11/28/2024
🤔 Trauma is an emotional and physiological response to deeply distressing events (violence, natural disasters, childhood neglect, and more). It often disrupts feelings of safety and control, and can have profound effects on the mind and body.
🧠 Trauma significantly impacts the brain, particularly in areas responsible for emotions, memory, and stress control:
😱 Overactive Alarm System: Your amygdala, the part of your brain that spots danger, gets stuck in overdrive. This makes you feel anxious, jumpy, and always on edge, even when you’re safe.
😖Struggle to Stay in Control: Your prefrontal cortex, which helps you think clearly and manage emotions, doesn’t work as well. This makes it harder to focus, make decisions, or calm yourself down.
🫨Memory Mix-Ups: Your hippocampus, which processes memories, can shrink under stress. This makes it hard to tell the difference between what’s happening now and scary things that happened in the past, which is why flashbacks or intrusive memories happen.
😫Stress System Overload: Your body’s stress response (the “fight, flight, or freeze” system) stays switched on, leaving you feeling constantly on edge or drained.
Trauma literally rewires your brain, but understanding these changes can help you figure out ways to heal and take care of your mental health 🚨 The good news is that trauma can be addressed through therapy and maintaining supportive relationships!
I specialize in working with people with trauma and trauma-related disorders. If you are interested in taking the next step towards your mental-health goals, click the link in my bio 🤍
