Trauma and the Brain
So if you know me, you know that I LOVE talking about the brain. I find that understanding the neurobiology behind connection, trauma, and healing is very grounding and helpful, especially when therapy feels obscure. Understanding the underlying context of what is happening in our brains can also help us surrender self-judgment (“there’s something wrong with me” “I’m not worthy” “I don’t belong”). In this blog we dive into some information about the brain, trauma, triggers, and trauma response.
Restak, 1988
Let’s talk about the different parts of the brain that are pertinent for our discussion (starting from the bottom):
- Brain stem: basic processes (breathing, heart regulation, sweating, etc.)
- Limbic: emotional brain (emotions, memory, and survival) this is where the hippocampus and amygdala exist
- Cortex- physical experience of the world
- Prefrontal cortex- thinking and conceptualization
The brain operates on bottom-up processing (sensations), meeting top-down processing (memories) to create the experience of the world.
The structure of our brain is very similar to a house. You lay the foundation (the brain stem) and then frame it out (limbic system), add the characteristic details like windows, drywall, siding, etc. (cortex), and then you fill it with your belongings (prefrontal cortex). If the foundation is cracked (if you experienced very early childhood trauma), then that crack impacts every part of the home. And like a home, structural damage takes more effort to adjust. So the earlier the trauma, the more repair is needed.
Our experiences lay down pathways that permanently alter brain structure. Intensity or repetition consolidates and strengthens structure. And when trauma is present, it becomes difficult for new structures (new learning) to develop and limits the potential for a consistent integrated self (we stay focused in our trauma experiences versus strengthening other facets of ourselves).
This can feel a bit theoretical, so I find that I explain it best using a transportation metaphor. The most repetitive and intense experiences forge synaptic “freeways” in our brain. This allows for quick responses that don’t need a lot of processing time. In dangerous situations, this is rather helpful. Our brain is triggered to sense fear, the fear will shut off the upper parts of our brain, and our amygdala will activate. Cortisol starts pumping through our system and we either fight, flee, or freeze (mammalian fear responses). If our history has shown us that certain circumstances are dangerous, our brain will have a synaptic freeway from the stimuli to a survival response (flight, fight, or freeze). Our brain is wired to keep us alive and how it does it is pretty amazing!
This is what happens to people with traumatic stress. Their amygdala is activated, their capacity to wait for the “context” is diminished and they respond rapidly to a perceived threat or emergency and shift into an ‘emergency state of behavior’.
What does a survival response look like?
Fight: Over-reaction out of context to situation, paranoia, over-functioning or controlling behavior, acting out physically/verbally, misinterpretation, fear, startle response, defensiveness, aggressiveness, resistance, posturing, blaming others
Flight: Running away from situation, not coming to groups, avoiding certain people, situations or environmental triggers, not returning phone calls or texts, dissociating, addictions to anything to “numb out the pain”, avoiding conflicts or ignoring problems, “giving up” on a goal/project/relationship, relationship hopping/rebounding, frequent moving/changing residences
Freeze: Shut down, silent treatment, ignoring people or not responding, speechless, stuttering, sleeping more, isolating, withdrawing from activities once enjoyed
The stimuli that cause the survival responses are also known as triggers. These can be:
Environmental: Visuals -flashing lights, (example: Vietnam vet had to take ceiling fan out of bedroom b/c he’d wake up, thinking it was a helicopter and tackle his wife to the ground to protect her)
Sounds – car backfiring, fireworks, door slamming (Trigger: gunfire/bombs), sirens (Trigger: past accidents/medical trauma, past experience with law enforcement)
Music and smells can trigger powerful memories depending on how they were associated. (Trigger: Christmas carols or the smell of whiskey - holidays may have been chaotic or involved dysfunctional family dynamics related to addictions or substance abuse, etc.)
Social: Yelling, ignoring, flirting, relationships ending, death of a loved one (Trigger: past abuse, neglect, abandonment, bullying, death of a loved one)
Other: Anniversary dates of past trauma (person might just act odd or out of character); Strict enforcement of rules/policies or power struggles with employers/employees (Trigger: past history of abuse, authoritarian power differences = vulnerability/fear, history of being retrained/controlled in prior hospitalizations, or not feeling like they were treated fairly and humanely)
These triggers are valid, but they are not always necessary. We have evolved and live in a modern society without roaming saber tooth tigers, so there is not a need to be in a constant state of preparedness. But for someone who has experienced complex or recurring trauma, their triggers could be voluminous. Therefore, they could be walking around getting triggered by everyday life.
“Without roaming saber tooth tigers, so there is not a need to be in a constant state of preparedness. ”
In this way, the experience of trauma can compromise the individual’s functioning because processing of information in the “rational” parts of the brain is impaired and slower. When a stimulus occurs, the amygdala is quickly activated, and the hippocampus and cortex do not effectively translate the stimulus and decrease the arousal before fear reponse behavior (flight, fight, freeze) escalates. There are several studies that have repeatedly demonstrated the damage to the hippocampus and the cortex as a result of traumatic exposure. And impairment in neurological and cognitive functioning can be the result. Context and understanding are sacrificed for speed and survival. So I’ll say it again…trauma can directly affect learning and day-to-day functioning of the people we interact with, for the rest of their lives.
Therapy and Trauma
So, let’s talk about why therapy is so supportive to a brain. Therapy is the process of training ourselves to have access to new practices that allow us to have better contact to our cortex and upper cortex. These parts of our bring bring in rational thought, context, and reassurance. Therapy is the process of learning these new strategies, (i.e. forming new synaptic roads). These new strategies start out as gravel paths that can’t really compete with the “survival freeways.” But with more practice they can become pathed and more accessible.
What does this look like?
REPAIR. Therapy can’t take away what happened to you. But it can be an opportunity to have an arena to practice repair. We bring our toxic patterns and ways of engaging into the therapy room with us. A therapist can offer supportive and non-judgmental feedback that allows those engrained and unconscious patterns to be studied. If the therapist is grounded, then his/her/their calmed and regulated nervous system offers regulation to a dysregulated nervous system (one that is prone to activated fear responses). Just the process of engaging with someone who is regulated offers retraining for someone who has experienced trauma.
Therapy also brings our awareness to our discouraging patterns. When we know more about our dysfunctional habits, we can better understand what leads us to acting that way and start interrupting those habits. Therapy is not necessarily letting someone else diagnose your toxic habits and prescribe pills and tools for you. It is the process of self-discovery with an expert in the room. And that expert needs to be a good fit. Because therapy is all about the therapeutic RELATIONSHIP. And that relationship alone can be reparative—as long as it is mutually beneficial.
What questions do you have? Comment below!