence & Trauma: Important Intersections

Before diving into the main content, it’s important to acknowledge that neurodivergent individuals (those with autism, ADHD, sensory processing differences, etc.) may experience trauma and its physical effects somewhat differently. The inherent sensory sensitivities and emotional regulation differences in neurodivergent people can sometimes make it difficult to distinguish between trauma responses and neurodivergent traits, or in some cases, when it’s both.

For example, sensory overload in an autistic person may look similar to hypervigilance from trauma, while ADHD emotional dysregulation might resemble trauma-triggered emotional flooding. For example, an autistic person forced to mask their traits may develop trauma responses to social situations, while an ADHDer punished for impulsivity may associate shame with normal energy fluctuations. If you’re neurodivergent and have experienced trauma, understanding these intersections can be crucial to your healing journey. Working with practitioners who understand both trauma and neurodivergence can help untangle these overlapping experiences.

Important note: Neurodivergence itself isn’t traumatic. Trauma arises when neurodivergent traits are stigmatized, punished, or forced into conformity. Many neurodivergent survivors carry wounds from being told their natural ways of thinking, moving, or sensing were ‘wrong’ – not from being neurodivergent itself.

Throughout this article, we’ll note some specific considerations for neurodivergent individuals where relevant, though everyone’s experience is unique regardless of neurotype.

When Your Body Becomes a Stranger: The Disconnect of Trauma

One of the most distressing physical effects of trauma is the profound sense of disconnection from your own body. Many survivors report feeling uncomfortable in their own skin, no longer recognizing or trusting the body that houses them. This experience—known as somatic disconnection—can range from mild detachment to profound experiences where your body feels alien or unreal (depersonalization).

This bodily alienation isn’t just an emotional experience—it’s a physical adaptation to overwhelming events. When trauma occurs, especially repeated trauma, many survivors learn to tune out physical sensations as a way to survive. Pain, hunger, fatigue, even emotions with physical components (like the tight chest of anxiety or the heaviness of grief)—all these signals become background noise to be ignored to keep functioning. This body disconnection serves a protective purpose during trauma but often continues long after the danger has passed.

The trauma disrupts your awareness of your body’s internal state (interoception), creating a profound disconnect. You may struggle to identify basic physical sensations or needs. This often accompanies a difficulty identifying and expressing feelings (alexithymia) as the mind and body lose their natural connection.

Over time, this disconnection creates a cycle: your body sends signals, you don’t listen because you’ve been conditioned not to, so your body “speaks louder” through intensifying symptoms. Eventually, your body may even force you to stop by “giving out” completely—perhaps through illness, collapse, or a health crisis that prevents you from continuing to push forward. Often, these physical shutdowns happen right before or during important events or opportunities, which can feel like your body is sabotaging you. But from your body’s perspective, it’s been trying to get your attention for a long time, and this is its last-resort communication method.

Your body may seem like it’s betraying you, while from the body’s perspective, you betrayed it first by ignoring its warnings and needs. This perception of the body as an enemy often begins in childhood for many trauma survivors, especially when caregivers dismissed, punished, or ignored expressions of physical needs or discomfort. When a child learns that hunger, pain, or exhaustion will be met with dismissal or criticism, disconnecting from these sensations becomes a survival strategy. This also manifests from early life medical procedures where the child doesn’t understand the help or necessity, only their helplessness and pain.

“Why should my body trust me?” Ash had wondered during a therapy session. “I ignored its signals for years. I pushed through exhaustion, dismissed pain, pretended I wasn’t hungry or scared or angry when I was. I treated my body like an enemy, so now it acts like one.”

Breaking this cycle begins with recognition: your body isn’t your enemy. It’s a faithful ally that has been trying to protect you all along, even when its methods became counterproductive.

Hope Note: Reconnection with your body is possible. The path back to safe embodiment involves gentle inquisitiveness, compassion, and gradually learning to hear and respond to your body’s signals instead of overriding them.

How Trauma Hijacks Your Body’s Natural Systems

When a forest faces the threat of fire, everything changes. Plants that once focused energy on growth now divert resources to survival mechanisms. Some trees seal their bark, others release seeds that only germinate after intense heat. Animals flee or burrow deeply. The entire ecosystem shifts into survival mode, with every organism’s priorities fundamentally altered by the presence of threat.

Your body responds to trauma in a similar way. Systems that once maintained general well-being and growth shift toward hypervigilance and protection. Functions needed for immediate survival receive extra resources, while those deemed non-essential during crisis receive less. This isn’t a malfunction—it’s your body working exactly as designed when facing overwhelming stress, particularly from someone you trusted.

Think of trauma as an environmental shift that forces your body’s ecosystem to adapt for survival. Much like certain plant species dominate after a forest fire while others recede, trauma causes some bodily systems to become hyperactive while others become quiet. After a forest fire, species that can quickly take advantage of newly opened space and increased sunlight—like fireweed and certain pine trees with fire-activated seeds—flourish first. These “pioneer species” stabilize the soil and create conditions for the next wave of forest recovery. Similarly, your body’s stress response systems quickly activate to protect you, while growth and restoration systems temporarily recede.

The systems that get sacrificed first are those that aren’t immediately necessary for survival—like digestive efficiency, reproductive function, and tissue repair mechanisms. These changes aren’t “just in your head” or signs of weakness—they’re sophisticated biological adaptations that helped you survive.

Hope Note: Your body’s changes aren’t permanent sentences, though they can feel overwhelming. The same adaptability that helped you survive can be redirected toward healing. Recovery isn’t about “erasing” these changes but about understanding them and creating new patterns of safety that allow your body to gradually shift out of survival mode.

Optional Deep Dive: Trauma-Induced Systemic Dysregulation

These systemic changes can be understood as Trauma-Induced Systemic Dysregulation (TISD). This involves disruption of your body’s essential regulatory systems, including the autonomic nervous system, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, immune function, and gut-brain communication pathways. These systems normally work in harmony to maintain equilibrium (homeostasis), but trauma forces them into persistent survival patterns that gradually deplete your physical and mental resources—this accumulating wear and tear on the body from chronic stress is known as ‘allostatic load.’

The dysregulation is particularly profound with developmental trauma (childhood abuse, neglect, or medical trauma occurring from birth to age 18) and attachment trauma (betrayal by caregivers during childhood or by intimate partners in adulthood). Examples of betrayal by caregivers include physical or emotional abandonment, consistent failure to meet basic needs, abuse, or using a child to meet the caregiver’s emotional needs. Partner betrayal might include infidelity, financial deception, emotional manipulation, abandonment during crisis, or abuse. Each body system adapts to protect you during these betrayals, but these adaptations come at a metabolic and physical cost when maintained long-term.

Key Takeaway: Your body’s systems aren’t malfunctioning—they’re still in “survival mode” even though the danger has passed. Or, maybe the danger hasn’t fully passed. Understanding this is the first step toward healing.

How Trauma Changes Your Body: From Most Noticeable to Most Hidden

Before we explore these changes in detail, let me clarify a few terms that you’ll encounter in this article. When I mention “betrayal trauma,” I’m referring to harm caused by someone you depended on and trusted deeply—like a parent, caregiver, intimate partner, or close family member. This violation of trust creates unique wounds because the person meant to provide safety became a source of danger, leaving your nervous system confused about where to turn for security.

“Narcissistic abuse” refers to a pattern of manipulation, control, and emotional harm perpetrated by someone with narcissistic traits. This often includes tactics like gaslighting (making you question your reality), intermittent reinforcement (unpredictable cycles of reward and punishment), isolation from support systems, and emotional invalidation. This type of abuse is particularly damaging because it targets your sense of self and reality.

1. Nervous System on High Alert: Why You Can’t Just “Relax”

What You Might Notice:

• Feeling jumpy or startled easily
• Racing heart, even when “nothing’s happening”
• Trouble sleeping despite exhaustion
• Tension in your shoulders, jaw, or back that won’t release
• Difficulty feeling safe even in secure environments
• People-pleasing behaviors that seem automatic (the “fawn” response)

When you experience betrayal trauma or narcissistic abuse, your nervous system rewires itself to prioritize survival. What feels like anxiety is actually your body trying to protect you by staying vigilant. The problem isn’t that your body is overreacting—it’s that it got trained by trauma to see danger everywhere.

Imagine a smoke alarm that was exposed to so many house fires it now rings at the slightest hint of warmth. That’s your nervous system after trauma—it’s doing its job, just with a much lower threshold for detecting threats.

The “fawn response” deserves special mention here because many trauma survivors don’t recognize it as a survival response. Fawning refers to automatically appeasing, people-pleasing, or accommodating others, especially in situations of perceived threat. This might look like agreeing when you don’t actually agree, putting others’ needs before your own even when it harms you, difficulty saying no, or compulsively caretaking others. If you often find yourself abandoning your own needs to keep others happy, particularly when you sense conflict or disapproval, you might be experiencing the fawn response—a survival strategy your nervous system adopted to keep you safe in environments where having boundaries or expressing needs was dangerous.

Recovery Path: Your nervous system can gradually learn to recognize moments of relative safety. This isn’t about forcing yourself to relax, but rather gently helping your body distinguish between times of active threat and times when the danger is temporarily lessened or not immediately present. Even if complete safety isn’t achievable yet, your nervous system can develop more flexibility in how it responds to different situations.

Simple Approaches:

• Diaphragmatic breathing: Place one hand on your chest and one on your belly. Breathe so that your belly hand rises more than your chest hand. This signals safety to your nervous system.
• Humming, singing, or gargling: These activities stimulate your vagus nerve, which helps regulate your stress response. Even just 1-2 minutes, 2-3 times daily can be beneficial. Consistency matters more than duration.
• Progressive muscle relaxation: Tense each muscle group for 5-10 seconds, then release completely and allow 15-20 seconds to notice the sensation of relaxation before moving to the next muscle group. Start from your toes and work up to your head. This technique helps by creating contrast—when you deliberately tense a muscle and then release it, the release often goes deeper than your default “relaxed” state, which may actually be carrying significant tension. This contrast helps your nervous system recognize what genuine relaxation feels like, even if you’re chronically tense. If deliberately tensing feels triggering, you can modify by simply focusing your attention on each muscle group and inviting it to soften without the tensing step.

