How Does Trauma Affect Your Body? Somatic and Physical Symptoms
Trauma is a complex concept. It can come in many forms and have different causes, natures, symptoms, and severity levels. Nonetheless, it’s almost always impactful to a person’s physical and mental wellness.
From involuntary flashbacks to avoidant behaviors or fixed unhealthy patterns, if not resolved, trauma can prevent us from living our lives in the best possible way.
So, in today’s blog post, we will dive deep into the theory of trauma, its types, and forms. We will also explore how trauma affects our bodies and how, by being stored there, it can manifest in different kinds of physical symptoms. Stay with me as I end this blog post with an invitation to alleviate symptoms and resolve traumatic experiences with the help of therapy and DIY exercises. Before diving in, if you want to reach out, feel free to contact us to learn more.
Let’s start with what hurts.
What Is Trauma?
Trauma is a distressing and disturbing past experience, either in the form of a one-time distressing event or a set of circumstances and events that repeat. As the American Psychological Association defines, trauma results in strong emotions of fear, helplessness, confusion, or dissociation, which then lead to long-lasting negative effects on the sufferers' attitude, mindset, behavior, and emotional state. As they explain, immediately after a traumatic experience, feelings like shock and denial are typical. Still, they then turn into difficulties with emotions, flashbacks, relationship difficulties, and even physical symptoms like nausea or headaches.
Trauma can be caused by a one-time event like violence or an accident, where the distress is short and impactful, leaving long-term effects on the mental health of the person who experienced it. It can also be a result of prolonged suffering and ongoing events of neglect, abuse, illness, or domestic violence. In the last case scenario, it can also come from unfavorable living conditions like war, famine, surroundings filled with violent events, etc.
In its essence, trauma shakes the individuals' trust, safety, and stability due to physical or emotional threats or harm from outside. Those experiences harm the sufferer long term, including their mental and physical health, relationship experiences, motivation and drive for professional development, and the like.
How Many Types of Trauma Are There?
There’s a few different ways to look at how many types of trauma there are, but for this we’ll break it down in to 3 types of trauma, divided by duration and complexity.
Acute Trauma
Acute trauma is basically a one-time traumatic event, such as an attack, an accident, or the death of a loved one.
Acute trauma is sometimes easier to treat with EMDR because there is a single target for us to work on. With that, the impact both physiologically and mentally can be more or less because of this.
Nonetheless, acute trauma is still trauma, and the after-effects differ from person to person. While some people are able to overcome the experience soon after it happens, for others is life-altering, and their whole idea of self and the world changes.
Chronic Trauma
Chronic trauma happens when there is a series of traumatic events repeated over an extended period in the same or similar manner. For example, this can include instances such as abusive relationships or living in an abusive household, ongoing bullying, and repeated physical assaults.
Chronic trauma is sometimes ‘harder’ because it leaves a complex set of consequences to the mindset and the behavior of the person and impacts things like their belief system, their idea of themselves and others, their patterns of thinking and feeling, etc.
Complex Trauma
Complex trauma comes from multiple distressing events that span over a longer period of time or even through the whole life of the sufferer. They can but don’t necessarily have the same nature or source and can include diverse experiences within different contexts, like household experiences, bullying, and abusive relationships later in life. They can also be connected to professional burnout, refugee hardships, and adverse living conditions.
Similarly to chronic trauma, complex trauma can make long-lasting changes in the way one feels, thinks, and behaves. People who have experienced complex trauma usually have difficulties regulating their emotions and may experience disassociation, guilt, and shame. Furthermore, they might resort to a number of unhealthy coping mechanisms, thus leading to even more life-threatening or restricting circumstances.
What Forms Can Trauma Have?
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network reports different forms of trauma, depending on its source:
Community violence
Natural disasters
Early Childhood Trauma
Intimate Partner Violence
Medical or Life-altering Trauma
Physical abuse
Sexual Abuse and Sex Trafficking
Bullying
Race-based Trauma
Terrorism
Traumatic Grief
How Does Trauma Affect People?
