OBSERVATIONS ON TRAUMATIC STRESS

Robert Scaer has some really fantastic material on his website http://www.traumasoma.com His book, The Body Bears the Burden: Trauma, Dissociation, and Disease is also a fantastic read. This is an excerpt of an article from his website:

OBSERVATIONS ON TRAUMATIC STRESS UTILIZING THE MODEL OF THE "WHIPLASH SYNDROME" ROBERT C. SCAER, M.D.

In his book, Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self, Allen Schore has outlined in exquisite detail the psychobiology of early childhood development involving maturation of orbitofrontal and limbic structures based on reciprocal experiences with the care giver. (14). Dysfunctional associations in this dyadic relationship result in permanent physicochemical and anatomical changes which have implications for personality development as well as for a wide variety of clinical manifestations. An intimate relationship may exist, with negative child/care giver interaction leading to a state of persisting hypertonicity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems that may profoundly affect the arousal state of the developing child. Sustained hyperarousal in these children may markedly affect behavioral and characterological development.

This phenomenon has its correlation in the adult traumatic experience and its effect on the autonomic nervous system. Although this effect has been described extensively in Viet Nam veterans and other groups of traumatized individuals, one of the more fascinating models of the physiology of the traumatic experience had been developed by Peter Levine, PhD., (7,8) based on the ethological model of the fight/flight/freeze response seen in animals in response to life-threatening experiences. In the wild, the preyed-upon animal will flee or attempt to fight, but if trapped, will enter a freeze response where it assumes a state of immobility while physiologically still manifesting high levels of activity of both parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems. If the animal survives the attack, it will go through a period of discharge of this high level automatic arousal through the motor system involving trembling, running movements, shaking, diaphoresis and deep breathing. Following this, the animal will return to its prior state of calm alertness. Interestingly, game keepers in Africa interviewed by Levine who capture animals for examination or tagging routinely note that if the animal does not go through the shaking/breathing response after release, they will inevitably die in the wild, possibly due to the inability to initiate appropriate self- protective behavior. Read on

Traumatic reactions occur when action is of no avail ~ Judith Herman

The importance of a 'relational home'

We need others, we need to be loved and we need to feel connected. This is especially true when we've been traumatised, in fact it's essential, we can't do without it at the best of times, never mind the worst.

Robert Stolorow in his book, Trauma and Human Existence, calls this a 'relational home' and I really really get what he means. Probably because I haven't always had it and I really appreciate it when I do have it. It's someone (including ourself) we can say the 'unsayable' to, the things we're ashamed of, feel guilty about, feel we're bad people for feeling/thinking them. How we truly feel deep deep down without having to dress it up, sugar coat it, or indeed, to make others feel better.

When we can give this to ourselves, we can give it to another. Even if you don't have someone to open up to or connect with, open up to yourself, give yourself what you need. Take your own feelings seriously, validate your own experiences. Respect who you are, where you've come from and where you are now.

I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship ~ Brené Brown

Taking your power back

In the book Infinite Love and Gratitude, Darren Weissman talks about what is essential for healing. Besides clean water, good food and exercise one of them is: taking your power back.

This can be difficult, especially if we have issues such as learned helplessness, freezing on the spot for no `apparent' reason, wanting/needing to be liked or approved of. But there are few things more important than taking your power back and standing in your own strength.

Try tapping on the following sentences:

Even though It's hard to stand up for myself because ... I love and accept that part of myself

Even though I'm too afraid to be myself, because ... I accept how I feel right now

Even though my power feels ... I accept how I feel about that

Even though being powerful feels ... I accept myself anyway

Try listing all your associations with power and see if any of them have an emotional charge for you and start tapping on them.

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any ~ Alice Walker

Love and belonging

The absence of love, belonging, and connection always lead to suffering - Brené Brown

The limits of talk

This is an excellent article by Mary Sykes Wylie on why Bessel van der Kolk thinks it's essential to include the body in talk therapy for trauma. She writes:

For more than 20 years, Bessel van der Kolk has been in the forefront of research in the psychobiology of trauma and in the quest for more effective treatments. Now he’s touched off an intense debate about the role of scientific evidence in finding ways to alleviate suffering and the future of the traditional talking cure itself ...

