Trauma and Thought Patterns — The Be Well Collective

By Anita Guru, Occupational Psychologist

“Trauma is an emotional or physical response to one or more physically harmful or life-threatening events or circumstances with lasting adverse effects on your mental and physical well-being” Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

On hearing the word trauma, people can associate it with a big life event, such as war or an earthquake, when in reality, it can be something we can encounter in everyday life. In the world of trauma, you can experience varying degrees of trauma - big ‘T’ and little ‘t.’ Big ‘T’ trauma is associated with experiences that are life threatening, such as serious illness, car accident or sexual violence. Little ‘t’ traumas can still be highly distressing but are typically not life threatening and examples include bullying, relationship breakups or failing an exam. A traumatic response can still be experienced if there is a perceived threat or even if a person witnesses an event; a person doesn’t have to be directly involved or at the receiving end of a traumatic event. It is also important to note that it’s a normal and human response to an abnormal situation - your mind and body is trying to make sense of a situation and trying to protect you in the process.

On experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event, it isn’t predictable if a person will develop trauma or PTSD. Each person is unique, and the exact same experience for two people may create a completely different response. It is common that a response may not happen for some period of time after an event, in some cases it could be months or years until you feel some impact or change. The important thing is to recognise any changes within yourself on an emotional, psychological or physical level. For example, you may struggle with your sleep, experience a change in appetite, or you feel more anxious and unable to manage your reactions to people or situations. These are some of the signs and impact of trauma, but when symptoms persist longer than around one month, it could be turning into post traumatic disorder (PTSD). Just to note as before, not everyone who has a trauma will develop PTSD, it is very individual.

The brain is a very complex organ and trauma can have a long-lasting impact on some of the key functions of the brain. The three areas most affected are:

Amygdala, which is your emotional and instinctual centre, and releases hormones to prepare us for fight or flight;
Hippocampus, which controls memory;
Prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for regulating your emotions and impulses.

Steps To Take When Your Brain Goes Into Overdrive

When you’re reminded of a traumatic experience, your amygdala goes into overdrive, acting just as it would if you were experiencing that trauma for the first time, and it doesn’t differentiate that there is no threat. This is when practices around regulating your nervous system can become really effective. These include things like yoga, meditation, journalling, arts and crafts, dance or mindfulness where your mind and body are engaged in an activity that creates calm in your body.

Simple breathing exercises, such as box breathing where you breathe in slowly and deeply for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, then exhale slowly through your mouth for 4 seconds, can help to regulate your nervous system and bring a sense of calm to both your body, and mind.

First-hand Experience of Trauma

During my period of illness with PTSD, I experienced extreme hypervigilance and it was frightening. At the worst, I felt so unsafe and would walk around fearing I was going to be robbed any minute or burgled at home, so I was constantly checking that the doors and windows were locked before leaving the house. At the peak of my illness I was on the verge of barricading myself into my bedroom because I felt that unsafe even though I had my closest family around me.

Dissociation and depersonalisation are a result of trauma: this is when someone can feel detached from themselves or their surroundings, and almost feel like an observer in your own world. During my recovery, I started to recognise that I was indeed spending a lot of time in my head and what felt like, in the clouds. I had thought I was a deep thinker, but learnt I was actually in a dissociative state, which meant I was detached from my surroundings, a technique I likely learnt as a child experiencing trauma. Dissociation is your brain's way of detaching and protecting you during a traumatic experience and people can experience losing large chunks of time and not being able to recall moments in their lives due to dissociating.

What I Did to Help My Dissociation

Through the process of healing from trauma, you can start to understand those behaviours and where they originate from, and that’s when the healing and processing can begin. Through psych-education I began to understand dissociation and I began to tune into the moments I would start to dissociate; these typically were when I was around others so I would pay attention to who I was around, or the scenarios in which this would happen. It would happen frequently in therapy when I was experiencing a difficult emotion or painful memory, I knew it was for self-preservation. In these moments, I would give myself compassion that it was my brain trying to protect me and allow it to pass. When I was on the road to recovery, I started to use other grounding techniques to bring myself back into the moment. A key approach is to use your senses to bring you into the present. This could be looking around and naming what you can see around you, what you can hear, smell, taste or even feel. You may find it useful to carry something with you, such as a fidget toy or even a small teddy, which you keep in your pocket to remind you that you are safe and ground you in the difficult moments and provide some comfort. Another effective grounding technique is breathing exercises, these can bring your body into a state of calm and tell your nervous system that you are safe. One way is to breathe deeply into your stomach for 7 seconds, then breathe out slowly for 11 seconds, continue doing this for a few rounds until you feel relaxed and at ease. Another method is to tell yourself you are safe, not in danger and there is no risk around you, this again will help you to relax your nervous system. Dissociation will look differently for everyone but remember, it’s a safety mechanism and you can work through it by becoming self-aware.

