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hey there everybody and welcome to this video on trauma-related symptoms today we're talking about executive functioning deficits and a lot of people kind of scratch their head and they go
what in the world does that mean well in general that means your ability to plan to organize and
to problem solve all of those things that an executive might do an executive of a company
so why do people have difficulty with this and how is it related to trauma
well back in the beginning when you experience trauma what happened you felt unsafe and Powerless
that triggered your stress response system we know that when that stress response system is active
when you're in fight or flight you are not thinking you are acting based on feelings you
are fighting or fleeing to survive you're not sitting down going well how could I solve this
that's why Linehan introduced the concepts of distress tolerance skills to help people
get into their wise mind the wise mind is where all the executive functioning happens
now when you have trauma that hasn't been adequately resolved you continue to feel
somewhat unsafe and somewhat powerless now the degree varies between people greatly But
ultimately you don't feel totally safe and totally empowered as a result your stress response system
that HPA axis stays on yellow alert so you're constantly having some level of stress hormones
kind of coursing through your body and this impairs your ability to be in your wise mind
it's kind of like having a child who's scared you're trying to get your work done and you
have a child who's scared who keeps going um help Mama Mama and you can't focus on anything
and so it's important to recognize that and as long as we're talking about that child for a lot
of people it is that inner child that prevents them from engaging those executive functioning
abilities there they experience the trauma when they were children and as adults they feel like
they are empowered now but when that prior trauma gets triggered when they start remembering that
trauma then the inner child will come out and go remember remember pulling on their skirt
remember when this happened the last time so the inner child is actually activating that
HPA axis the inner child is trying to say mama there's something to be scared about right now
and that can impair the adult's ability to stay in their wise mind to focus on what needs to
be done for organizing and planning because they need to calm down they need to reassure
that inner child that hey this context at this time with me around you're safe
it doesn't take long to really start understanding how executive functioning deficits can be the
result of trauma can be the result of adverse childhood experiences so what do we do about it
well we have to help the person be able to get into their wise mind we have to
help them be able to down regulate when they get distressed we have to help them be able
to identify when that stress response system is being triggered whether it's an adult triggering
or their inner child triggering and figure out what's that related to and how can I help myself
feel safe and not feel like I'm back there at this time not feel like I'm flashing back
those things will help the person stay in the present moment
get into their wise mind where they can more accurately and effectively problem solve