Bessel van der Kolk likes to introduce his workshops on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with medical film clips from World War I showing veterans diagnosed with what was then called "shell shock." In these dramatic and riveting clips, one soldier sits hunched over on his hospital cot, staring blankly ahead, responding to nothing and nobody until the single word "bomb" is said, whereupon he dives for cover underneath the small bed. Another man lies almost naked on the bare floor, his back rigidly arched, his arms and hands clawing the air as he tries, spasmodically and without success, to clamber onto his side and stand up. Yet another, who once bayoneted an enemy in the face, now opens his mouth wide into a gaping yaw and then closes it, and opens it and closes it, over and over and over again.

The images are disturbing, heartbreaking, and all the stranger because these particular men, technically speaking, are physically unharmed. Their physical symptoms--paralysis, violent trembling, spasmodic movements, repetitive facial grimaces, zombielike demeanor--look exotic to our eyes because PTSD generally doesn't show up like this anymore in most clinicians' offices. Time and Western cultural evolution have changed the way traumatized people express their distress in a therapist's office. Now, trauma patients may look fine on the surface, but complain of nightmares, flashbacks, feelings of numbness, generalized fearfulness, dissociative symptoms, and other problems that aren't as visible to the world at large. But to van der Kolk, these old images still represent what he calls the "pure form" of PTSD. The appearance in these World War I film clips that the veterans are possessed, mind and body, by invisible demons still captures the fundamental truth about PTSD--that it can reduce its victims to mute, almost animal-like, creatures, utterly isolated in their fear and horror from the human community. Read on

Is the world a friendly place?

Einstein asked this question saying that it is probably the most important question we can ask ourself. It's not as simple as that though, it's both friendly and unfriendly. What really matters is how we feel in the world.

Do we feel safe or not? Do we feel safe in our world, do we feel safe in our own body, which is our world? Stephen Porges says "safety is the body's response to the environment". This sense of safety goes way back, right back to our time in the womb. Safety is one of the biggest and most important issues we can tap on as it underlies so any issues. If we don't feel safe, we won't feel friendly towards ourself or anyone else, not in a true sense. When we feel safe we can trust, we can open up and protect ourself at the same time.

Try tapping on:

My body is the safest/friendliest place for me to be

and see what comes up ...

Perfect Health

I'm doing the 21 day meditation challenge again. They are really really good. Following a community meditation like this is a great way to stay focused and inspired. The subject is on perfect health and the last 4 days have been very peaceful. It's well worth signing up for and it's free (and you'll be able to see the last 4 meditations). https://www.chopracentermeditation.com/bestsellers/RegistrationPage.aspx?bookid=178&af=3

A bodily disease, which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may, after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

Addiction

I've been watching Des Bishop's Under the Influence on TV (he's an american comedian living in Ireland) and it's very funny and so true. He does know us well as he jokes in his show.

The programme is about the amount of alcohol drunk in Ireland and the attitudes of most Irish people to alcohol. There's a lot of peer pressure in Ireland to drink and it doesn't end when you reach your twenties, thirties, forties or beyond. We do have a problem with drink in this country but unlike what the programme was saying, I don't think that it's the availability and price of alcohol that makes people drink more, it's our attitude that needs to change. Making alcohol more expensive and less available won't change things, let's be honest the money will go to bail out the banks and bond holders, it certainly won't go into education and health.

I lived in Italy for three years and alcohol is cheaper and more available and yet you don't see people falling down drunk, getting sick and getting into fights. Why is that? Well, their attitude for one, it's not cool to drink or behave like that, whereas in Ireland, it is. You're no 'craic' (Irish word for fun) if you don't drink here you see. What we need to do is change our mindset around alcohol, even if we don't consider ourselves to be alcoholics our general attitudes aren't healthy around alcohol.

But let's ask why do people really drink? I think it's to feel good, to not feel embarrassed, shy, awkward, anxious, depressed ... So that's the goal: to feel good. What we need to do is find healthier ways to feel good. There's nothing wrong with a few glasses of wine but when it becomes a crutch, when you can't feel good without drinking alcohol, then it becomes a problem. I know people can become physically addicted but it's the psychological addiction that's the real driver, and that's what really needs understanding, compassion and healing.

Not all addictions are rooted in abuse or trauma, but I do believe they can all be traced to painful experience. A hurt is at the centre of all addictive behaviours. It is present in the gambler, the Internet addict, the compulsive shopper and the workaholic. The wound may not be as deep and the ache not as excruciating, and it may even be entirely hidden—but it’s there. As we’ll see, the effects of early stress or adverse experiences directly shape both the psychology and the
neurobiology of addiction in the brain ~ Gabor Maté