Healing from trauma can be very complex to manage on your own because it involves both a biological and mental response. It could take a group of licensed professionals to support you in processing your trauma including a psychiatrist for medication management and a mental health professional for talk therapy. The reason why trauma can be so complex to manage is because it involves reliving the traumatic experience by talking about it with a licensed mental health professional and understanding how those experiences are affecting your every day life. Most people aren't able to relive their traumatic experience on their own and that's why sometimes medication management is needed in order for the brain to stop living in survival mode allowing the individual to process traumatic event in a healthy way.
When a person experiences trauma, their nervous system becomes dysregulated, producing the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol affects several aspects of the body to help regulate the body's response to stress. It will signal what your body should do and when to do it. Cortisol is an essential hormone that affects almost every organ and tissue in the body. When the body produces higher than normal cortisol levels, it sends the signal to the brain alerting the system that it's unsafe and to respond immediately. Each person handles trauma response differently. During time of stress, the body signals "fight or flight" response. Some people feel the urge to fight back which could lead to additional problematic responses. Others may freeze and not know what to do in the situation. Either way, the person is left with uncomfortable emotions and their nervous system is trying it's very best to protect the body from potential harm. During the fight or flight response, a person's blood pressure make increase because of elevated level of cortisol. Cortisol also raises blood sugar by releasing stored glucose, while insulin lowers blood sugar. Having chronically high cortisol levels can lead to persistent high blood sugar which could then lead to diabetes. As you can see, trauma affects every aspect of the body which makes it that much more challenges to treat.
Below are some examples of what trauma response could look like.
Extremely sensitive to changes in other people's mood and emotions
Constantly worrying about other's behavior
Constantly judging the safety of people and environments, always looking for ways out
Overwhelmed by situations with too much stimuli
Heightened awareness of sounds, sights, and smells even when they don't mean anything
Jumpy reflexes and knee-jerk reactions
Higher heart rate and blood pressure, dilated pupils to look for threats
Start to see childhood abusers (toxic family, partners, bullies) in people
If you have experienced trauma, it's important to get immediate professional help. Minimizing or dismissing trauma has real world consequences. It's easy to shut down and not seek help. With trauma recovery, it will give you tools to manage every day triggers and it will allow your body to finally heal. It's not an easy process but the more you hold on to traumatic experiences, the more it will have control over you in how you respond to other events and people. Don't be afraid to ask for help.
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