Trauma Responses

Trauma responses can be complicated, they are protective and essential to our survival as humans. There are three main responses:

Flight: This is where our brain perceives that we have a chance to escape the danger and gets us out of the dangerous situation and into safety with relatively low risk, without the complication of dealing with pain, or the fallout.
Fight: This is necessary when we can’t escape danger and can’t run away, but we have the strength and resources to do something about it. We fight – whether it’s verbally standing up for ourselves or physical attack.
Freeze: This is less commonly known. When fighting or escaping isn’t an option, our body and mind can go into shutdown. You will hear of trauma survivors reporting feeling so angry that they froze, or that they have shame or guilt around not fighting back. This type of response can be common in sexual violence when there is sadly no way out of the situation.

There is also a fawn response, which again is not so commonly known, and can play a part when we can’t flee, fight or freeze. Essentially, we befriend the danger, we do whatever it takes to appease the danger to prevent pain.

You can see that trauma responses are so complex and if a person is triggered or retraumatised, they may respond in the same way they did previously to keep safe.

Types of Trauma Therapy

There are many forms of therapy and it’s about finding what works for you.

EMDR is a structured trauma therapy that allows a patient to process trauma by engaging in movements, such as eye movement or tapping, that allows the trauma to be ‘filed’ and reduces the vividness and emotional charge associated with the trauma memories. Working with your body can prove to be very helpful. A renowned book by the psychologist Bessel van der Kolk, ‘The Body Keeps The Score’, lays out how trauma is stored in the body, in that our brains are unable to process the trauma and resort to a simpler method of recording the event. This can consist of pictures or bodily sensations; the memory of the shock or trauma is embedded into our body, but it can also be resolved.
Other therapies include psychotherapy, drama or art therapy, and many others. Psychotherapy works at a deeper level than counselling or a CBT approach, it can enable you to process trauma and look at aspects of your life which contribute to any psychological challenges, for example, anything from your childhood that may be a root cause of how you feel today. I had engaged in counselling for many years, but once I had psychotherapy, it felt like I was dealing with the deeper issues; sometimes these are embedded in our subconscious minds.
Drama therapy is another form of psychotherapy. It doesn’t involve acting or taking on a different persona, but rather exploring your own experiences by replaying scenarios, conversations or events to help process what had happened. Or involving other people to tell a story, or even rewrite a story so it can be resolved in some way.
Art therapy is a form of expression and again, another way to process thoughts or feelings. In some sessions, my drawings or paintings would start off surface level and progress into quite dark images, which was a reflection of my emotions that were coming through at the time. Both approaches allow a different perspective and tap into different parts of the brain which you may not be able to access through talking therapies. Other forms of notable therapies for trauma include yoga, dance, alternative therapies such as massage or acupuncture and other creative forms of activities.

It can be truly healing to share your story and be heard, seen, validated and the opportunity to recover. Through trauma, you can struggle to feel pleasure or joy, but there is no quick fix, it can take time.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Bio:

Anita Guru, founder of The Mind Coach, is an Occupational Psychologist and an experienced wellbeing coach with nearly two decades of experience in designing and delivering development solutions in the workplace at organisations such as Deloitte, Centrica and Coca Cola. Anita transitioned from her corporate role to channel her expertise and passion for mental health and wellbeing through her consultancy work.

A dedicated motivational speaker, Anita addresses crucial mental health topics such as trauma, infertility and grief. Her passion for mental well-being stems from a personal journey with Complex PTSD, diagnosed after an initial inpatient stay at a psychiatric hospital. She has since been on a journey of recovery spanning over 7 years and during this time realised her purpose, to support and help others. Committed to shattering stigma, Anita actively raises awareness through press articles and has featured in The Mail on Sunday, The Telegraph and Metro. She serves as a Trustee for the mental health charity, My Black Dog. Additionally, she expresses her creativity and emotions through her published poetry.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_themindcoach_/

Website: https://www.anitagurumindcoach.com