If you regularly struggle with stress, anxiety, and overwhelm, there may be an underlying issue from your past that’s causing it. Trauma may be impacting you more than you realise.
What is Trauma?
Trauma has been described as a highly activated, incomplete biological response.
A bad event becomes a trauma when it overwhelms your ability to cope with the experience and creates lasting emotional, psychological and physical effects.
It can occur from many different events or situations throughout your life when you did not have enough resources and/or support to cope.
Trauma could be from an injury, neglect or abuse, being a child of a narcissistic parent, medical issues, losing a loved one, bullying, poverty, divorce, or many other experiences that caused on-going stress.
It can happen to anyone after a single event or repeated distressing events that cause feelings of pain or overwhelm.
When your instinctive survival fight/flight/freeze response has been activated and your nervous system’s ability to respond to danger is interrupted or suppressed, this lack of safety leaves you feeling overwhelmed, powerless, or lacking control.
And if you have had prolonged periods of high stress, without adequate recovery you can find yourself stuck in trauma.
Trauma may show up in your life as:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- People Pleasing
- Substance Abuse
- Perfectionism
- Chronic Pain/Illness
- Eating Disorders
- Exhaustion
- Workaholism
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Health Issues
- Self-Destructive Behaviours
- Dissociation (shutdown)
- Anger Outbursts
- Dysfunctional Relationships
- Poor Self-Care
Common symptoms after a traumatic experience may include:
- Anxiety, fear, emotional overwhelm or difficulty switching off
- Depression, feeling stuck, flat or lacking motivation
- Digestive issues such as IBS, SIBO, pain, constipation or bloating
- Chronic pain, aches or muscle tension
- Autoimmune issues
- Insomnia
- Long-term fatigue or total burnout
- Chronic inflammation
The word trauma means wound, shock, or injury.
The truth is that most of us have unresolved trauma due to our early life experiences that were stressful and overwhelming.
Without adequate resources or support at that time, you couldn’t metabolise the experience fully, leaving a memory of the experience in your body that’s often outside your conscious awareness.
We know that trauma can happen during gestation, during birth, and in the earliest years of our lives through various experiences.
For example, a child can experience trauma during routine and more complex medical procedures where medical professionals may have to hold them down to perform necessary or lifesaving interventions.
This form of intervention stops the child’s natural fight or flight response when they feel that there is a threat or danger. This has an impact on their body and mind during the experience and beyond; because they lack the biological and psychological development necessary to make sense of the situation or to regulate their own distress.
As infants and young children our nervous system is still in development, and will continue to develop for many years to come. So at this time, especially, we need help to calm us and soothe us.
The younger we are when the trauma occurs the more vulnerable we are, because we have such a high level of dependency on our environment and the people in it to keep us safe.
We know that stressful and overwhelming events in childhood can potentially lead to structural changes within the brain that impact a child’s ability to take in new information, to regulate their emotions and it plays a part in reactive and irrational responses.
Trauma is held in your body
When your instinctive survival fight-flight-freeze response has been activated and not fully discharged, your body physically holds your stories, your experiences and your traumas in your:
Memories
Emotions
Behaviours
Sensations
Movements
Postures
Tissues
Fascia
Muscles
Organs
Cells
Gut
It causes a long-term imbalance in your nervous system. This imbalance can cause physical symptoms in your body long after the event has passed.
Trauma is physiological. This is why you can’t think your way out of it. Trauma recovery requires more than just talking therapy alone. It requires working with the nervous system.
Chronic and traumatic stress will cause 3 patterns of nervous system imbalance:
If you’re stuck on high it’s like your “on” switch is jammed: you can’t relax or switch off, you startle easily, have racing thoughts, anxiety, irritation and you’re on edge and emotionally reactive.
You might find that to cope and control your situation you overwork, do excessive exercise, set unreasonable expectations for yourself, try to get more done and rely on caffeine, sugar and stimulants.
Your thoughts may become disorganised and you may react without really thinking things through.
This can make you feel anxious, frustrated and unable to switch off eventually leading to burnout.
If you’re stuck on low you might not be able to gather enough energy to cope with the day to day demands of life and feel flat, disconnected and unworthy. It may be hard to think clearly or make plans.
You may experience exhaustion, forgetfulness, numbness and depression.
You may experience low energy even after enough sleep and chronic fatigue.
You might find that you withdraw, isolate, procrastinate, avoid things, binge watch TV, scroll for hours, isolate yourself and experience low sex drive.
This can make you feel stuck, hopeless and helpless.
If you oscillate between high and low you may find yourself stuck on high for weeks until you crash with fatigue, pain, sickness or a migraine.
You may have insomnia followed by excess amounts of sleep.
All these symptoms are messages that your nervous system needs recovery, support and tools to help with regulation.
These symptoms are not mental weakness, but rather a sign that your nervous system is not functioning optimally. When you understand how your nervous system works, and you no longer label it as wrong, your nervous system can complete the process and integrate the past.
When your nervous system goes into overdrive it can stop you from relaxing, being in the present moment, enjoying life and connecting with other people.
This causes chronic changes to your immune system, digestive system, endocrine (hormonal) system and even ages you faster.
Trauma, whether it be physical, mental, or emotional can have long-term, detrimental effects on your health and wellbeing that are holding you back from living your life.
For example, people with trauma are x2 as likely to have an autoimmune disease, x4 more likely to develop mental health disorders, and trauma is the number 1 cause of all addictions.
The bigger your traumas are and the longer you leave them unresolved, the more likely you are to experience stress, anxiety, and overwhelm in your daily life.
Your nervous system CAN recover and repair. Releasing trauma that is trapped in your body and learning how to rebalance your own nervous system via your Vagus nerve can re-establish equilibrium and help you to heal.
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As a Trauma Informed Psychotherapist I encourage you to go at your own pace and you will not be asked to share all of the details of your experience. Using Polyvagal therapy I will explain the science behind the mind-body connection and teach you body-centred ways to process trauma. I will help you to understand the impact of trauma in different areas of your life which might include romantic relationships, health, parenting, friendships, employment, etc. This helps you to gain a deeper understanding of yourself (thoughts/behaviours/emotions/reactions) to become more accepting and compassionate towards yourself.
For more information on how I combine talking therapy with body-centred work to help support your recovery please see my website : www.caroline-king.co.uk