It’s important to understand that both your sympathetic (“fight-or-flight”) and parasympathetic (“rest-and-digest”) nervous systems are essential for health. You can remember which is which with “S is for Stress and for Sympathetic.” The sympathetic system activates your body for action and protection, while the parasympathetic system promotes recovery, healing, and calm. Neither is “bad”—you need both to survive and thrive. The problem after trauma isn’t having a sympathetic nervous system; it’s that it stays activated too much and too often, while your parasympathetic system struggles to engage when it’s safe to rest.

Optional Deep Dive: Nervous System Changes

Trauma disrupts the balance between your sympathetic (“fight-or-flight”) and parasympathetic (“rest-and-digest”) nervous systems. In narcissistic abuse survivors, the body often gets stuck in sympathetic dominance (chronic activation of the stress response) or in a freeze state of parasympathetic shutdown (collapse, numbing, disconnection). This dysregulation can be measured through tests like Heart Rate Variability (HRV), which quantifies how flexibly your heart responds to changing conditions—lower HRV indicates a more rigid, stress-dominated system.

The fawn response—a people-pleasing, appeasing reaction to perceived threat—is particularly common in relational trauma survivors and correlates with low vagal tone (reduced parasympathetic nervous system activity). This response often develops in childhood when a child learns that safety depends on anticipating and meeting the needs of unpredictable caregivers.

Key Takeaway: Your hypervigilance isn’t psychological weakness—it’s physical evidence of how hard your nervous system worked to keep you safe during trauma.

2. Your Body’s Chemistry: Why You Might Smell and Feel Different

What You Might Notice:

• Body odor that seems different than before your trauma
• Breaking into a sweat when around your abuser or encountering trauma triggers
• Excessive sweating or changes in sweating patterns
• Skin that seems more reactive or sensitive
• Temperature fluctuations—feeling too hot or too cold
• Blushing or flushing (reddening of the skin) more easily
• Changes in breath odor
• Different taste in your mouth
• Changes in how your urine or stool smells
• Altered fingernail or hair texture/strength

If you’ve noticed that your body seems to produce different smells since your trauma, you’re not imagining it. Chronic stress and trauma actually change the chemical composition of your sweat and other bodily secretions. This happens because stress hormones affect many sweat glands throughout your body, not just those in your armpits and groin. These changes alter what your body secretes and how bacteria on your skin process these secretions.

Even more interestingly, trauma can alter both your body chemistry AND your perception of smell. Your sense of smell becomes rewired, potentially making you more sensitive to certain odors, especially those associated with threat or trauma memories. These smell associations vary from person to person based on your specific trauma experiences—there’s no universal set of smells that affect all trauma survivors the same way.

The sudden sweating response when you encounter your abuser or a trauma trigger is a normal protective response—your body remembers the threat before your conscious mind does, activating the “fight-or-flight” response. This “fear sweat” serves a biological purpose, though it can feel embarrassing or intrusive in social situations.

Recovery Path: While some body chemistry changes may persist, supporting your overall stress response system can help normalize these patterns over time.

Simple Approaches:

• Regular, gentle movement to help process stress hormones
• Mindful hygiene: Use personal care products without harsh chemicals, synthetic fragrances, parabens, phthalates, or other potential irritants. Look for “fragrance-free” rather than just “unscented”
• Natural fabrics that allow your skin to breathe (cotton, linen, bamboo, silk, hemp)
• Calming techniques before situations where you might encounter triggers (these will be discussed in more detail later in the article)
• Acknowledge the change rather than fighting it—your body is telling its story

Optional Deep Dive: Body Chemistry Changes

Trauma can affect the body’s stress response systems, which may influence sweat production and body odor. Here’s what some survivors report and what emerging science explores:

Stress Hormones and Sweat: When the body is under chronic stress (like after trauma), stress hormones can change sweat composition. Some people notice their sweat smells stronger or different during periods of anxiety or flashbacks.

The “Fear Sweat” Phenomenon: Preliminary research suggests that stress-induced sweat (sometimes called “fear sweat”) may have a distinct odor compared to sweat from exercise or heat. This could be due to shifts in skin bacteria that break down sweat compounds differently.

Gut-Skin Connection: Trauma’s impact on gut health might indirectly affect body odor. If the gut becomes more permeable (a common issue in chronic stress), certain byproducts can enter circulation and be released through sweat, potentially altering scent.

Brain Changes and Scent Perception: Trauma can heighten sensitivity to smells—especially those linked to past threats. Some survivors report being acutely aware of their own body odor or reacting strongly to scents tied to traumatic memories.

Important Considerations

While these patterns are observed anecdotally and in early research, individual experiences vary widely. No long-term studies have tracked how body odor changes throughout trauma recovery. Factors like diet, hygiene, and genetics also play major roles.

Key Takeaway: The changes in your body odor and sweat patterns are direct physical evidence of how stress hormones have affected your body’s chemistry—not a sign of poor hygiene or health.

3. The Gut-Brain Highway: Your Second Brain Under Stress

What You Might Notice:

• Digestive issues that appear or worsen after trauma (IBS, bloating, constipation, diarrhea)
• Food sensitivities that you didn’t have before
• Digestive upset in response to stress or triggers
• Cravings for comfort foods, sugar, or carbs
• Feeling nauseous in triggering situations

The gut has often been called our “second brain,” containing more nerve cells than your spinal cord and producing many of the same neurotransmitters as your brain. Trauma profoundly disrupts the communication between your gut and brain, changing everything from digestion to how you process emotions.

Your gut microbiome—the ecosystem of bacteria in your digestive system—plays a crucial role in your overall health, including mood regulation and immune function. After trauma, especially early childhood trauma during critical developmental windows (ages 0-3 years), this ecosystem can become significantly altered long term.

Many survivors wonder if these gut changes can be fully reversed. The answer is nuanced but hopeful. Your gut microbiome is highly adaptable even in adulthood, and while early-life trauma can leave lasting fingerprints on your gut ecosystem, significant healing is absolutely possible.

Early childhood trauma can permanently alter the diversity of microbial species, disrupt the training of your immune system, and change gut-brain axis wiring. While some of these changes may persist, your body has remarkable ways of compensating. Even if your microbiome never exactly matches what it might have been without trauma, it can still achieve a new, healthy equilibrium that supports your wellbeing.

Recovery Path: The gut microbiome can be one of the faster systems to respond to healing interventions, often showing improvements within weeks to months, though deeper healing may take longer.

Simple Approaches:

• Trauma-sensitive eating: Focus on nourishment rather than restrictive diets
• Probiotic foods: Yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, and kombucha support healthy gut bacteria
• Fiber-rich foods: Feed beneficial bacteria with vegetables, fruits, and whole grains
• Reduce gut disruptors: Minimize artificial sweeteners, excessive alcohol, and unnecessary antibiotics
• Stress management before meals: Taking a few deep breaths before eating improves digestion

Specific Probiotic Guidance:

• Look for multi-strain products containing Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species
• Aim for products with 10-30 billion CFUs (colony forming units)
• Check for strain specificity (e.g., Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, Bifidobacterium longum 1714, Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM, Bifidobacterium lactis Bi-07)
• Some require refrigeration (check label), but shelf-stable options can be effective too
• Take with meals for best absorption and protection from stomach acid
• Avoid taking within 2 hours of antibiotics or with strong antimicrobials like oregano oil
• Activated charcoal can bind to and reduce the effectiveness of probiotics, so separate them by at least 2 hours
• Rotating different products every few months may provide broader benefits
• Imported products may have reduced potency if irradiated during import, so check for domestic manufacturing or special shipping methods

Optional Deep Dive: Gut Microbiome and Trauma

Emerging science suggests a strong connection between trauma, stress, and gut health. Many people with PTSD or complex trauma report digestive issues, food sensitivities, or imbalances in gut bacteria. Some animal studies suggest that early-life trauma can lead to lasting shifts in gut microbiota that are harder to reverse, even with probiotics—possibly due to long-term changes in gut barrier function or nervous system signaling. While research is still evolving, some patterns have been observed:

• Microbiome Shifts: Trauma, especially during early life, may affect the balance of gut bacteria that help regulate inflammation and immunity. Some survivors find that probiotic-rich foods or supplements (like those containing Lactobacillus or Bifidobacterium strains) support their digestion and mood.
• The Gut-Brain Link: The vagus nerve, which connects the gut and brain, plays a key role in digestion and stress responses. Trauma can sometimes disrupt this connection, leading to slower digestion, bloating, or heightened stress signals. Practices like deep breathing, yoga, or vagus nerve stimulation may help restore balance over time.
• Early Trauma and Long-Term Effects: Animal studies hint that severe stress during critical developmental periods might lead to lasting gut sensitivity. While the gut can heal, some survivors notice they’re more prone to certain imbalances, like leaky gut or food intolerances.

Supporting Your Gut After Trauma

While everyone’s body responds differently, some approaches that survivors often explore include:

• Probiotics: Strains like L. rhamnosus and B. longum are commonly studied for stress and gut health, though individual results vary.
• Anti-Inflammatory Foods: Bone broth, fermented foods, and fiber-rich diets help many people manage gut inflammation.
• Nervous System Regulation: Trauma therapies like EMDR, somatic experiencing, or mindfulness may indirectly improve gut health by lowering systemic stress.
• Professional Guidance: Working with a functional medicine doctor or nutritionist can help tailor interventions to your unique needs.

