For professional and personal reasons, I picked up The Body Keeps the Score to learn more about trauma. I’ve always thought of trauma as a kind of “mental wound” that is caused by some type of distressing event, incident, or situation, and persists throughout one’s life if not properly addressed.
I believed that trauma was simply a pattern of thinking that is subconsciously adopted by the mind as a coping mechanism—by being hypervigilant all the time, then perhaps one can avoid future traumatic experiences.
This is all true, to an extent, but Dr. Van der Kolk explains there is much more to it than that.
“Research has revealed that trauma produces actual physiological changes, including a recalibration of the brain’s alarm system, an increase in stress hormone activity, and alterations in the system that filters relevant information from irrelevant.”
Further, “this vast increase in our knowledge about the basic processes that underlie trauma has also opened up new possibilities to palliate or even reverse the damage. We can now develop methods and experiences that utilize the brain’s own natural neuroplasticity to help survivors feel fully alive in the present and move on with their lives. There are fundamentally three avenues: 1) talking, reconnecting with others and allowing ourselves to know and understand what is going on with us; 2) by taking medicines that shut down inappropriate alarm reactions, or by utilizing other technologies that change the way the brain organizes information, and 3), bottom up: by allowing the body to have experiences that deeply and viscerally contradict the helplessness, rage, or collapse that result from trauma.”
When I read books, I like to jot down notes on the margins that exemplify the core message being conveyed. Below are a few that I found especially compelling. If this subject matter is of interest to you, I highly recommend reading this book.
“We learned from the Rorschach tests that traumatized people have a tendency to superimpose their trauma on everything around them and have trouble deciphering whatever is going on around them.”
Some of the symptoms Dr. Van der Kolk saw both at the VA and the Massuchusetts Mental Health Center included nightmares and flashbacks, alternating between occasional bouts of explosive rage and long periods of being emotionally shut down. “Most of them had difficulty getting along with other people and had trouble maintaining meaningful relationships.
“We have learned that trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain, and body. This imprint has ongoing consequences for how the human organism manages to survive in the present.”
“Trauma results in a fundamental reorganization of the way the mind and brain manage perceptions. It changes not only how we think and what we think about, but also our very capacity to think.”
“For real change to take place, the body needs to learn that the danger has passed and to live in the reality of the present.”
“The greatest sources of suffering are the lies we tell ourselves.’
At the 1985 ACNP (American College of Neuropharmacology) meeting, Kings College professor Jeffrey Gray gave a talk about the amygdala, a cluster of brain cells that determines whether a sound, image, or body sensation is perceived as a threat. His data showed that the sensitivity of the amygdala depended, at least in part, on the amount of the neurotransmitter serotonin in that part of the brain. Animals with low serotonin levels were hyperreactive to stressful stimuli (like loud sounds) while higher levels of serotonin dampened their fear system, making them less likely to become aggressive or frozen in response to potential threats.
“Other researchers had shown that dominant male monkeys had much higher levels of brain serotonin than lower-ranking animals but that their serotonin levels significantly dropped when they were prevented from maintaining eye contact with the monkeys they once lorded over.”
Four fundamental truths: (1) our capacity to destroy one another is matched by our capacity to heal one another. Restoring relationships and community is central to restoring well-being; (2) language gives us the power to change ourselves and others by communicating our experiences, helping us to define what we know, and finding a common sense of meaning; (3) we have the ability to regulate our own physiology, including some of the so-called involuntary functions of the body and brain, through such basic activities as breathing, moving, and touching; and (4) we can change social conditions to create environments in which children and adults can feel safe and where they can thrive.
“After trauma, the world is experienced with a different nervous system. The survivor’s energy now becomes focused on suppressing inner chaos, at the expense of spontaneous involvement in their life. These attempts to maintain control over unbearable physiological reactions can result in a whole range of physical symptoms, including fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and other autoimmune diseases. This explains why it is critical for trauma treatment to engage the entire organism, body, mind, and brain.
“We must …help our patients to live fully and securely in the present. In order to do that, we need to help bring those brain structures that deserted them when they were overwhelmed by trauma back.”
This is just a small sampling of the information contained within The Body Keeps the Score. It provides scientific explanations underlying trauma, and given those, possible ways of effectively treating it. Again, if this topic interests you, I highly recommend reading this book.