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Trauma & The Nervous System

Animals in the wild, though routinely exposed to situations where they must “fight or flee,” rarely experience the effects of what we call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This is because animals are often able to allow their bodies to complete the process of responding to the trauma.

Humans can create the PTSD response when we attempt to override our “fight or flight” instinct, either because we were trained to or because we have no other option. (For a great, in-depth exploration of this, read Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma by Peter Levine.)

For example, even a minor car accident can create the PTSD response.

Picture this: On your drive home from work, a car runs a stop sign but slams on the brakes before slamming into your car. The driver was able to slow their vehicle enough to just barely knock into your front bumper. Little damage is done to either vehicle, and no one is physically injured — but you sure felt that flood of adrenaline in your system.

Because there was little physical evidence of the accident, you override your physical experience with a mental one — you want to rationalize that the accident wasn’t that bad, so your physical response is just an over-reaction. Maybe you tell people you were “a little shaken up but feeling fine.”

That “shaken up” feeling? That’s your fight or flight response that needs you to complete the process. There was a surge of adrenaline that didn’t have an exit because you didn’t physically run or use the energy in any other way.

In the following weeks — even years — you may experience a slight burst of adrenaline when approaching stop signs or when a car passes too closely to yours.

Your rational mind will continue to want to shrug it off because, after all, it was just a minor accident and it was weeks ago — get over it!

But the effects of the experience are still trying to get resolved in your body.

SMALL OR LARGE, TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCES CAN HAVE LASTING EFFECTS.

The car accident example shows how even a small experience can create a PTSD response if it’s never dealt with.

In other words, the body doesn’t care how a situation “looks” from the outside; if the fight or flight response starts up and isn’t completed, then a PTSD response will be created.

And that’s why big traumas such as experiencing combat, physical assault, sexual trauma, or other kinds of abuse can cause major PTSD symptoms for years.

These include sleep disturbances, flash-backs, a state of near-constant stress, anger, depression, anxiety, irritability, chronic pain and fatigue, among many other symptoms.

*Incorporating breathwork and massage therapy into your life after a traumatic event can have a huge beneficial impact on your mind, body, soul, and nervous system.