A Note on Cutting-Edge Approaches

Some newer areas of exploration—like psychedelic-assisted therapy or microbiome transplants—show intriguing potential in early research, but they’re not yet widely available or fully understood. Always prioritize safety, legality, and professional supervision when considering experimental options.

Key Takeaway: Your digestive issues aren’t “just stress”—they reflect actual changes in your gut bacteria and nervous system functioning. While some early trauma effects may linger, focus on function rather than perfection: even if certain species don’t return, their roles can be fulfilled by other microbes in a newly balanced ecosystem.

4. Immune System Confusion: Why You Might Get Sick More Often

What You Might Notice:

• Catching every cold or virus that comes around
• Taking longer to recover from illnesses
• Developing allergies or sensitivities you didn’t have before
• Unexplained rashes, hives, or skin reactions
• Fatigue that doesn’t improve with rest
• Flare-ups of autoimmune conditions

Chronic trauma puts your immune system in a difficult position. It stays activated to protect you, but this constant activity eventually leads to exhaustion and immune system dysfunction. Like a security guard who hasn’t slept for days, your immune system might overreact to minor threats (allergies, sensitivities) while missing the important ones (viruses, infections).

Recovery Path: The immune system responds well to stress reduction and rebuilding basic health foundations, though it may take months to recalibrate fully.

Simple Approaches:

• Prioritize sleep quality: Immune rebuilding happens during deep sleep. This may be challenging with trauma-related sleep issues, but even small improvements in sleep quality can help. Create a calming bedtime routine, minimize screen time before bed, keep your bedroom cool and dark, and consider tools like weighted blankets if they feel comforting.
• Gentle, consistent movement: Supports lymphatic flow without adding stress
• Anti-inflammatory foods: Colorful fruits and vegetables, omega-3 rich foods, turmeric
• Mindful management of mast cell reactions: Notice triggers for flushing (skin reddening), itching, or rashes and minimize exposure to foods, chemicals, scents, or situations that provoke these reactions when possible

Mast cells are immune cells that release histamine and other inflammatory compounds when triggered by potential threats. In trauma survivors, these cells often become more reactive, contributing to symptoms like flushing (skin reddening), itching, hives, and digestive upset after exposure to certain foods, chemicals, or emotional triggers.

Optional Deep Dive: Immune System and Trauma

Trauma often disrupts immune system balance, creating a state of simultaneous chronic low-grade inflammation and impaired immune defense. This paradoxical response develops when some inflammatory pathways become persistently active while the body’s normal regulatory systems become less effective.

Many trauma survivors experience overactive mast cell responses, which in some cases may develop into conditions like Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS). In these situations, mast cells can become hypersensitive, releasing disproportionate amounts of inflammatory substances when exposed to potential triggers.

This inflammatory state creates physiological changes that may:

• Increase vulnerability to frequent illnesses
• Raise risk for inflammatory health conditions
• Contribute to autoimmune-like responses

While individual experiences vary, these patterns help explain why trauma survivors often report complex health challenges involving both hyperactive immune responses and reduced infection resistance.

Key Takeaway: Your immune changes aren’t weakness—they’re the result of your body allocating resources to survival rather than maintenance during prolonged threat.

5. Stress Response System: The Command Center of Trauma Adaptation

What You Might Notice:

• Feeling wired but tired—exhausted but unable to relax
• Weight changes, especially increased abdominal fat
• Brain fog and memory issues
• Hormone fluctuations or irregularities
• Blood sugar swings affecting mood and energy
• Sleep disruption, particularly waking at night

While less immediately noticeable than other symptoms, changes in your stress hormone system (the HPA axis) drive many of the physical effects of trauma. This system coordinates how your body responds to stress, regulating everything from energy to immunity to brain function.

Cortisol is one of your primary stress hormones. In healthy amounts, it helps you wake up in the morning, respond to challenges, and manage inflammation. However, trauma can disrupt its natural rhythms. Initially, trauma often causes cortisol to stay elevated, but over time, many trauma survivors develop abnormally low or erratic cortisol patterns. These disruptions affect your metabolism (potentially leading to increased abdominal fat), immune function, and even brain activity.

IMPORTANT: The Double-Bind of Relational Trauma

Unlike other threats, trauma from caregivers or partners creates a unique biological conflict. Your body is programmed to seek comfort from trusted people when stressed, but when these same people are the source of danger, your biological systems receive contradictory commands: “connect for safety” and “flee from danger” simultaneously. This contradiction doesn’t just feel emotionally confusing—it creates measurable disruptions in hormone patterns and nervous system functioning that make relational trauma particularly impactful and exhausting. Understanding this helps explain why recovery from abuse by trusted others involves unique challenges compared to other types of trauma.

Recovery Path: The stress response system can be one of the slower systems to recalibrate, often taking a year or more to show significant improvements, but steady progress is possible with consistent support.

Simple Approaches:

• Establish consistent daily rhythms: Regular sleep-wake times and meal times
• Manage blood sugar: Regular meals with protein, healthy fats, and fiber
• Gentle adaptogens: Herbs like ashwagandha can help support stress resilience (consult a healthcare provider first)
• Mindfulness practices: Regular brief mindfulness breaks throughout the day

Optional Deep Dive: Stress Response System Changes

The body’s central stress response system (the HPA axis) relies on carefully balanced feedback loops that trauma can disrupt. Survivors often develop altered cortisol patterns—sometimes chronically high levels, but more commonly (especially in long-term trauma) an unusually low or “flat” cortisol response. These shifts influence metabolism, cognitive function, and immune activity.

Relational trauma—particularly betrayal by caregivers or partners—has distinct effects on this system. When someone who should provide safety instead becomes a source of threat, it creates a biological paradox: the instinct to seek comfort clashes with the need for self-protection. This conflict can lead to erratic stress hormone fluctuations, where signals for connection and danger fire simultaneously. Over time, this strains the body’s ability to regulate itself effectively.

Key Takeaway: Your stress response system adapted to help you survive chronic danger. Now it needs time and support to learn that the emergency is over. Or, maybe the danger hasn’t fully passed. Understanding this is the first step toward healing.

Fatigue: The Overwhelming Exhaustion of Trauma

Fatigue is one of the most common and challenging aspects of trauma recovery, yet it’s often overlooked or dismissed. This isn’t ordinary tiredness—it’s a bone-deep exhaustion that can feel insurmountable and often doesn’t respond to regular rest. You might feel like you’re constantly running on empty, struggling to accomplish even basic tasks, or needing to recover for days after mild exertion.

This persistent fatigue has multiple physical sources:

• Chronic activation of stress response systems depleting energy reserves
• Inflammatory processes requiring metabolic resources
• Sleep disruption preventing proper recovery
• Mitochondrial dysfunction from long-term stress (your cells’ ability to produce energy becomes impaired)
• The immense energy cost of constant hypervigilance and emotional management

If you’ve been told “you’re just not trying hard enough” or “everyone gets tired,” know that trauma-related fatigue is a real physiological condition, not a character flaw or laziness. Your exhaustion is a logical outcome of the enormous energy your body has expended trying to keep you safe, and it deserves the same compassion and treatment as any other physical symptom.

Recovery approaches:

• Honor your current energy limits rather than fighting against them
• Pace activities throughout the day rather than pushing through
• Prioritize the most essential tasks when energy is limited
• Track your energy patterns to identify your best times of day for different activities
• Consider supporting mitochondrial function with appropriate supplements (under practitioner guidance, see more info below)
• Practice self-compassion when fatigue limits your capacity

Other Physical Signs of Trauma

Beyond the major system changes already discussed, trauma creates numerous other observable physical changes. Understanding these can help validate your experience and guide recovery approaches.

Skin Changes

What you might notice:

• “Skin writing”: Light scratching or pressure leaves raised red marks that stay visible longer than normal
• Excessive sweating in specific areas like hands, feet, or underarms, even when you’re not hot or exercising
• Skin problems like acne or rashes that flare up during stressful times or after emotional triggers

Optional Deep Dive: Skin Manifestations

Dermatographia (also called “skin writing”) causes the skin to become unusually reactive—light pressure, scratching, or even rubbing can leave red, raised marks that linger. This sensitivity is linked to histamine release from mast cells, which may be more easily triggered in individuals with a history of trauma or chronic stress.

Hyperhidrosis involves excessive sweating in specific areas like the palms, soles, or underarms. In some people, this may be related to an overactive stress response system—especially heightened activity in the sympathetic nervous system, which governs the body’s fight-or-flight reactions.

Eye Changes

What you might notice:

• Your pupils staying dilated (larger) even in bright light
• Dry, irritated eyes that worsen during stress
• Becoming more sensitive to bright lights or visual movement

Optional Deep Dive: Ocular Signs

Many people with trauma histories notice changes in how their eyes function, particularly during stress or triggering situations. Common patterns include:

1. Pupil Responsiveness

• Some report exaggerated pupil reactions to light, especially during hypervigilance
• Others notice persistently dilated pupils even in bright environments
• These changes may reflect altered nervous system regulation

1. Dry Eye Symptoms

• Increased eye dryness, particularly during stressful periods
• Likely connected to shifts in autonomic nervous system function
• May fluctuate with stress levels

1. Visual Sensitivity

• Heightened discomfort with bright lights or certain visual patterns
• Some describe visual stimuli as physically painful during distress
• Often worsens during or after triggering experiences

These manifestations typically represent the body’s adaptive responses to prolonged stress rather than permanent damage. Many survivors find symptoms improve as their nervous system regulation recovers.

Posture and Muscle Changes

What you might notice:

• Rounded, hunched shoulders that developed as a protective posture
• Pelvic floor problems like tension, pain, or weakness (may manifest as pain during sex, urinary urgency or incontinence, constipation, or lower back pain)
• Jaw clenching, teeth grinding, or TMJ (jaw joint) pain

Optional Deep Dive: Musculoskeletal “Trauma Postures”

Fetal Shoulders: Many trauma survivors unconsciously adopt a rounded, protective posture—shoulders curled forward, chest slightly collapsed. This stance can serve as a kind of physical shielding of the body’s most vulnerable areas, especially after prolonged periods of fear or threat.

