How to Know Your Body is Holding Past Trauma Inside
Your body always tells a story. Outwardly, the longer you live, the more scrapes and bruises reveal what you’ve been through. The same applies to your mental state. Your mind and emotional trauma are inextricably tied. When a traumatic event occurs, wounds happen that may or may not heal well.
It’s crucial to explore this mind-body connection. Focusing on your bodily symptoms and mental health, examine the interplay.
Are you frequently tense, short of breath, or shaky?
Does your head or stomach ache often?
Are you prone to jumpiness or fatigue?
Trauma can live on in the body. If you are plagued with physical aches, pain, or chronic illness, it’s important to look deeper. Determining how your body may be holding trauma might be the first step to healing persistent maladies.
Signs Your Body is Holding Past Trauma Inside
You Live With a Persistent Fight or Flight Response
Following a traumatic experience, your sympathetic nervous system reacts. The strong response is a sort of somatic (bodily) overdrive. Without therapy or assistance, symptoms can persist. Your body remains in a hyper-alert state. You may remain in a continually anxious emotional condition, anticipating danger or abuse. It takes support and practice to effectively calm your nervous system. Therapy can help you learn to recognize present danger and react appropriately.
You’re Jumpy and On-Edge
Often, traumatic experiences inspire a stronger or more sensitive startle reflex. Are you easily alarmed? Do you flinch or recoil at loud noises, an unexpected touch, or other triggers? Unresolved trauma in your mind can cause your body to react dramatically to a perceived threat.
This reflex may be irritating or embarrassing when others notice your reactions. It may even cause you to withdraw. Realize that your body is struggling to protect you from perceived danger and will likely calm down as you process past emotional pain.
Sleep Disruption Wears You Down
Trauma can manifest in a myriad of sleep troubles. You may experience nightmares or night terrors. Repeatedly waking throughout the night may be an ongoing issue. Or you may feel as though you don’t really fall asleep at all.
Regardless of your sleep problem, going to bed may come with a certain level of anxiety. Re-experiencing aspects of your trauma may be pretty common and upsetting. To manage these exhausting effects of your trauma might have led to sleep medication or treatment for a sleep disorder. While this can help short-term, this, of course, won’t treat the underlying emotional pain.
Chronic Tension Leads to Tremors & Shakiness
Tremors and trauma often go hand-in-hand for survivors. If your hands shake without a medical reason, trauma may be the cause. Generally harmless, trauma-related tremors are linked to persistent anxiety. Holding trauma inside fosters chronic tension in the body. This symptom can be heightened by a diet high in caffeine, sweeteners, and alcohol consumption.
Suppressed Immune System
Having experienced COVID-19, we are all very sensitive to the dangers of a suppressed immune system. There is much research supporting the idea that stress weakens the body’s ability to fight disease. If you live with post-traumatic stress, the impact on your body is likely chronic and damaging.
It is vital that you pay attention to your physical health and take into consideration whether or not you are prone to illness. Take steps now to alleviate your trauma-related stress. Treating unresolved trauma is necessary to improve the quality and longevity of your life.
Take the Next Step
Finally, the mind-body connection is real and worth exploring when it comes to trauma. Don’t suffer pain or shame any longer. Help is available. If a physician has not been able to connect your symptoms with a physical ailment, seeking the support and guidance of a qualified trauma therapist may be able to shine some light on your situation. Contact us soon to discuss how trauma therapy can help you heal.
Mark Killian, MA, LPC Associate, NCC, works with couples and individuals experiencing trauma at the Relationship Counseling Center of Austin. To schedule an appointment with Mark, call our office at (512) 270-4883, or request an appointment on our Scheduling page. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Learn more about trauma therapy.