welcome back everyone I'm your host Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes we are going to
continue in this video series and start discussing reactions to disaster and
trauma and what we can do to mitigate those reactions this video focuses
specifically on your physical reactions to disaster there are a lot of things
that happen but let's just start with our threat response system if you look
in the literature is called the HPA axis or the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal
axis you don't need to know that just think of it as your stress response
system well that thing was activated like nobody's business last night and
probably today and will be for a few days because of the tornado that went
through because of the disaster that's expected that's your body's way of
saying there was a threat I'm not a hundred percent sure all the threat has
passed right now and I want to keep you vigilant and I want to keep you safe so
to that extent you want to look at your reactions and notice your reactions as
helpful it's your body's way of trying to help you survive now in some ways it
can really suck because you may not feel great but if you can embrace it as a
survival mechanism then you can figure out okay what do I need to do or how can
I better understand these symptoms and address them so things like tension
tension is a feeling that we get when we're under stressed when I'm under
stress I grind my teeth some people have neck tension some
people have upper back tension we tend to feel stress in our muscles when we
are experiencing distress of some sort tension if you think about it when I
play tennis when I was a young kid and if you stood flat-footed on the baseline
then when that ball came towards you it was a lot harder to launch and get to
where it was but if you kept bouncing on your toes
then you were primed and you were ready to go get that ball wherever it went in
the court tension is sort of our body's way of helping us stay on our toes
that way we can respond when there is something going going on tension doesn't
have to stay you can practice things and you can go online and search for videos
on YouTube I don't have any on my channel but you can find videos on
YouTube that walk you through progressive muscular relaxation that's
helpful Yoga is very hopeful just plain-old stretching is helpful as well
as massage if you tend to grind your teeth like I do I massage my jaw
frequently in order to help those muscles relax
when we are tense our muscles are using energy to stay contracted which is going
to make us feel more tired more quickly and it's going to keep us from sleeping
as well because we are tense you know our body is you know still
activated it's important to try to figure out ways to help yourself relax
fatigue is perfectly expected when you go through a stressful event your body
dumps a whole bunch of blood glucose and dumps a whole bunch of energy to prepare
you to fight or flee in order to help you survive and after that just like
after you've run a 400-meter dash or a ten-mile run or whatever it is you do
I'm a runner so those are the analogies I'm going to use you are plumb exhausted
because you pushed through and you used a whole lot of energy
additionally and I'm jumping down a little bit when that HPA axis when your
threat response system is activated it tells your brain to tell your body it is
not time to go into a deep sleep you need to be able to be roused very easily
from your sleep because there could be another threat and this is especially
true for this particular incident that happened to occur while most of us were
sleeping it is probably going to cause some sleep problems for some people for
quite a bit of time and they're going to have to work through those things
recognizing that your sleep disturbances are a natural reaction to threat can
help you address them can help you recognize and look at the facts of the
situation and really talk yourself down if you will talk to yourself educate
yourself about the facts you know this was a terrible thing that happened last
night I'm laying down to go to sleep tonight what are the chances that this
is gonna happen again well to the best of my knowledge there isn't even rain in
the forecast so I should be able to sleep pretty well tonight because
there's very little chance there's going to be another disaster in the middle of
the night tonight and it's going to be important for people to talk themselves
through those thoughts and anxieties for the next few weeks if those thoughts and
anxieties come up when they start to lay down some people will feel Restless they
want to help they want things to go back to normal they're edgy they're out of
their routine I know when I got out of my routine I get super restless and
irritable and recognizing this is your body's anxiety reaction when your threat
response system is activated it basically cranks up your energy levels
if you will it secretes cortisol and a hormone called norepinephrine which is
your you know get up and go along with glutamate your get-up-and-go brain
chemicals and those brain chemicals are saying you know what we got
do something we got to make sure this doesn't happen again we got to be on
alert and that makes it difficult to sit still to focus to relax and we're going
to have to work on using some biofeedback to help calm our body and
calm our reactions another technique that you can use is a very simple
breathing technique when you breathe more slowly your heart rate slows down
when your heart rate slows down your threat response system turns itself down
because it says well if the heart's not beating fast and you're not breathing
fast there must not be a threat how we can trick our brain this way I don't
know but it works so practice and you can do this with kids and it often helps
children a lot to you know feel like they've got a little bit more control
over their feelings and their reactions at the moment breathe in for for hold
for for and then exhale for for and do that once or twice with kids have them
put their hand on their belly and when they breathe in for for have them
imagine they're inflating their belly like a big balloon and how big can they
get that balloon and then hold for four and then have them imagine pushing the