Pelvic Floor Patterns: Trauma can affect the muscles of the pelvic floor in different ways. Some survivors develop chronic tension or tightness (a hypertonic pattern), which may cause pain, discomfort, or difficulty relaxing during intimacy. Others experience a looser, more collapsed state (a hypotonic pattern), where the muscles feel weak or disconnected. For many, both patterns can show up—either at different times or in different muscle groups—especially in the context of complex trauma, where the body may have cycled through various survival responses like freezing, dissociating, or bracing for impact.

Jaw Tension and TMJ Discomfort: Chronic jaw clenching or teeth grinding is a common physical expression of unprocessed stress or vigilance. Survivors often notice tightness in the jaw or pain near the temples, especially during or after triggering experiences. This tension may reflect the body’s attempt to suppress emotion or remain “on guard.”

Voice and Speech Changes

What you might notice:

• A flat, monotone voice or a voice that sounds strained or raspy
• Difficulty finishing sentences when discussing triggering topics
• Speaking more quietly or with vocal fry (a creaky sound) especially in stressful situations
• For singers: difficulty accessing your full vocal range, voice cracks or breaks, losing pitch control when singing, or feeling disconnected from your voice
• Complete loss of words or inability to form coherent sentences when highly triggered (“trauma aphasia”)

Optional Deep Dive: Voice & Speech Patterns

Vocal Cord Tension: May manifest as a flat affect (ventral vagal shutdown) or raspy voice (recurrent laryngeal nerve irritation).

Speech Apraxia: Mid-sentence freezing when triggered, as the limbic system overrides speech centers (sometimes called “Broca’s arrest”).

Vocal fry or whispered speech: Common in those who learned to make themselves “smaller” or less noticeable to avoid abuse. Not all instances of vocal fry relate to trauma, as it can be a cultural or regional speech pattern as well.

Optional Expanded Deep Dive: Voice & Speech Changes for Singers

For singers, trauma often shows up in the voice through deeply embodied responses. The larynx (voice box) and the muscles that support it are highly sensitive to emotional states and shifts in the nervous system. When someone with a history of trauma sings, certain patterns often emerge—not because of a lack of technical ability, but because the body itself is responding to past experiences of threat.

Laryngeal Tension Patterns: Many trauma survivors carry chronic tension in the muscles around the larynx, especially the extrinsic muscles that anchor it to the jaw, tongue, and chest. This tension can limit the natural rise and fall of the larynx during singing, affecting range, flexibility, and ease. Even singers with excellent technique may experience premature vocal fatigue or discomfort after singing, especially in emotionally charged pieces.

Breath Support Disruption: The breath system is often impacted by trauma. Shallow breathing, breath-holding, or unconscious abdominal bracing are common survival adaptations. Because singing requires full, relaxed diaphragmatic engagement, these patterns can make it difficult to access the steady breath needed for vocal control. Singers may find themselves unable to sustain long phrases or may feel “cut off” from their breath in performance situations.

Proprioceptive Changes: Trauma can alter body awareness, creating a sense of disconnection between how something feels and how it’s actually being executed. Singers might struggle to “find” certain notes or registers that were previously easy, or feel confused by changes in vocal control. This isn’t a loss of skill—it’s a temporary disruption in the brain-body connection that coordinates motor function under stress or dissociation.

Resonance Shifts: The spaces that help shape vocal tone—particularly in the throat and upper airway—may constrict during trauma responses. This can result in a trapped or muffled sound, or a sudden loss of resonance, especially in emotionally vulnerable material. Some singers describe it as if the voice is “caught” or “closed off,” even though everything seems structurally fine.

Registration Disruption: Smooth transitions between chest, head, and mixed voice require fine-tuned muscular coordination and nervous system regulation. When trauma dysregulates the nervous system, these transitions can feel jagged or unreliable. Singers may experience voice breaks or inconsistent register blending, even in technically familiar passages. Rebuilding this coordination often involves both nervous system regulation and gentle, targeted vocal work in emotionally safe settings.

Additional Considerations for Neurodivergent Singers: Autistic singers or those with heightened sensory sensitivity may experience more pronounced challenges with body awareness or vocal coordination. Extra patience, flexible strategies, and customized body-mapping approaches can make a meaningful difference.

Heart and Blood Flow Changes

What you might notice:

• Heart racing when you stand up quickly
• Fingers or toes turning white or blue in cold or during stress
• Blood pressure that swings between too high and too low

Optional Deep Dive: Cardiovascular “Trauma Signature”

POTS-like Symptoms: Many trauma survivors experience a sudden increase in heart rate upon standing, sometimes accompanied by dizziness, lightheadedness, or fatigue. This pattern is especially common among those with a history of developmental trauma. In some cases, the symptoms are consistent with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), though not all meet formal diagnostic criteria. These responses reflect dysregulation in the autonomic nervous system, particularly the balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic activity.

Raynaud’s-Like Responses: Some individuals notice that their fingers or toes turn white or blue in response to cold or emotional stress. This is due to an exaggerated constriction of blood vessels—a common pattern in those with heightened sympathetic reactivity. While often associated with Raynaud’s Phenomenon, similar vascular responses are frequently seen in trauma survivors even without a formal diagnosis.

Blood Pressure Fluctuations: Trauma can create wide variability in blood pressure depending on nervous system state. During states of hyperarousal (fight-or-flight), blood pressure may spike. In contrast, during dissociative or shutdown responses, blood pressure may drop. These fluctuations reflect the body’s attempts to navigate perceived threat, even when the threat is no longer present.

Sensory Processing Changes

What you might notice:

• Being easily startled by sudden noises or movements
• Becoming overwhelmed by sensory input like loud sounds, bright lights, or certain textures
• Experiencing ringing in your ears that appears or gets worse during stress or when triggered

Optional Deep Dive: Neural and Sensory Changes

Heightened Startle Response: Many trauma survivors find themselves easily startled by unexpected sounds, touches, or movements. This reflects an overactive threat detection system, where the brain—particularly the amygdala—remains on high alert, ready to mobilize a defensive response even when danger is not present.

Sensory Sensitivity: Trauma can lead to heightened sensitivity to sensory input such as noise, light, textures, or smells. These sensitivities may stem from a nervous system that’s chronically overstimulated, or they may arise because certain sensations echo past traumatic experiences. The result is often a feeling of overwhelm or discomfort in environments others might find unremarkable.

Tinnitus or Ear Ringing: A persistent or intermittent ringing, buzzing, or hissing sound in the ears can emerge or intensify during periods of stress. This may be influenced by subtle shifts in muscular tension, blood flow, or neural activity in areas tied to hearing. For some survivors, tinnitus flares in response to trauma-related triggers, making it both a sensory and emotional stressor.

These physical manifestations aren’t imaginary—they’re visible evidence of how trauma has rewired your nervous system. Recognizing these patterns can help validate your experience and guide targeted healing approaches.

Key Takeaway: These observable physical changes aren’t “just in your head”—they reflect real neurobiological adaptations that occurred in response to trauma and can be addressed through appropriate trauma-informed care.

In the following sections, we’ll discuss practitioners, tests, and approaches that can help address these symptoms. While some options may require financial resources, we’ll also include accessible self-help strategies throughout.

If you can only focus on one area of healing due to limited resources, nervous system regulation and digestive health often provide the most foundational support for overall recovery.

Healing Timeline: The Forest’s Regrowth

Before we explore specific approaches to healing, it’s important to understand that recovery follows natural patterns similar to a forest regenerating after a fire. Like ecological restoration, healing can’t be rushed but can be supported. Understanding the typical timeline can help you set realistic expectations and recognize progress, even when it feels slow.

Important: Safety First

It’s vital to understand that significant healing requires a foundation of relative safety. If you’re still in an actively traumatic situation, your body will maintain its protective adaptations—and rightfully so. This doesn’t mean no healing can occur, but full recovery requires an environment where your nervous system can gradually recognize that the danger has passed.

If you’re still dealing with ongoing trauma, including post-separation abuse, harassment, or continued contact with abusers through co-parenting or legal battles, your healing timeline will be affected. Like a forest where embers continue to reignite small fires, ongoing contact with sources of trauma can continually reactivate stress responses.

What You Can Do If Complete Safety Isn’t Yet Possible:

• Focus on harm reduction rather than complete healing
• Create small pockets of safety when and where you can
• Build a support network that validates your experience
• Learn regulation techniques that can be used discreetly
• Practice boundary setting when it’s safe to do so
• Work with a trauma-informed therapist who understands the complexity of ongoing trauma

With these considerations in mind, here’s what healing might look like when sufficient safety exists:

The First Months (1-3):

• Nervous system: You may notice brief moments of feeling safer
• Digestion: Improved regularity or reduced acute symptoms
• Sleep: Falling asleep might become easier, though staying asleep may still be challenging
• Energy: Small increases in available energy

This is like the first green shoots appearing after a forest fire—signs of life returning, but still fragile.

The Middle Period (3-12 months):

• Nervous system: Longer periods of feeling regulated before getting triggered
• Digestion: More consistent functioning, fewer severe reactions
• Immune function: Fewer minor illnesses, improved recovery time
• Stress response: More resilience to everyday stressors

This resembles the early succession stage in forest regrowth—pioneer species (fast-growing plants that can thrive in disturbed soil) establishing themselves, creating the conditions for more complex growth and stability.

