Trauma occurs when we experience intense fear and we are unable to respond. Humans as well animals have self protective instincts. When we have an experience that we consider a threat, we instinctively choose to flee and if that is not possible to fight the source of the threat. If both of these options will not protect self then the only other option is to freeze which in the wild is better known as “playing dead’ in the hope that the predator will choose not to eat the prey for fear of it being off. Humans are a little more complicated than animals in that we have a pre-frontal cortex which allows us to rationally think. At times the pre-frontal cortex may override the instinctual response. The instinctual need does not have the opportunity to mobilize the body and so the energy becomes bound in the body. It is not always the pre-frontal cortex that limits fight or flight. At times, an individual may be physically unable to move due to be restrained or held down is some way as may be the case in surgery or attack. The fear is coupled with immobility and the energy remains trapped in the nervous system causing physical and emotional instability as well as self-beliefs that perpetuate helplessness.
Trauma can be from a single event which is called ‘shock trauma’ or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Trauma can also be held from developmental needs not being met known as Developmental Trauma. Additionally, trauma can be held in family systems, passed down the generations. All trauma has the possibility of resolution.
It is innate within human existence to have suffered trauma to one degree or another and it depends on the resilience of our nervous system as to how well we cope with differing events in our lives. Those of us who have suffered trauma whilst in our early developmental stages are likely to have a less resilient nervous system and as such may not cope as well as some people when they experience a similar event as an adult. A person who has grown up with parents who both have resilient nervous systems and share a healthy relationship are more likely to recover quickly from difficult experiences throughout life. Babies and children who have had a difficult birth experience, early separation from Mum, early surgeries or health difficulties, abuse and neglect and even those who have not had their core needs met have nervous systems that can be highly reactive, hypervigilant or in a state of freeze. The freeze response occurs when a person is thwarted in their instinctual fight or flight response which can manifest as emotional shutdown and a whole host of physical responses.
As adults we hold onto these physical patterns that from our early experiences were what kept us safe and as we perceived at the time, alive. So as we grow into life, we naturally maintain these responses to perceived threat. We may perceive threat when there is none as we have learned to be hypervigilant and on the look out at all times to check if we are safe. Should a ‘big’ event occur that quite naturally would create a post-traumatic response in even a person with a resilient nervous system, those of us with early trauma may become stuck in the post-traumatic stress and find it extremely difficult to shift this. Our nervous system isn’t aware of the event, it only knows its been triggered into a defensive response through fear. Life can become an extremely anxiety producing or depressing experience. Many people will be unaware why they feel a particular way and may in fact not feel as if they have shut themselves down from feeling and emotion. To feel would be overwhelming. As you may imagine, all of this feeling in the body which has no way of being expressed can cause a whole lot of energy locked in the body. The individuals mind will try to make sense of this and so it may race in an effort to work out why they feel the way they do. We may take up behaviors that either help us feel calm or stop us from noticing the feelings or racing mind. These things may help us feel relief temporarily and so we keep partaking in these behaviors hoping to stop what’s going on inside of us. These habitual behaviors are where addictions come from be it smoking, drinking, work, drugs, gambling, exercise, whatever.
So how do we correct the disfunction in our nervous system? The regulation occurs by working with the sensations in the body. Our bodies have a natural intelligence as well as cell memory. It remembers actions that it instinctively wanted to do at the time of threat. The muscles hold onto the thwarted movements until such time as it can complete those movements. This also applies to the emotional self. It is very important to work gently with the nervous system in order to integrate the stuck energy. Should the energy be released too quickly, the nervous system and therefore the emotional and physical aspects of an individual can go back into a shutdown or alternatively an anxious cathartic overload. This is very delicate work that cannot be achieved through traditional counselling. The body cannot be talked out of a shut-down.