Reconnecting With Your Body After Trauma

Our emotional experiences often have a physical component to them.

When we’re nervous, we may feel a churning in our stomachs. When we’re disappointed, we may feel our hearts sink. And when we’re embarrassed, we may feel our faces flush.

Our emotions don’t just exist in our minds, but also in our bodies. This is why it’s difficult to rationalize your emotions away, because they usually exist at a visceral level that is beyond thoughts or words.

In The Body Keeps the Score the Dutch psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk does an excellent job describing how this physical component to our emotions plays a huge role in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Part of the reason our emotions have a physical component is because they are often coupled with a desire to take action. When we feel afraid and threatened, there’s a natural instinct to “fight or flight.”

However, during traumatic experiences, individuals are often completely trapped and helpless. They are victims of forces beyond their control. So their nervous systems kick into overdrive, but there is no way to act on these feelings. They are just stuck.

Usually when we experience a stressful event, we get a kick of adrenaline and cortisol through our bodies, but then we fall back down to our normal baseline levels after the event is over.

This isn’t true for individuals with PTSD – they remain hyper sensitive and alert well after the event is over. Their nervous systems never jump back to normal levels.

In a real way, they carry the experience with them into the future. And this is why even the smallest of stimuli can trigger an avalanche of feelings, sensations, images, and emotions – as if the traumatic experience is still happening to them (also known as “flashbacks”).

For this reason, many individuals with PTSD often try to deaden their senses or distract themselves using alcohol, drugs, self-harm, or engaging in high risk behavior. These are all ways to mask the feelings of trauma because they have become too unbearable.

As the book perfectly describes:

In one recent study that looked inside the brains of individuals with chronic PTSD, it was discovered that many parts of the brain associated with our basic self-awareness and body-awareness (called the “Default State Network”) are diminished when compared to healthy individuals.

To illustrate this point, Dr. Van Der Kolk would hand his patients a car key, or a quarter, or a can opener, but they often had a hard time recognizing what they were holding in their hands until they looked at it.

To recognize an object in your hand you need to integrate a wide range of senses including shape, weight, temperature, texture, and position. Those who have become “numb” from PTSD often have trouble putting those senses together into a single perception.

One could say individuals with PTSD often learn to disconnect from their bodies:

Reconnecting With Your Body After Trauma: Tips and Suggestions

Here are helpful suggestions on how to start reconnecting with your body:

• Sensory Awareness – One type of “mindfulness meditation” is to focus on your bodily sensations. Just scan your body and take note of any sensations you feel, even something as simple as an itch, a minor ache, tension in your joints, or a brush of wind against your skin. Paying attention to the “signals” your body sends can be a great first step in reconnecting with your body. In the brain, this level of raw sensory awareness often precedes emotions and thoughts.
• Mind-Body Movement – This includes any combination of body awareness with relaxed and purposeful movement. One recent study showed how Yoga can help reduce symptoms of PTSD in individuals who didn’t respond to any other treatment, and researchers expect to find similar effects for other types of mind-body movement like Tai Chi, Qigong, or Mindful Stretching. Today, Yoga is a very common practice in many Trauma Recovery Centers.
  

• Human Touch – Human touch is a very important way of establishing feelings of comfort and safety within our bodies. Small human contact like holding hands, giving hugs, kisses, cuddling, or massages can be an effective way of re-opening these touch-related aspects of our bodies. This can be a particularly difficult avenue to explore with those who have suffered sexual abuse (or those who become averse to human contact). However, the psychology of human touch is becoming recognized as an important aspect to focus on in trauma recovery – and there are now massage therapists and “body workers” who specialize toward individuals with PTSD.
• Dancing/Chanting/Drum Circles – Rhythm also plays an important role in building comfort, relaxation, and a sense of control over our bodies. This why psychologists (and “art therapists”) are beginning to use more dancing, chanting, and drum circles as a way for people to synchronize their bodies through movement and rhythm. Group movement can also be a great bonding tool, which is why militaries often use lock step marching and marching bands to create an atmosphere of group unity and connectedness.
• Theater/Improvisation – Another way to step back into our bodies and emotions is to practice theater and improvisation. Often by “stepping into another character” we can give ourselves permission to express thoughts and feelings that we might otherwise keep to ourselves. For example, Ancient Greek Tragedies have shown to be one great way for war veterans to release their confusion and frustration. And improvisation exercises (like the “mirroring” game) are being used to help free up the bodies of individuals with PTSD.
• Physical Exercise – Exercise is one of the most obvious and common ways to reconnect with your body, whether it’s joining a gym, playing sports, kickboxing, or going for a run. In general, any positive attention directed toward your body can help individuals with trauma. Physical exercise is another useful starting point. The “everything counts” mindset is a great mentality for learning to reconnect with your body in small ways through exercise.

Of course none of these things are a “cure” for trauma.

However, “reconnecting with your body” is often an underestimated aspect to recovery, especially when most therapists focus only on cognitive and behavioral aspects of well-being.

The Body Keeps the Score is a really fantastic book about PTSD and how to heal the body and mind. It covers a wide range of different approaches that I didn’t even get to mention in this article, such as EMDR, neurofeedback, medication, sensorimotor therapy, and psychodynamics.

Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk has been studying PTSD since the 1970s, and has been on the forefront of all of these different approaches. The book really gives you an “inside look” on how his approach has changed and evolved over the years, especially as new things are discovered in the scientific community.

Although I don’t personally suffer from PTSD, I found this book super insightful and informative. And it contains plenty of useful advice that I could easily apply to my own life. I highly recommend it to anyone.

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