The Longer Journey (1-3 years):

• Nervous system: A new baseline of greater calm, with triggers becoming less intense
• Hormones: More balanced patterns emerging
• Body chemistry: Gradual normalization of sweat, odor, and other physical markers
• Identity: Growing sense of your body as an ally rather than an enemy

This represents the maturing forest—diverse new growth establishing a different but vibrant ecosystem.

Persistent Adaptations (Beyond): Some trauma adaptations, particularly from early developmental trauma, may persist in modified forms. Like a forest that grows back with a different composition of species after a fire, your body may establish a new, healthy equilibrium that’s different from its pre-trauma state.

Areas that may retain differences include:

• Gut microbiome composition (though function can improve significantly)
• Certain HPA axis response patterns (such as morning cortisol levels, stress reactivity speed, or recovery timing)
• Baseline inflammatory markers
• Nervous system sensitivity thresholds

However, these differences don’t necessarily mean dysfunction. Many survivors develop remarkable resilience, intuition, and capacity for empathy precisely because of how their bodies adapted to trauma.

Key Takeaway: Recovery isn’t linear—you’ll have setbacks and growth spurts. Progress often happens in a spiral pattern, revisiting challenges but with growing capacity each time. Be patient with yourself, especially if safety is still being established.

Read the rest of this article including steps toward healing in the first book in Ellen’s series “There’s A Word for That”: https://a.co/d/00yKwGEj

This article is in Ellen’s first book of her “There’s A Word For That” series. Order it here.

Copyright Notice: This excerpt is from my book. All content is © 2025 Worldwide Groove Corporation. Unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or use of this material without permission is prohibited. Thank you for respecting my work. 😊

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There can be a sadness that emerges when we begin to truly see, when we wake up to the realization that we have lived much of our lives in survival stress. It is the grief of recognizing that our choices, our relationships, our very sense of self may have been shaped by the unseen hand of a nervous system wired by our past for both protection and presence.

This sadness is not the sharp, immediate sting of loss, nor the acute heartbreak that follows devastation. It is an ache—a deep, tender sorrow that pools in the body like a riverbed worn smooth by time. It lives in the weight of the chest, the quiet exhaustion behind the eyes, the subtle heaviness in the limbs. It is the sign we do not even realize we are holding.

Sadness as a Nervous System Imprint

The body learns to carry it as a familiar companion, whispering, This is just how things are.

For some, sadness settles as a quiet withdrawal —a loneliness and a feeling of isolation. Maybe a shutdown every now and again that numbs the edges of life. For others, it intertwines with the breath, constricting the chest in a gentle but persistent grip. It can manifest in the way we move, how we carry our shoulders, the way we hesitate before reaching out, a lack of boundaries that constrict our hearts, or a cold emptiness that invades the core of our being. And yet, this sadness that can often feel like a permanent weight is a messenger, not a captor. When we resist it, suppress it, or fear it, it sinks deeper into the nervous system and numbs our capacity for joy and inner peace. But when we learn how to use our nervous system to help us heal, and how closely entwined emotions are to this system, we can allow our sadness to guide us towards our truths and an enriching presence.

Helping Sadness Feel Safe

Much like a child who has learned not to cry for fear of being unheard, yelled at, or shamed, our sadness needs to know that it is welcome here and that there is a grief for the loss of time. As we move forward with a nourishing, deeper wisdom. Sadness is not something to be banished or fixed, but something to be held tenderly. If we stay connected to how we respond to our sadness, it can feel safe with us and create immense space for all of us, and not just the history of our experiences embedded in the memory and pathways of survival.

By placing a hand over the ache and saying, I see you. You are allowed to be here too, and how that can create a shift that opens to a broader horizon. The sharpness dulls, the sting of emotional pain is soothed, the weight lightens, the sadness softens in the warmth of our attention. This is the beginning of true integration—not just intellectually understanding our past, but giving our nervous system permission to be with and hold more lightly what it has stored for so long. 

The Healing Language of Sadness

“Sadness gives depth. Happiness gives height. Sadness gives roots. Happiness gives branches. Happiness is like a tree going into the sky, and sadness is like the roots going down into the womb of the earth. Both are needed.” — Osho

To feel sadness deeply is to know that we are alive and room for so much life, your definition of life and feeling alive to enter your bloodstream, and you begin to flow more freely. It is a testament to the parts of you, that kept getting up, that kept searching, that longed for more, that believed that there has to be more to life than this, that yearned for a quality of inner safety a deeper connection, and inner ease but perhaps never fully received or experienced it. Sadness is the soul’s way of acknowledging what still can be.

When the heart weeps and the body feels, it does so because it recognizes something greater inside itself than what it has been externally given- it invites your soul and a deeper truth to fully emerge.

And that is where the release begins with the truth within this present moment that can feedback new information to this super vigilant system, instead of relentlessly tracking for danger, error, and everything that could go wrong, we also learn how to track for all that is ok, warm and friendly in this moment. 

Create A Soft Landing

Taking the edge off sadness is not about erasing it or getting over it. It is about creating a space for it to breathe and rest, rather than something we must endure. It is about meeting it with a deeper breath, a deep inhale, along with another inhale and a long, slow exhale, no matter how restricted it might feel to breathe, try not to force it, inhale as naturally as you can, allowing every exhale time to receive that tender warmth. In doing so, you are offering the whole of you back to yourself, no matter who stole parts of your heart and soul; you are now reclaiming all parts of you. You create copious amounts of space for joy, not as a forced antidote, but as a natural counterpart that emerges when we no longer fear the depth of our own sorrow.

“The wound is the place where the light enters you.” — Rumi 

Sorrow is healing  the wounds and carving a pathway to openness for you to meet your true self,  shining a light on you. Hold yourself tenderly, softly, gently, and steadily, and notice how your nervous system begins to respond when it feels safe with you and with the deeper knowing that even in our sorrow, we are whole.

Cheering you along from survival to a soul revival.

Photo by Melissa Askew on Unsplash

Guest Post Disclaimer: Any and all information shared in this guest blog post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this blog post, nor any content on CPTSDfoundation.org, is a supplement for or supersedes the relationship and direction of your medical or mental health providers. Thoughts, ideas, or opinions expressed by the writer of this guest blog post do not necessarily reflect those of CPTSD Foundation. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Full Disclaimer.

Trauma is an octopus.

L’dor vador. These Hebrew words, one of the most fundamental tenets of Judaism, translate to “Generation to generation”.

—You cannot rush the healing process—

“I wanted my mother to love me. Despite all the torture and brutality.”
― Wendy Hoffman, White Witch in a Black Robe: A True Story about Criminal Mind Control

GLUTTON

A shamanic therapist once said to me, “You want to eat the whole meal simultaneously. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner– until you throw up.”

My insatiable gulping down of life, the need to know it all, live it all, be it all, was my fear and anxiety from childhood trauma. My running to “get it” was the compulsive desire to “get love” before I die. If I “get it,” The child who did not receive love will be whole and healed.

My unworthiness said, ‘You have to “get it,”’ and my soul said, ‘You don’t have to “get” anything; you just need to live and learn.’

The myth about healing trauma is thinking that we can “cure” it. The need to be perfect and “get it” is part of the trauma cycle: fight, flight, freeze and fawn. As humans, “perfectionism” is hypervigilant behavior that drives us to “GET” loved because we believe we are not lovable.

The truth is you can never “get it all.” Life is a cyclic and continuous learning experience of the SELF. As Epictetus put it, “It is impossible for a person to begin to learn what he thinks he already knows.”

It is the conundrum of living. I will never know it all; I should know it all so no one will see the cracks and scabs that rub against my skin and bones, causing me fear, sadness, and loneliness.

Learning self-love is the most challenging, painful, and extensive aspect of trauma recovery. However, how can we love ourselves when we do not have models of unconditional love? Loving ourselves means loving it all—the good, bad, and ugly—the shadow parts.

The same therapist said, “You need to eat your mother to know yourself.”

I gagged when she said that. I thought I was well past my “mother work” because I was educated, creative, and independent; I believed I was nothing like my mother. My mother was an abuser and borderline personality, and my father, a male of his time who never protected me from my mother’s abuse, was sexist and told me I could not make it in the world without him.

I was over it!! And that was that.

What I didn’t WANT TO KNOW was how much of my mother’s rage, grief, and heartbreak I held unconsciously in my body with every slap, pinch, and kick she threw at me. My father’s words ran deep in my bones, “You can’t do it.” Unconscious behavior, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings acted out on everything and everyone.

HIPS AND HIDDEN TRAUMA

Many years ago, I worked with a client who felt hip pain. I guided her to travel inward, slowing down her breath so she could feel the discomfort. She experienced a heavy weight pulling her into the earth, burying her.

A deep sadness surfaced. “I don’t want to feel this sadness. It’s too much.” I urged her to receive her own experience gently.

As she moved into her hips, she felt rage and remembered her mother locking her in a closet when she was six when she tried to express her feelings. Because of that incident, she developed an unconscious pattern of shutting down and tightening her body when anyone got close physically or emotionally.

Layers of unexpressed fear and hurt emerged. “I hurt so much. Why would my mother do that?” she cried out.

Slowly, I guided her to move her hips side to side, slow, then fast, and encouraged her to “go out of control.”

At first, she was stiff and didn’t want to keep moving. “Stay with it. Accept your little girl’s feelings,” I said.

Finally, she touched into the pain and let out a short, loud scream. She felt exhausted, but she began to feel warmth opening up in her hips.

I asked her to keep practicing coming into the body.

THE METAPHYSICS OF CATHARSIS

Brain research and experiential, somatic, and creative approaches now inform us that trauma is in the body, not the head.

But what does that truly mean?

Your five senses and physical sensations are the door into your body. Emotions, intuitions, and instincts are energetically involved in trauma recovery.

Life is energy. Energy never dies; it changes through intent, effort, and focus. Your body, thoughts, beliefs, feelings, memories, and imagination are all energy. But they are all in your head. Bringing the felt emotional memory into the skin, bones, and organs takes an intentional pulling inward and downward.

