Surprising Facts about Trauma

Some of the extra training and reading I’ve been doing recently has focused on how to heal from trauma. Here are some of the very high-level things that this training has confirmed for me, that might surprise you:

1)       Trauma isn’t just about your mind. It’s about your body too. In fact, the idea that mind and body are separate is misguided. It’s what modern, western culture would like you to believe, but there is a substantial amount of scientific evidence that trauma lives in your body.

2)       Having an easily triggered nervous system is a natural response to feeling under threat (whether that’s in one single life-threatening incident, or in repeated instances of risk, or actual harm). Our bodies adapt to help us become threat-focused, which is great when our survival depends on it, but can lead us to perceive threat, and overreact to it, when there is little or none.

3)       Inner conflict is part of the picture. People communicate with themselves regularly. Right now, I’m telling myself that I am not allowed to stop for my next cup of tea until I’ve finished the first draft of this post! But this kind of inner bargaining can break down, and co-operation can seem impossible, when we feel under threat.

4)       There is hope for recovery, and even post-traumatic growth. It’s a process and requires ongoing maintenance throughout life, but real change is possible. A good psychotherapist will both support you to recover and enable you to maintain your mental wellbeing yourself.

I hope there’s plenty of food for thought there… I have so much more to say, but it’s time for that cuppa that I promised myself.