The science is in. Trauma can, and will, wear your body down. Untreated, the long-term effects of post-traumatic stress on the body can show up everywhere, from sensitive skin to deep disruption within your cells.
Why is mental health strain related to unresolved trauma so physically burdensome?
Trauma can get stuck in your nervous system in a multisensory way. You hear, see, and feel things when you recall the event or become triggered in some way. Some of the memory is real mixed with things you imagine. Regardless, your body holds it all in your nervous system in an unfinished, unresolved state.
Often, trauma symptoms will cyclically increase anxiety, depression, and relational difficulties that can upset and isolate you. Essentially, trauma-related stress becomes a way of life.
People living with chronic post-traumatic stress retain it in their bodies.
It lives as a sort of charge inside that never resolves or gets discharged. Sufferers never return to a neutral state and are shown to have more long-term health problems such as heart conditions, reproductive disorders, digestive problems, and compromised immune systems.
In addition to such chronic pain or disease, the daily bodily fallout of post-traumatic stress may lead to anything from high blood pressure, cardiovascular disturbance, stroke, head and muscle aches, to pervasive aches and pains.
Thus, combatting post-traumatic stress stored in living in the body is vital. To effectively treat the symptoms of trauma, you must get to the root causes and release the tension it creates mentally and physically. The mind and body want to heal together.
So what’s the first step?
It’s important to accept that persistent discomfort your body is in is not coincidental or accidental. Again, the body and body are inexorably linked. Whether you have a clear picture of your trauma or, at some point, those disturbing memories were distorted, your body remembers, holds on and reacts.
Fortunately, there is a way to let it go.
EMDR Allows You to Deal with the Bodily Effects of Low Emotional Tolerance
PTSD creates physical distress because experiencing trauma shrinks that window. At that point, any stressor more readily upsets your emotional wellbeing. Confronting stress or pressure increasingly puts you in a state of hyperarousal, irritability, discomfort, withdrawal, and /or disconnected numbness.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Processing) therapy helps unlock and integrate trauma within your nervous system so that you can recall it without distress. When you feel you can easily cope with and manage the stressors in your life, you’re within your “window of tolerance.”
Aside from initial history-taking, EMDR does not force you to deal with body trauma verbally. Generally, you'll follow an 8-phase protocol to start healing the link between your body and mind. You'll use one or more of the following
eye movements to follow your therapist’s hand, an object, or light as it passes back and forth in front of you
taps from your therapist’s hands or your hands on alternating sides of your body
tones that are heard in alternate ears through a headset
You aren't required to rehash and experience the trauma and exacerbate the tension. Instead, you are provided this body-conscious approach to restoring harmony between your thoughts and bodily sensations.
EMDR Reprocesses the Danger Your Body Remembers
You have body memories just as you have brain memories.
Your manner of processing the tension inside you is unreliable if you are still reactive and suffering. Your perceptions, thinking, and physical sensations are over-sensitive. You can easily become stuck in a loop of tension, sensation, and pain instead of discharging the stress properly.
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation to help your brain reprocess the way your memories are stored. This neutralizes the emotional charge the memory once held. Your therapist will help you identify body sensations that come up for you as you notice targeted memories and beliefs.
Then, you'll have the chance to rate the distress or "negative charge" in your body, as well as identify and positive thoughts you want to incorporate as you think of the memory.
Simply put, an experienced EMDR therapist will notice how much your body is involved in the recall of traumatic memories. Through the EMDR process, you’ll be guided to scan your body, recognize issues, and reprocess targeted thoughts or memories that stimulate an anxious reaction.
When You're Ready for Relief, Reach Out
Trauma doesn't have to define you or your life. If you're struggling with physical sensations and recurring body memories, please read more about PTSD treatment and reach out soon. We're here to help. Please contact us for a free consultation to learn how we can help.
