- The body's natural reaction
to trauma is to keep you safe, to help you survive.
Even if it is at the cost
of being actively engaged in your own life.
What does this look like?
We'll talk all about it in today's video.
(uplifting music)
Hi, I'm Alicia Decker, co-founder of Mended Light
and I am passionate about supporting you in healing.
This channel is all about healing from trauma.
So you can feel safe, whole, and worthy of love.
Please join us and remember to subscribe
and click the bell to be sure you don't miss a thing.
Trauma can create a whole host of problems
in your body, from fibromyalgia
to chronic fatigue and auto-immune disorders
to insomnia, anxiety, depression, migraines,
and a host of other ailments.
I would go so far as to say
that all discomfort or disease is a cry for help
from the body that something needs to be addressed.
What if instead of trying to shut
down our body's cries for help,
we recognize that it is trying to communicate
to us an unresolved need?
What if the pain, discomfort,
or dis-ease didn't register as something to cover up
or make go away, but something to resolve?
What if the solution, instead of taking a chemical
into our body to cover up the symptom,
we learn to connect with the buried emotion,
honoring our need to heal on a body, mind, and heart level.
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk explores the interconnectedness
between traumatic experiences and the body, mind, and brain.
He says, "After trauma the world is experienced
"with a different nervous system.
"The survivor's energy now becomes focused
"on suppressing inner chaos
"at the expense of spontaneous involvement in their life."
These attempts to maintain control
over unbearable physiological reactions
can result in a whole range of physical symptoms,
including fibromyalgia,
chronic fatigue, and other auto-immune diseases.
This explains why it is critical for trauma treatment
to engage the entire organism, body, mind, and brain.
Did you know that your brain has an alarm system?
And when it is triggered,
it is designed to help you survive.
Even at the cost of you being actively engaged
in your own life.
When the alarm system is triggered,
it is almost like your brain
has pre-programmed escape plans.
It shuts down or decreases the higher thinking parts
of your brain.
The ones responsible for conscious thought.
And engages a survival mode
in what is sometimes called your reptilian brain.
Your body may respond to a trauma or trigger
before your conscious mind has even had a chance
to catch up with what is going on.
That is because the part of the brain literally goes offline
in the event of a trauma, threat, or trigger.
For this reason, you cannot just will yourself
out of responding differently.
Your cognitive brain function literally shuts down.
To find true healing from traumatic events
and their subsequent triggers,
you need to bring your thinking brain back online.
To do this, it first needs to be safe.
It needs to be safe for you to vocalize what you know
and feel what you feel.
If it is not,
the only option is to deny
and disassociate with yourself out of necessity to survive.
While this response is what your brain
and your body is designed to do to keep you safe.
If you stay in that place,
it will also keep you stuck.
Stuck in a place of fear, hyper-vigilance,
unable to thrive or fully enjoy life
because your brain is stuck in survival mode.
What happens when you experience something traumatic?
Certain parts of the brain go offline
or decrease their function,
while other areas of the brain engage.
This creates new pathways in the brain.
Through neuroimaging, or taking pictures of the brain,
we know which areas of the brain light up during
a threatening situation to create new neural pathways.
These pathways are created by neurons
and we know that the neurons
that fire together, wire together.
When a pathway fires repeatedly,
it becomes a default setting in our programming,
or the way we will most likely respond.
I like to compare this to wagon wheel ruts.
Now, I know we don't use wagons anymore in our daily life,
but whether you enjoyed a game of Oregon Trail back
in the day or fell asleep during history class,
everybody knows what wagon wheel ruts are.
If a dirt road is traveled just a few times by a wagon,
there are not any ruts in the road.
It is easy to take a different path.
But if you are following a road
or a neural pathway that has been etched deep in your brain
because you have followed it thousands,
if not millions, of times before,
it becomes a deeply ingrained behavior pattern.
And if that deeply ingrained behavior pattern
is no longer serving you.
If that programming that used to keep you safe
is now keeping you stuck.
It may feel like there's no hope
for your future to be different than the past.
As humans, we all have needs such as food, sleep,
shelter, and meaningful connection with others,
to name a few.
Our brain creates a map or programming
of our internal world on where to go to get those needs met.
Our brain also tells us
if there are dangers or opportunities,
and if we need to change our behavior
based on what is going on moment to moment.
That programming is influenced
by every experience we have.
From the time we are in our mother's womb
to the present moment.
It also has to do with our genetic makeup
and what we inherited
from our parents, grandparents, and so forth.
We have three main parts of our brain.
The rational cognitive part, known as the forebrain,
the midbrain, and the hindbrain,
also known as the reptilian brain.
The brain is built from the bottom up
starting with the reptilian brain, developing in the womb.
While the midbrain develops primarily
between birth and six years old.
And finally, the cognitive, rational brain
isn't fully developed until we are in our 20s.
Now, if I'm losing you with all this neuro speak,
stay with me.
This is why trauma that takes place in adulthood,
while still challenging,
is not nearly as pervasive as childhood trauma.
If we experience a trauma
while our brain is still developing,
our core programming has been disrupted.
From the bottom up is also the order
in which our brain processes our experiences
to meet our needs.
The rational part of the brain focuses
on the world outside of us.
Seeking to understand things, people,
how to accomplish goals, manage our time.
This is where cognitive thinking resides.
It's here you think about and decide who you want to be.
Where do you want to go,
and how to accomplish dreams, goals, and aspirations.
The midbrain is in charge of movement and processes
what you see and hear.
This is where we interpret emotions,
monitor danger, judge, what is pleasurable or scary,
decide what is important or not for survival.
The reptilian brain is in charge of balance.
Basic functions, such as breathing,
swallowing, blood pressure.
Think of all the things that newborn babies do.
Eat, sleep, wake, cry, breathe,
feel temperature, hunger, pain, poop, and pee.
This is what the lowest area
of the brain is in charge of.
It makes sure our basic survival needs are met.
The nerves and chemicals that create pathways
in our brain make up a basic brain structure.
Our brain structure has a direct connection
with our body through our nervous system.
If certain parts of our brain shut down out of survival,
it is going to affect the organs
and body processes that correlate to that part of the brain.
If you need support and letting go of stuck emotions,
check out our video,
"How to Release Trauma Trapped in the Body."
Going back to the quote we started with.
All of these reasons are why, after trauma,
the world is experienced with a different nervous system.
Your energy after trauma is now focused
on suppressing inner chaos
at the expense of spontaneous involvement in your life.
These attempts to maintain control over unbearable stress
caused when you go into a state of fight, flight, or freeze
can cause a whole range of physical symptoms,
including auto-immune diseases,
migraines, depression, anxiety, and many more.
This explains why it is critical for trauma treatment
to engage the entire person.
Body, mind, and brain.
So if you ever feel like you're crazy
or you're questioning what's wrong with you,
wondering why you can't just get over it and move on.
It is because your brain has literally been pre-wired
by the trauma and subsequent PTSD.
Your brain was protecting you
in the moment to keep you safe.
Recognize that if you are now
in a place of safety and security,
these coping mechanisms are no longer keeping you safe.
They are keeping you stuck.
Show yourself love and appreciation and understanding
for the amazing ways you have handled
the challenges of trauma.
You are still here.
You are still trying, and that is commendable.
You are worthy of love, understanding, and happiness.
Get the support you need to heal.
If this video has been helpful, will you do me a favor?
Please share this with a loved one
who needs support in their healing journey.
Also remember to subscribe, click the bell,
and watch the next video.
Until next time, keep shining.
We need your light.
(uplifting music)