The difficulties stemming from trauma and traumatic experiences start at the very time the event occurs. Under distress, the brain doesn’t store memories like it normally does. The brain stores the occurrences in fragments (pictures and bodily sensations) in order to focus on survival during the event itself.
Those fragments are then improperly stored in the long-term memory and, due to their emotional charge, can result in symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress. For example, the memories may often come back into consciousness involuntarily, i.e., like flashbacks. Or, in another instance, they might come back as physical or emotional triggers that remind the brain of the experience, thus pushing the whole system back into the same physical and emotional distress as at the time of the event.
A study conducted by Kaiser Health in the 1990s looked at the way adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) affect long-term health. They asked 17000 participants about their experiences growing up and looked into the possibility of sexual or physical abuse, neglect, exposure to abusive households, etc. They added a “point” for each traumatic experience the person had during childhood.
They found that people who had more “points” of traumatic experiences had more problems with their physical health as grown-ups, including diabetes, heart disease, auto-immune illnesses, and cancer.
How Does Trauma Affect the Body?
Trauma affects the body in several ways. The physiological reactions are present at the time of the trauma and also after it. The long-term reactions, as well as the indirect ones, are more prominent after the trauma has occurred.
Physiological Reactions to Trauma
First and foremost, the reactions of trauma start to happen as trauma occurs. Our bodies are not equipped to withstand long-term traumatic experiences. Our primal defense mechanisms were made to respond to an immediate danger, like being chased by a lion. In those situations, the hypothalamus and adrenal glands release hormones that support the body for a fight or flight response, i.e., either fighting or fleeing, as a way to resolve the distressing situation.
Even though we have evolved to have a few more reactions than just fight-or-flight, modern humans still experience the release of the same hormones during distressing events. Those hormones come in handy when we need to save our lives, but the problem is that our bodies can go into the same mode even if there isn’t an immediate danger.
As I previously mentioned, traumatic experiences are not stored in the brain the same way as regular experiences are. They are in some sort “stuck” and stay vivid. When there is an external trigger or a perceived danger in any way similar to the original traumatic experience, the whole organism can have the same physiological reaction, thus bringing the body repeatedly exposed to stress hormones and fight-or-flight responses.
For example, a person who has survived a car accident may experience the same distress every time they hear an ambulance sound, as that “fragment” of their original traumatic experience is still active and vivid.
Cortisol
One of the most commonly mentioned stress hormones is cortisol. In the body, cortisol plays a crucial role in motivating and energizing our bodies in stressful situations when we need to be alert.
For people who have experienced trauma, cortisol levels can rise and stay high for prolonged periods of time, either when faced with an external trigger or when there is a perceived danger or uncertainty. Even simply recalling the traumatic experience (as it often happens in ruminations) can raise cortisol levels in the body and elicit the same physiological reactions.
To build on the previous example with the survivor of a car accident, they might get a rise in cortisol levels every time they drive in a car, hear an ambulance siren, or think about the accident itself.
Long-term Reaction to Trauma
Negative arousal and distress on perceived danger can continuously affect the person who has suffered trauma, sometimes years, even decades, after the experience itself happened. This is especially true if they often ruminate about the experience, so they have developed neuron pathways and automatic “line of thoughts” that bring them over and over back to the traumatic experience.
As Psychology Today mentions, a person who has experienced trauma can often have negative feelings and difficulties regulating them, which translates into exhaustion, sadness, anxiety, confusion, agitation, or numbness, among other things. The inability to resolve and regulate strong emotional feelings brings the person into a continuous state of negative arousal.
Cortisol lowers our immunity and heightens inflammation, so it makes trauma survivors more prone to autoimmune diseases and infections. Excess cortisol levels in the body can also cause heart damage and lead to strokes or heart attacks. It can also lead to digestive issues, diabetes, weight gain, cancer, or blood vessel diseases.
Indirect Reactions to Trauma
The indirect reactions and consequences of trauma are as dangerous as the obvious ones.
