Kinds of trauma                                                  

Much of this quoted from The Body Keeps the Score – Bessel van der Kolk

1 in five Americans sexually molested as a child

One in four beaten to a point of a mark being left

One in three couples engage in physical violence – more verbal abuse

A quarter of us grew up with an alcoholic relative.

One in 8 witnessed their mothers being beaten or hit

A mother is the most important parent usually for children growing up and when a mother is emotionally unavailable – maybe due to her own problems – this imprints on a child and causes significant stress

A mother can love her children but be emotionally unable to give children the kind of love and tools for stress that children need to grow into healthy adults

Traumatic experiences leave traces on our genes – travelling from one generation to the next.

Trauma leaves traces on our minds and emotions. And affects our capacity for joy – and intimacy –

growing up insecure and anxious

PTSD makes it diff to establish a stable trusting relationship

The brain is the only part of your body that “feels pain”.

Pain messages are constantly fed to the brain.

When your body is in one position, 70% of us will move at least every 20 minutes or so in response to a pain message that goes to the thalamus.

The thinking part of our brain – our cortex – registers the message but messages the thalamus that the pain is not important. A message is sent to the motor part of your brain to move.

30% of people have chronic pain. Their pain centers are in an almost constant state of alarm. So the messages that should be ignored – are registered as pain. So people with chronic pain move because they feel pain. The lucky 70% of us move even though we don’t feel pain.

When you are injured, the message goes to the brain and the brain decides how bad the pain is.

Trauma changes the body and the brain’s alarm system is recalibrated – that means, that even a small pain or discomfort can be seen by the brain to be a severe pain – the brain becomes “alarmed” – warned of danger.

You become hypervigilant. Any stress – physical or emotional – happy or sad – increased the response of your thalamus to pain and increases your pain.