Healing is not curing; feeling/intuition is healing—an ongoing process.

When individuals attempt to drop into their bodies, they will analyze a feeling from their head, tell a story, and repeat a memory of something that happened.

The energetics of trauma are non-verbal, irrational, and primal.

Your animal instincts sniff into your body. They guide you toward your authentic knowing and experience.

Many people are terrified to go there and believe it will re-traumatize them. It can. But if guided with acceptance, care, and pacing layer by layer, you will begin to release the pain and freeze with compassion.

To find THAT emotional voice takes a deep commitment to tolerate the pain. To melt unconscious defended patterns that, as children, kept you safe and frozen in survival. Holding pain and discomfort is a metaphysical, energetic, emotional healing of trauma.

Releasing, navigating, and transforming trauma is an intense cathartic experience.

“Catharsis provides a model of healing that deals with those things which most disturb us and we least wish to face. The model that catharsis offers and which the millennial vision communicates is that there is a practical way to accomplish the ancient spiritual goal of creating light out of the very substance of darkness. This process may be crucial to our physical and spiritual survival, for as the apocalypse myth keeps reminding us, the darkness will not just disappear. Instead, it must be transformed.” —A Work of Lamentation by Joshua Leavitt, Parabola, Spring 1988

Cathartic work is passion work, the portal into your body.

OCTOPUS TENTACLES AND THE PSYCHE

Dr. Schulman, my first therapist at age seventeen, said to me, “You have a symbiotic relationship with your parents.”

I had no clue what that meant at the time.

Through my inner travels and studies, I realized I was living off of their feelings, unresolved traumas, and unconscious beliefs, which they had hammered into me without awareness.

He continued, “You don’t know what your feelings are separate from your mother and father.”

These are the core symptoms of trauma–co-dependency and addiction. You feel “others” feelings, not your own. You have no SELF.

Trauma is an octopus—a long, twisted, winding road leading back to the beginning of time. Your body is the topography of your soul and its primal wisdom and voice.

GRANDMA’S LEGACY

Trauma is the universal story of your ancestors. There isn’t a culture, society, country, race, or nationality that didn’t walk through the fires of trauma. The fight for freedom, independence, and individuality— truth and intimacy. Family—unconditional love.

My grandmother, Sarah, brought a trail of blood that she dragged across the Atlantic Ocean from Russia/Poland—carrying generations of women’s silence.

My four-foot-four, husky, blonde, vodka-drinking, chain-smoking grandmother came to America and escaped the Russian pogroms. Nazi ovens murdered the rest of her eleven siblings, and she came alone, bringing with her the unfelt grief and rage that helped her survive loss after loss. She passed on her heartbreaking story to her children.

By the time she was twenty-five, her husband Charles died of pneumonia at thirty years old. Sarah was left with three children to feed and keep alive.

Like all good Jewish children, her children retired Sarah to the Burly House on Miami Beach.

I visited Sarah often, especially after I moved to Florida. One day, I asked her, “Grandma, how did you come to America?”

Sitting in her small blue and white kitchen, watching Sarah slap dough into thin wraps, shaping them into blintzes, she was too focused to answer.

One by one, she placed each blintz in a big frying pan, boiling hot with butter and oil, until crisp. The greasy smell of fried dough and hot, mushy potatoes has had my mouth watering since I was two.

I asked again, “Grandma, how did you come to America? Who were your mother, father, and siblings?”

“Oye”. My grandmother grunted. “I was smuggled in a pickle barrel.” She waved her hand, loose flesh wiggling from her underarm. “Stop asking such questions.”

“What?! A pickle barrel? Why don’t you talk about any of it?”

“Shush. No more talk.”

Her generational stories were buried in my grandmother and then my mother. Who was this woman? This Yiddish, sharp-tongued grandma?

The grievous wound of the mother is ancient. If I didn’t know her, how could I know myself?

GENERATIONAL REPAIR

Generational trauma is our personal trauma—the ongoing story of the repair of human life.

This is the meaning of the repair of the world— Tikkun Olam is the fragmentation of humankind scattered across the universe, and for us to repair the scattering of light into the darkness of the universe. Repairing the world and the human condition is eternal.

The way of the body is a path of diving, digging, curiosity, creativity, emotional expression, and self-inquiry

I had to learn to hold deep heartbreak to understand what Dr. Schulman attempted to teach me. I dug into profound, gut-wrenching family patterning work until I changed my experience with unhealthy relationship choices, unworthiness, shame, and blame.

Change and growth take time, commitment, intention, mindfulness, presence, self-responsibility, and the practice of coming into the body. It is a rebirthing of yourself.

Cathartic healing guides you toward writing and art, embodying the core emotional eye of your inner, deeper story.

Part 2 of this story will be posted on March 27, 2025

Image provided by the author.

Guest Post Disclaimer: Any and all information shared in this guest blog post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this blog post, nor any content on CPTSDfoundation.org, is a supplement for or supersedes the relationship and direction of your medical or mental health providers. Thoughts, ideas, or opinions expressed by the writer of this guest blog post do not necessarily reflect those of CPTSD Foundation. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Full Disclaimer.

Taking time off when you need to be focusing on yourself.

Guest Post Disclaimer: Any and all information shared in this guest blog post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this blog post, nor any content on CPTSDfoundation.org, is a supplement for or supersedes the relationship and direction of your medical or mental health providers. Thoughts, ideas, or opinions expressed by the writer of this guest blog post do not necessarily reflect those of CPTSD Foundation. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Full Disclaimer.

This article will center around the addiction to sugar and how it might affect you and your family.

The Types of Sugar We Eat

One might think that the sugar we eat is in its simple form, a substance that grows as a plant, is harvested, and then processed. You would be wrong. While some products contain ‘pure cane sugar,’ it is almost guaranteed that other forms of sugar are present in the food you eat.

If you read the labeling on the product you are about to consume, you will see that it reads like a chemistry book. The FDA (The Food and Drug Administration) requires that the amount of added sugar in your food and drink is listed.

Added sugar is a mixture of simple sugars like sucrose, glucose, or fructose, and other types might be present such as galactose, lactose, and maltose. Let’s break down and examine two of these sugars more closely.

Sucrose. This is the most common sugar and is often sold as table sugar. Sucrose occurs naturally as a carbohydrate that is found in fruits and plants. Table sugar is extracted from cane or beats and consists of 50% glucose and 50% fructose. This form of sugar is the least harmful to your body if consumed in moderation.

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS). This sweetener is widely used in products made in the United States. HFCS is made from corn starch and includes fructose and glucose. There are many types of HFCS with various amounts of fructose. However, the most common types are HFCS 55 and HFCS 42.

High fructose corn syrup has been shown to cause inflammation and is highly associated with an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and obesity. Those aren’t the only problems caused by this inflammation, as HFCS increases harmful substances called glycation end products which harm the body’s cells.

What is sugar addiction?

According to the World Health Organization, an adult on a 2,000-calorie diet should consume about 25 grams of sugar per day. However, most people are unaware that they consume much more than 25 grams, with a single can of soda containing 44 grams.

If you read those figures and felt a twinge of guilt, don’t. Your addiction to sugar is not entirely your fault, and you are not alone. On average, Americans consume an enormous amount of sugar daily, 71.14 g compared to the WHOs recommended amount.

Sugar, in one form or another, is everywhere and added to most processed foods to make them taste better and, quite frankly, to draw you back to buy more. Consuming sugar creates a short-term high, sparking powerful feelings of pleasure, energy, and euphoria that help alleviate depression and anxiety.

Some studies found sugar to be as addictive as cocaine because of the dopamine release sugar causes. Like cocaine, sugar has long-term health consequences. Sugar is used to soothe stress and is like other behavioral addictions.

Anyone who grows a mental attachment to sugar, giving them energy, can become dependent and suffer cravings to control irritability and emotional lows.

What is the Problem with Sugar Addiction?

Sugar addiction has become a significant problem worldwide, especially in developed countries like the United States. Sugar is in everything, and if the food isn’t naturally occurring or sweet enough, high fructose corn syrup is added to enhance the flavor. Corporations and other food manufacturers use sugar to tweak your brain; this tweaking can lead to obesity and cause addiction.

Evolution has a lot to do with sugar addiction as the brain is stimulated to go into survival mode seeking to bulk up on all the carbohydrates (sugars). It can cause one to gain excessive amounts of weight. Your body thinks you are starving!

Like withdrawal from any other addictive drug, stopping eating sugar is difficult for many reasons. One of those reasons is that sugar is added to everything you eat. Second, withdrawal from feeding your body copious amounts of sugar is tremendous as your body and brain adjust to not being bombarded by sugar’s effects.

Four of the Signs of Sugar Addiction

 As stated before, the first step in escaping a trap is knowing its existence. Acknowledging you have a sugar addiction can not only save your life, but it can also set you free of lifelong ailments.

Below we shall explore four signs that you are addicted to sugar.

1. You feel you need something sweet after every meal. If you are unsatisfied without a sweet dessert after your meals, you may be addicted to sugar. Sugar should be eaten as a treat, not an expected part of a meal. If you feel excited about dessert during your meal, you may want to re-evaluate your relationship with sugar.
2. If you crave carbohydrates, you might be addicted to sugar. It is vital to remember that sugar comes in many forms. One form is carbohydrates. Carbs are made into sugar very quickly and are used by the body to give instant energy. Carbohydrates drive sugar addiction by offering a short-term high and then a desperate low. The body will crave carbohydrates to get high and avoid the lows of lack of excessive sugar in the bloodstream.
3. Feasting on a high-carb meal or treat disrupts the ecosystem of bacteria in our digestive system feeding the ‘bad’ bacteria in the gut. These disturbances hurt the ability of our digestive system to do its job efficiently and cause bloating. If you experience bloating after eating, you may be a sugar addict.
4. You experience huge dips and spikes in your energy during your day. Eating sugar impacts your blood sugar and thus impacts your energy level. If you feel fantastic at a point in your day but have times when you feel fatigued, this is another sign you are addicted to sugar. When you eat foods rich in carbohydrates, your body will react by making insulin to metabolize them into sugar in your bloodstream. The influx of carbs will give you a rush but be followed by drastic changes in your energy level as it bottoms out. The constant changes of eating carbs and crashing leaves your body craving sugar.

