Trauma Redefined
Misunderstandings
The past three decades have seen rapid and dramatic changes in our understanding of trauma that are slow to catch up with clinical practice. We now know that there are ways to not only manage PTSD but to recover and live a normal life.
Trauma is not a past event. Trauma is the body’s constantly preparing for a threat that never comes.
Trauma is not reserved for war veterans or survivors of natural disasters alone. PTSD is not about what happened, but how it affected you and more specifically, how overwhelmed your nervous system became as well as your supports after the incident.
New information is still emerging regarding Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) and how to treat it, and like PTSD, it does not require textbook cases of abuse to exist.
Poly-Vagal Theory
Since 1996 when Dr. Stephen Porges founded Poly-Vagal Theory, a growing field of research suggests that the nervous system has three states: Social Engagement, Fight and Flight, and Freeze. PTSD and C-PTSD push us into overdrive by consistently keeping the nervous system in flight, flight, or freeze.
While there is no “Poly-Vagal Therapy”, if understood and integrated, the theory can positively impact the way some therapies are practiced.
Factors For Trauma
Two people get into a car accident. The car was badly damaged but they walk away without a scratch. One person returns to work on Monday while the other is frozen in their home, unable to function properly.
The equation of when a stressful event turns into PTSD is not as easy as looking at the event itself. Some people can become traumatized by hearing about others’ traumas while some can be exposed to the worst of war and return without any symptoms of PTSD.
Neuroscience
Do you need a refresher on the central nervous system? Do you want to know more about how trauma actually affects the physical brain? Do you want to learn about neuroplasticity in the affected regions?
Understanding more about what happens in the brain can help us to see that this is a natural and reversible phenomenon.