Here are some of the most encountered indirect reactions to trauma:
Emotional detachment and numbness or intensive emotional outbursts
Avoidance of places, people, or activities that remind them of the trauma
Distressing memories, nightmares, and flashbacks that they can’t control
Difficulties sleeping, focusing, thinking, or acting spontaneously
Frequent changes in mood and thinking patterns
Low self-esteem and inability to grow in their personal and professional lives
People who have suffered from trauma in their lives often have difficulty coping with the resulting consequences and emotions. So, they may self-medicate with alcohol or drugs.
Furthermore, there is a significant tendency for comorbidity in people who have endured trauma - they are more prone to other mental health problems like depression, anxiety, anger outbursts, paralyzing fear, or paranoia.
Frequent physical signs of stress due to trauma
Some of the most common signs of trauma-related stress include:
Low energy levels and exhaustion
Headaches and heaviness in the head
Aches, pains, and tension in the muscles, especially in the back, arms, and legs
Chest pain, rapid heartbeat, and shallow breathing
Stomach problems and pains, nausea, diarrhea or constipation
Low immunity, frequent infections, and colds
Loss of libido and sexual drive
Sweating, ringing in the ears, nervousness and restlessness or involuntary shaking
Dry mouth and difficulty swallowing
Clenched jaw and grinding teeth
Nightmares, insomnia, difficulties falling asleep or waking up
Although none of these symptoms can be attributed exclusively to stress due to trauma, they are very likely to happen as a result of trauma. This is especially true when they can’t be attributed to anything else.
These signs can also occur only in particular situations that trigger distressing feelings or, in any way, remind the person of the traumatic experience. For example, a person who has suffered a car accident might experience some of these symptoms when triggered, before a longer trip, or when passing by the place where the accident took place.
What Kind of Therapy Helps with Trauma?
There are numerous types of psychotherapy that work explicitly with trauma or have methods and tools that can help people who have suffered trauma. Various types of talk therapies can help, including cognitive-behavioral, trauma-focused behavioral therapy, or emotions-focused therapy.
EMDR has been shown to be one of the most successful therapies for trauma. It tackles trauma-related difficulties without excessively focusing on the trauma itself and shows quicker and more effective results compared to other types of therapies. If you want to learn about EMDR for trauma, you can do so in this blog post.
Exercises To Relieve Signs and Symptoms of Trauma
The sooner you start working with a certified therapist, the sooner you can regain control of yourself, your inner world, and your external circumstances.
In the meantime, here are a few things you can do to soften the consequences of trauma and traumatic experiences:
Engage in physical activities like yoga, hiking, or sporting
Practice meditation, mindfulness, and breathing exercises
Talk about your experiences with a close, trusting other
Engage and talk to like-minded people who understand and appreciate you
Join support groups
Take care of your physical body with healthy food, water, and physical activity
Engage in pleasant activities and hobbies that make you happy
Engage in soothing and self-care activities like massages, saunas, baths
Focus on the positive things in your life and practice gratitude
Conclusion
If you have suffered trauma and have difficulties regulating yourself and your emotions due to it, it is crucial that you start working on the issue as soon as possible. Often, avoiding therapy is avoiding facing the trauma (which may seem like recovery!). Still, in the long run, trauma can significantly lower self-esteem, life satisfaction, and ability to control and manage our life circumstances.
Here at EMDR Therapy Nashville, we are dedicated to helping clients alleviate the symptoms and consequences of traumatic experiences and regain control over their mental and physical health, their self-image, and the way they interact with the world around them.
References
American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Trauma. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/trauma
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network. (2018, May 25). Trauma types. https://www.nctsn.org/what-is-child-trauma/trauma-types
Felitti, Vincent J., et al. (1998, May 01). Relationship of Childhood Abuse and Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of Death in Adults. American Journal of Preventative Medicine.
How trauma affects our health. CTHC at UCSF. (2021, October 3). https://cthc.ucsf.edu/why-trauma/
Khoddam, R. (2021, March 3). How trauma affects the body. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-addiction-connection/202103/how-trauma-affects-the-body