It should be clear by now that sugar addiction is very real, and if you recognize yourself in the descriptions above, you should speak to your doctor. If you are obese or find sweets irresistible, there is a good chance that you are addicted to sugar.

Strategies That Can Help

Your life doesn’t need to be run by sugar. While your body needs some sugar to function well, overeating sugar, usually found in processed foods, is harmful. You can do the following to limit sugar intake and step away from sugar addiction.

Change Your Diet. One good strategy is to limit how much sugar you eat each day. This strategy requires self-control and the lack of a deep emotional connection to sugar. Below is a list of some dietary strategies you can use.

• Use fresh fruit to sweeten plain yogurt or pancakes.
• Replace your breakfast with unsweetened items such as eggs or oatmeal.
• Don’t purchase and bring home sugary items such as candy or cookies.
• Avoid eating anything sweet all day. Save them for dessert after supper.
• Stay away from sweetened drinks like sweetened iced tea, sports drinks, or soda.
• Always shop using a shopping list and stick to it.
• Make it a habit to read ingredient labels before you buy them. If it reads like a chemistry book, put it back.

Limiting how much sugar you eat daily will curb your cravings and end binges.

Consider Dietary Counseling. The key to ending sugar addiction is eating sugar in moderation and maintaining a balanced diet. A registered Dietician can teach you how to plan a healthy diet and how many calories you should consume for your activity level.

Psychotherapy. Sugar addiction is associated with stress and low self-esteem and can come from the trauma you experienced in childhood. Those with complex post-traumatic stress disorder often have a poor relationship with sugar as they use it to self-soothe. If you recognize yourself in this description, you might want to consider seeing a therapist. A therapist can help you deal with your past and other co-occurring problems, such as depression.

Ending Our Time Together

Sugar addiction is no joke, as it causes obesity and its side effects. Is sugar addiction real? Unfortunately, researchers are on the fence about that question. More research needs to be done to study the condition more closely. Scientists do know that people respond to sugar similarly as they respond to drugs.

Some researchers think sugar addiction is a behavioral problem like gambling, while others see it as a substance addiction. We must have more research, but there is resistance because sugar tastes good and is socially acceptable. To tell someone they are addicted to sugar is often to get a laugh and a sneer for interrupting their pleasure.

If thinking of living your life without sugar consumption feels horrible, well, you have made my point.

References

Ahmed, S. H., et al. (2013). Sugar addiction: Pushing the drug-sugar analogy to the limit. Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care.

Dhar, A., Desai, K., Kazachmov, M., Yu, P., & Wu, L. (2008). Methylglyoxal production in vascular smooth muscle cells from different metabolic precursors. Metabolism, 57(9), 1211-1220.

DiNicolantonio, J. J., O’Keefe, J. H., & Wilson, W. L. (2018). Sugar addiction: is it real? A narrative review. British Journal of sports medicine, 52(14), 910-913.

Malik, V. S., Popkin, B. M., Bray, G. A., Després, J. P., Willett, W. C., & Hu, F. B. (2010). Sugar-sweetened beverages and risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis. Diabetes care, 33(11), 2477-2483.

Rutledge, A. C., & Adeli, K. (2007). Fructose and the metabolic syndrome: pathophysiology and molecular mechanisms. Nutrition reviews, 65(suppl_1), S13-S23.

Wang, X., Jia, X., Chang, T., Desai, K., & Wu, L. (2008). Attenuation of hypertension development by scavenging methylglyoxal in fructose-treated rats. Journal of hypertension, 26(4), 765-772.

Westwater, M. L., Fletcher, P. C., & Ziauddeen, H. (2016). Sugar addiction: the state of the science. European Journal of Nutrition, 55(2), 55-69.

Wiss, D. A., Avena, N., & Rada, P. (2018). Sugar addiction: from evolution to revolution. Frontiers in psychiatry, 545.

Adolescents throughout the U.S. face psychosocial challenges they may not even be aware of at this point in time

The stage of development in primates we refer to as “adolescence” sits in between the stages of childhood and adulthood. The COVID crisis has contributed to discomforting symptoms we see in adolescence today. Adolescents throughout the U.S. face psychosocial challenges they may not even be aware of at this point in time. They experience mental issues like emotional disorders, self-harming behaviors, and key symptoms we find in clinical depression. Researchers, therapists, and psychologists are working tirelessly to identify strategies to help support adolescence as they embark on their healing journey. I want to contribute to this effort in this blog by sketching out major signs that show us an adolescent is moving through the adolescence life stages in a healthy manner.

[1]Adolescence is the stage between childhood and adulthood. Normative adolescent behavior is sensation seeking, researchers tell us. The environment that helps move an adolescent into this stage is important to note. An adolescent must experience an environment that reinforces higher cognitive abilities. Examples of higher cognitive abilities are working memory, reflective thinking, response inhibition, and performance monitoring. One way to measure whether cognitive abilities are improving is by performing cognitive tests on an adolescent. The tests may show whether a person’s performance on cognitive tasks improves. This shows that a person’s cognitive ability is improving; the improvements in this area of the brain help adolescence pursue other important goals like sensation seeking. Feeling requires critical thinking skills. The specific areas of a person’s brain that improve when critical thinking improves are the prefrontal cortex (PFC), posterior parietal cortex, and superior temporal cortex. Mental health challenges can begin to surface at this biological stage due to events, i.e., COVID, emotional or mental abuse, etc.

One major critical period an adolescent brain undergoes is when neurons begin to multiply and connect rapidly

Critical periods have been identified when a brain of an adolescent matures significantly. One major critical period an adolescent brain undergoes is when neurons begin to multiply and connect rapidly. When neurons fire together and often, the brain can send messages quicker to other parts of the brain. This matters because critical thinking is only possible when neurons are firing together frequently. The road to well-being begins when neurons connect daily. This critical period that is found in adolescence begins when she experiences an event that brings about excitement. This event can be receiving an award at school, performing well in a competition event, etc. Certain brain parts activate to “stop” brain functions that do not allow a brain to mature; the parts of a brain that help it mature turn on at the same time also. The major “glue” for these connections to occur in the brain is called myelination. Myelin is made up of proteins and lipids and creates a “tube” for messages to travel through to send messages throughout the brain. Critical periods like these give way to healthy brain functioning, creating the opportunity for an adolescent to overcome challenges that may be stressful like the COVID crisis. Many of our kids were not prepared for this crisis which had negative effects on brain development.

The brain of an adolescent is distinct from the brain of an adult. The brain of an adolescent will manage impulses if the brain matures successfully. The impulses that are normal for this biological age are yelling during an argument, lying, fighting at school, etc. The adolescent brain must have the skills to manage these types of impulses to move on to different biological brain stages. The critical period of development (CPD) is what this stage is referred to by neuroscientists. The brain of an adult is not growing as rapidly, in contrast. Neurons paired together are difficult to uncouple inside an adult brain. The brain of an adult matures to full optimal growth once a person is approximately 30 years of age. The adolescent brain continually is coding the social world around her, and a healthy adolescent brain is shaped positively by the social world, according to Dr. Casey, professor, and researcher at Yale University. [2]

Behaviors have been documented by the CDC that show that developmental stages are not being completed

Adolescence requires emotional support to help them through the biological stages of development. Anxiety and stress due to events like COVID brought about mental challenges for many adolescents. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) provides evidence this is the case. Behaviors have been documented by the CDC that show that developmental stages are not being completed, creating large deficits in cognitive abilities. Communities, parents, and schools are being affected severely because children need an expensive level of support to reach normal developmental stages. The virtues of the US depend upon the funding of necessary programs to ensure the well-being of the next generation of humans in the U.S.

The emphasis often is on creating policies that invalidate the experience of millions of American citizens: creating more policies does not reflect the nightmare of an experience children face daily

To close, policymakers must pay attention to the trends of biological development and those barriers that inhibit the completion of these stages. I watch congressional hearings often to identify those elected officials that focus on the root issues that contribute to the mental health challenges children are facing today. However, I find it disappointing what I discover when I listen to congressional hearings. I cannot imagine that people do not find themselves traumatized when they listen to these same hearings. The focus is not on identifying root issues for mental health issues in children. The emphasis often is on creating policies that invalidate the experience of millions of American citizens: creating more policies does not reflect the nightmare of an experience children face daily; I can list example after example of what children face daily that limits their developmental growth. Children speak and people in authority are not listening.

[1] Larson and Luna, 2018

[2] Casey, 2019

Guest Post Disclaimer: Any and all information shared in this guest blog post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this blog post, nor any content on CPTSDfoundation.org, is a supplement for or supersedes the relationship and direction of your medical or mental health providers. Thoughts, ideas, or opinions expressed by the writer of this guest blog post do not necessarily reflect those of CPTSD Foundation. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Full Disclaimer.

A person goes into the freeze response when she is exposed repeatedly to violence. The freeze response is an evolutionary defense system we inherited from our reptilian ancestors. As mammals, a person may move into an immobile state if she feels overpowered by a predator. The freeze response is a “last resort” behavior a person identifies with to stay alive in the presence of a threat. Freeze responses can occur in groups as well referred to as collective trauma.

