Trauma occurs when one experiences fear and powerlessness beyond what our nervous system can assimilate.
Sigmund Freud defined Trauma as “A breach in the protective barrier against stimulation, leading to feelings of helplessness.”
The body experiences fear and excitement in the same way. When one is scared; heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration rate increase. Palms sweat, muscle tension increases, and appetite diminishes. These responses are part of the sympathetic nervous system. The individual is mobilizing for fight or flight. These situations become traumatic when we are powerless.
If fight or flight is not possible (subjectively or objectively) then the individual’s nervous system may go into the freeze state. The freeze may can occur as either “tonic immobility” (scared stiff), or can be manifested as “flaccid immobility” (fainting).
Whether an event is traumatic depends not only the intensity of what is happening, but also is heavily based on past experiences. An individual who suffered a near drowning event as a child may become more activated or scared while swimming at a beach with rough surf. The individual may experience flashbacks that include body memories of the original event. The individual may be vigilant about avoiding experiences that bring back memories or feelings of the original trauma.
This becomes especially difficult when the traumatic event involved physical, sexual, or emotional abuse/neglect by another person. When events with people have overwhelmed the nervous system, then fear of intimacy, trust, or relationships themselves can feel unsafe.
When the nervous system is overwhelmed in a traumatic event, the memories are not fully stored or integrated. When the emotional fire alarm of the brain, the amygdala, is overwhelmed the hippocampus is unable to fully record the event. The event does not have a time stamp. The result is that when the memories are triggered, they are experienced in real time as flashbacks. What ought to be in the past, now becomes the present.
The nervous system response to a new experience results in an increase in our awareness. Adventure sports, scary movies, rollercoasters, and new relationships can be exciting or scary. It is the context that determines whether it is seen as positive or negative.
The first part of Trauma recovery involves creating safety and stability. This involves helping the individual develop the tools to deal with activation and fear rather than engaging in behavior that is often self-destructive (substance abuse, self-harm, sexually acting out, binge/purge, compulsive shopping, over exercise, et al). These tools empower the individual to be able to put the brake on the fight/flight response.
The second phase is addressing the traumatic memories or body sensations themselves. This is where the individual begins to incorporate the disparate parts of the trauma and to help the nervous recognize that the trauma is over as well as to expand the window of tolerance to get to the place where there is an implicit understanding of, “I can handle it” or “It’s over”.
The last phase is integration of the experience into their life’s narrative. While we can not change the past, what we can change is our relationship to it.