air out of the balloon as they're exhaling this does two things number one
it slows their breathing and triggers what we call the rest and digest
response but number two it gets them focusing on something other than what
they're stressed about they're focused on their belly they're focused on their
breathing and that will allow their bot body and brain a time to disengage from
the stressor and get into a less emotional state of mind
aches and pains are very common when that threat response system is activated
it alters some of the chemicals like endogenous opioids and serotonin you
don't need to know that but I'm just throwing it out there and it alters
certain chemicals in our body that are responsible for our pain threshold when
those chemicals go down our pain threshold or our pain tolerance whatever
you to call it goes down so you may feel
more aches and pains that's compounded by the fact that you might have a lot of
tension in your body which typically makes aches and pains worse recognize
them don't get too fired up about them and start taking steps to figure out how
to address them heat ice stretching yoga massage there are a lot of things that
you can do and if you have one of the foam rollers at home those are great to
use for massage you know because doesn't require another person to be there so
you can do it at any point in time but even taking something like a tennis ball
most of us have a tennis ball around and you can use that to rub on your shoulder
or on your thighs or places where you're feeling tension you can even put I like
using two because it makes it easier but put them under your back and lay back on
them and rub yes you look like a bear rubbing against the tree but ain't
nobody there to see and if it helps you feel better than go for it hot baths can
also help for some people you may experience appetite changes right now if
you are gravitating towards high sugar high fat foods those foods cause your
brain to release pleasure chemicals you know and that may be your way your
brains way of saying I really want to feel good right now
other appetite changes some people won't have an appetite at all because when
they're stressed that threat response system says it's not time to digest food
I need to focus my energy on fighting or fleeing so your stomach and your GI
system speeds up so you may experience cramping and diarrhea and loss of
appetite and that is not abnormal that is totally normal unfortunately for some
people what's important to recognize is you still need to get good nutrition
your body makes the hormones and brain chemicals that are responsible for
helping you feel happy and content as well as stressed but for helping you
feel and for helping you stay healthy all of that
stuff is made from the foods that you eat so if you don't eat at all or you
don't eat good foods then your body's gonna have a hard time balancing those
hormones and helping you stay happy and healthy I'm not talking about eating a
crazy super nutritious diet you know I am talking about trying to be reasonable
in in what you eat eat colorfully and get enough water please drink enough
water dehydration can really make you feel sluggish and fatigued and irritable
hypertension Racing heart and panic attacks I'm just gonna lump all those
together when that threat response system goes off it dumps cortisol it
dumps norepinephrine those things basically speed you up which will
contribute to hypertension Racing heart and potentially panic attacks our
thoughts can also contribute to turning that threat response system up if we're
constantly telling ourselves that things are dangerous right now then we may
experience more threat response activation and we may experience these
symptoms to a greater degree it's important to recognize the impact that
our thoughts and behaviors have on our body and the impact that our body and
its health and functioning has on our ability to feel relaxed and the impact
it has on our emotions some people may also have an exaggerated
startle response right now and that is normal when that threat response system
is activated recognizing it and being kind to yourself and being kind to
others we have four dogs on our farm and they're all indoor dogs and when they
start barking at the neighbors or start barking it whatever it gets loud so it
goes from being quiet to being complete chaos in no time at all and that when
I'm stressed that makes me feel like I'm gonna jump out of my skin and instead of
being irritable with them you know I take a breath and I recognize that I'm
more sensitive right now they're doing what they always do
I'm more sensitive right now so I need to be compassionate with them as well as
with myself in this situation and start thinking about solutions such as closing
the curtain so they can't see the neighbors walking down the road or
moving myself to a different part of the house or putting on noise-canceling
headphones so I can't hear the cacophony that happens when the postal man shows
up or or whatever and finally headaches headaches kind of go along with
everything else tension fatigue sleep disturbances if
you have migraines you may experience more migraines because of the tension
but also because of the activate a stress response system it may throw a
particular neurotransmitter called dopamine out of whack which can
contribute to the development of migraines the good news is as the threat
passes as we accommodate to it a lot of these symptoms are going to go away
however it's helpful if you write down each one of these symptoms and identify
three ways you can deal with each one of them in a positive you know hopeful way
what can you do when you feel Restless what can you do to help yourself get to
sleep what can you do to deal with whatever your particular aches and pains
are so you have a toolbox handy or a tool list menu of options whatever you
want to call it that you can look at when the more distressed you are the
more difficulty you're going to have coming up with options thinking clearly
making decisions so if you can sit down and brainstorm a list right now and then
just look at it when you're starting to feel achy you might look at and go oh
yeah you know I just need to go get a heating pad that's right don't expect
yourself to be on your a-game right now but be kind to yourself
you