Michigan State football players stood frozen as they witnessed four of their teammates brutally attack a defenseless player from the University of Michigan. Collective trauma refers to the psychological reactions to a traumatic event that may impact an entire society (Hirschberger, 2018). Hirschberger insightfully points out that collective trauma presents a threat to a person’s identity. The threat to identity for a person may mean her view of the moral fabric of society is questioned due to witnessing an act by a group that violates human dignity. Even though a person may identify with a certain group, i.e., tradition, or values, the person can reconcile how they can be “part of a group” that would commit such a heinous act against another human(s). A group’s identity may be at odds with a person’s individual identity. Group violence in many cases causes collective trauma.

Sports are meant to create civic engagement and human flourishing. Sports throughout history were developed to create positive reinforcements, helping people avoid environments that may induce trauma. Sports of any kind were designed to instill virtues into young people to bring about the common good. Competition would result in the developing character of humans. Interpersonal effectiveness would also be a focus in sports; performers would be encouraged to be helpful towards their opponents even if they would lose a match, not be hostile towards opponents. Collective trauma could be avoided when communities design sporting organizations appropriately.

Collective trauma promotes violence in sports. The Michigan State players who witnessed the assault take place did not have the tools to manage somatic symptoms. Freeze states leave a person feeling like her body cannot move nor does she feel like they can speak. Sports were not meant to be a vehicle for violence and brutality. Freeze and collapse states of the body leave groups of people attempting to understand their body’s response to abnormal experiences. Since many groups of people do not know how to manage intense experiences, collective trauma persists. Why did no one step in from the Michigan State football team to help the defenseless player from the University of Michigan? What would motivate humans to witness a brutally violent act occur to a human and not stop the violent act? The blame must not be only placed on the players who committed the violent act. Universities that do not adequately support athletes and coaches alike must be held accountable. Ethical violations draw attention to universities that do not educate their athletes to prioritize the dignity of all men, rather than simply pursuing a “win at all costs”. Collective trauma at times may result in a group of athletes witnessing a brutal assault and not identifying skills to stop the assault.

Practical tools to help support your athletes who may have experienced collective trauma:

• Speak to each athlete individually to discuss with them the collective trauma memory, allowing the child to process somatic experiences of the trauma memory.
• Contact sports governing boards to propose new guidelines to ensure psychological safety for the kids.
• Address the hurt in a child after a collective trauma experience, not solve the problem your child is facing.

Guest Post Disclaimer: Any and all information shared in this guest blog post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this blog post, nor any content on CPTSDfoundation.org, is a supplement for or supersedes the relationship and direction of your medical or mental health providers. Thoughts, ideas, or opinions expressed by the writer of this guest blog do not necessarily reflect those of CPTSD Foundation. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Full Disclaimer.

Microglia are plastic in nature. They can change in the central nervous system based on what location they are in the body. Microglia can change their phenotype, i.e., expressed facial features, to respond to chemical signals they have detected. Microglia can play a big role in defending the brain from experiencing neurological disorders including Alzheimer’s disease, neuropathic pain, and traumatic brain injuries. Microglia can adjust to the body’s experience to stress due to trauma of all sorts.

Microglia are negatively impacted by psychological stress and trauma. High activation occurs when stress is present in bodies at high levels. For example, exposure to either inescapable shock or repeated social defeat has been shown to activate expressions of microglial cells in the brain and the brain stem. The microglial response may, however, be exaggerated in the body if stress is not removed from the person’s brain and the body.

Stress coming from PTSD-related events can severely impact a person’s nervous system. Science tells us about this relationship between PSTD and a person’s impaired nervous system needs to be addressed in more detail by psychologists and researchers alike. This way, effective treatments can be proposed to address the extensive effects access to microglia has on the person’s brain and body.

Studies continue to show that PTSD-related events have negative effects on the production of microglia. This creates a great deal of vulnerability in the brain of a person. Due to this issue, people can become more susceptible to a clinical diagnosis of PTSD. Although Microglia defends the body from severe inflammation, these cells can create PTSD symptoms which may affect a person in the long term, impacting their well-being in a negative way.

Guest Post Disclaimer: Any and all information shared in this guest blog post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this blog post, nor any content on CPTSDfoundation.org, is a supplement for or supersedes the relationship and direction of your medical or mental health providers. Thoughts, ideas, or opinions expressed by the writer of this guest blog do not necessarily reflect those of CPTSD Foundation. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Full Disclaimer.

Dr. Scaer, the world-renowned physician who studies the neuroanatomical effects of trauma, suggests that dissociation is defined in terms of experiencing a sense of fragmentation-in pieces, split, and broken up of the mind, and perception of the self and the body (Scaer, 2001). The main ways dissociation may show up in a person is an altered view of the self, including derealization, depersonalization, distortions of perception of time, space, and body, and conversion hysteria. Pierre Janet, a pioneer, and key figure who created the field of psychotraumatology, describes dissociation as a “phobia of memories”, in the form of expression of excessive or inappropriate physical responses to thoughts or memories of old traumas (Janet, 1920). The basic mechanism of dissociation was felt to involve the splitting off of parts, memory, or perception in order to escape the anxiety that is overwhelming and unbearable triggered by the senses.

One major reason the concept of dissociation has been ignored for decades is due to Sigmund Freud’s view on trauma. He published an important work in the field of mental health in 1925 that, sadly, argued for the view that dissociation can be stories that are told of childhood sexual tragedies are simply a “fabrication, based on unacceptable sexual wishes and fantasies they could not acknowledge” (Scaer, 2001; Freud, 1925/1959). This work by Freud created a view for the field that informed clinicians for many decades that childhood violent experiences may not contribute to trauma. Moreover, the introduction of the diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) into the Diagnostic and Statistical of Mental Disorders, 3^rd edition (DSM-III) in 1980 also resulted in classifying many conditions formerly attributed to trauma and dissociation, often times ignored their association with prior life trauma (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1980). History paints often an ugly picture of how trauma symptoms and their diagnosis was treated, creating harmful spaces for many individuals who presented symptoms that are apparent to us today that relate to trauma and complex trauma. The invalidation of trauma experiences must end.

Classifying symptoms of dissociation is a challenge for clinicians because these symptoms assume many and varied forms and expressions. Some of these symptoms may be emotional, perceptual, cognitive, or functional. The symptoms individuals possess may involve the altered perception of time, space, sense of self, and reality. Some physical symptoms are expressions that frequently involve weakness, paralysis, and ataxia, but may also present as tremors, shaking, and convulsions. Equally important, a person’s memory changes and may appear as hypermnesia in the form of flashbacks, as amnesia in the form of fugue states, or more selective traumatic amnesia. Scaer points out that symptoms of dissociation strongly resemble the symptoms related to bipolar disorder.

A major feature of the experience of dissociation is the freeze response. Freezing is a state of immobility, i.e., the body stops moving. Freezing is routinely seen in the wild. An animal assumes an immobile state in the presence of a predator; this state may proceed to sudden flight or, if the fawn is attacked and captured by the predator, an animal will fall into a deeper state of freeze that is associated with unresponsive behavior. In the event of an attack, when the creature is rendered helpless, a different state of freezing appears in the creature. Hofer (1970) exposed rodents to a variety of predator-related stimuli in an open space with no means of escape. The results showed that all rodents entered a deep phase of freeze that may last up to 30 minutes. This state of freeze would be associated with marked bradycardia which is connected to cardiac arrhythmias. If a person is not allowed to react to a threat because they are over-powered, they may experience pain and suffering enough to dissociate down the line. The choice to fight or flee is why people may not experience dissociative states in other words.

The lack of recovery from a freeze response may lead to stored energy that comes from a flight/fight response that harms a person’s functioning. Researchers in the field suggest this stored energy can lead to negative physical reactions; for example, a person may become sick more frequently, may have intestinal or digestive issues, and may also experience increased blood pressure. The combinations of these ailments may create challenges for a human being to complete daily tasks. Peter Levine (1997), the key researcher in the trauma field, suggests that if energy is not removed from the body, created by the central nervous system, a person’s world continues to “shrink” so they can avoid any cues that may invoke intense physical experiences.

The most, Scaer (2001) argues, that a unique symptom of dissociation is that of flashbacks. The somatic experience patients have due to flashbacks are upsetting. One patient reported to me feeling trapped when she experienced a flashback of being raped by a past partner. This same patient went on to say that she just waited “for him to be done”. The emotional toll a flashback has on a brain and nervous system is devastating. Flashbacks may be episodes that involved often intense arousal and reexperiencing, symptoms more related to acute symptoms linked to PTSD. Flashbacks can last minutes to several hours or even days. Some patients experience an out-of-body experience when they dissociate. During a flashback, a patient may appear confused and detached from the present moment. A person’s nervous system can only tolerate so much, and the person may survive only by dissociating. Although this state of the mind helps many survive horrific situations, the long-term effects of dissociation continue to be documented.

Lastly, dissociation at the time of trauma is the primary predictor for the later development of PTSD, Dr. Van der Kolk argues (1989). Memories that seem fractured when a person attempts to reflect on the type of harm they experience are one indication of dissociation. Parts of your brain protect themselves when experiencing intense emotions. This form of protection also, in the end, brings about harm to the person’s ability to “piece” together a personal history. What we determine as our history increases our quality of life. Memories, at times, of past experiences, create hardships in our lives that increase doubts about what type of life we can live now.

In summary:

• Living rather than existing through life is challenging to do without healing from dissociation
• Dissociation that goes unprocessed may lead to a diagnosis of PTSD
• Dissociation shrinks someone’s world and limits your functioning
• Dissociation “splits” up your life, creating shame and a negative outlook on life

Guest Post Disclaimer: Any and all information shared in this guest blog post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this blog post, nor any content on CPTSDfoundation.org, is a supplement for or supersedes the relationship and direction of your medical or mental health providers. Thoughts, ideas, or opinions expressed by the writer of this guest blog do not necessarily reflect those of CPTSD Foundation. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Full Disclaimer.