Trauma happens. It happens in everyday life. If not discharged and dealt with properly it can seep into our bodies and minds. Trauma morphs and over time the symptoms of trauma become far removed from the traumatic event, to the point where it may be difficult to identify the connection. Without understanding that connection, it is difficult for symptoms to resolve. That is the course of the aftermath of a traumatic moment or event.
How does trauma create symptoms? When trauma occurs we fight, flight, or freeze. With the first two, we become mobilized—that is, we move into some engagement of the energy. Neither is great, but nor is the danger, and both are better than the last—freeze. To freeze is the most dangerous of responses because it is when the energy in the moment becomes trapped. As we freeze, so does our energy.
The inability of our nervous system to discharge the energy created by the traumatic reaction is what leads to traumatic symptoms—this occurs when the experience is too intense or too long. When our system is able to discharge the energy—fight or flight—we move back to equilibrium; however when we don’t, the energy stays in our bodies and needs some place to go. With the freeze response, we become immobilized and are unable to discharge.
When an organism remains activated due to overwhelming and continued danger or even the inability to slow it down, it is hard to deactivate. Our body becomes stimulated and the feedback loop is hard to break free from. When unable to discharge, the organism compensates for the aroused state and binds the energy into symptoms.
Whether or not we develop symptoms is a function of both the intensity and the consistency of the trauma. It is also a function of our ego strength (our emotional constitution), personal resources, and the support with which we feel from our attachment environments (that is, to whom we can turn and feel safe). In addition, personal and environmental differences we may experience post-trauma can remind us of the trauma (i.e. the loss of a limb).
There is a pattern to the symptoms of trauma. Some symptoms begin immediately, some are delayed, and some can surface years later. Some symptoms can occur at any time and some are more specific the early or later phases. Peter Levine identifies four early core reactions/states of trauma: hyperarousal, constriction, helplessness, and dissociation.s
Delayed responses might include, but are not limited to, hypervigilence, abrupt and exaggerated emotional responses and startle responses, nightmares, hyperactivity and reduced tolerance for stress and frustration. Even later, without treatment and resolution, there may be a deterioration into anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias as well as sleep difficulties. Now the system cannot settle and pervasive anxiety abounds. Even longer term symptoms might include more chronic behavioral changes and the inability to connect, such as commitment issues, shyness, chronic fatigue and immune issues, psychosomatic issues, depression, detachment, alienation and isolation, fear of dying, amnesia and forgetfulness, and ultimately avoidance.
As time progresses symptoms wax and wane, they remit and reappear; they can also worsen. With time, there becomes more space between symptom formation and the original trauma—there is less connection and the ability to understand the relationship becomes more challenging and only effectively done by a qualified professional. In the end, most often avoidance symptoms arise and seem less connected to the original trauma experience, making it harder to isolate, diagnose and treat. That is, without a qualified professional who has a background in trauma etiology and treatment.
The thought that our trauma gets bound up in our neural networks and is discharged through symptoms is not new. The research to back this idea was done by Bessel van der Kolk, Peter Levine and Pat Ogden, and others who have their roots in emotions, neurology, and mind/body connections. Louise Hay published How to Heal Your Body in 1979, a work connecting emotional and spiritual (aka energetic) states to the development of physical symptomatology. She correlated ‘dis-ease’ to unhealthy levels of stress and disruptions in emotional and cognitive functioning. Lastly, Sigmund Freud maintained that even babies have trauma; they lose their bottles, diapers and cribs. If everything goes smoothly the energy is discharged slowly and no symptoms develop. If not, there may be symptom formation then or it may show itself later in life.
There is a way out of the cycle of trauma. With mobilization, which also occurs in trauma therapy, we are able to discharge the stored trauma. In some ways not much has happened since Frued and Hay, although we have better understanding and research to substantiate newer and more efficient treatments.