Trauma...It’s all in your head
It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since the tornados that raged through Van Zandt county, devastating families and throwing our community into a state of chaos. While physical rebuilding efforts are still even now ongoing, I’d like to take a moment to talk about the emotional and psychological effects of such a traumatic event.
Our brains are magnificent and complex organs, and while there are still plenty of mysteries left to the mind, we know enough that we can see how trauma affects the brain’s processing of information. Our brains receive many different types of stimuli from our five senses as well as the internal mechanisms that monitor things like our breath rate, temperature and other bodily functions. Because there is too much stimuli to properly process while we are interacting with the outside world, this information is then set aside so that our brain can process through it all while we are sleeping. In the vast majority of cases, this process happens without difficulty, but in the case of traumatic events, the information is often too overwhelming for the brain to process on its own, so all of the emotions—like fear and anxiety—and all of the sensations—like clammy hands and queasy stomachs—remain trapped in the memory.
The brain stores information by networking, so each memory is linked to many others with similarities, not only due to sensory content—like a similar item or smell—but also due to similar feelings—like a knot in the stomach, or disappointment. As a result, any new information added to the network connects to many others. This allows us to learn about and judge new experiences based on what we already know. For example, if a strange dog approaches you on the street, your reaction will depend on your prior experiences with dogs: whether they were friendly or aggressive.
When traumatic memories are included in a network, they leak feelings and sensations to all the neighboring memories, making the whole network reactive. Then later, when something new happens—a car backfires or a storm rolls in—these feelings and sensations are triggered and a person can feel like they are right back in the middle of the original event. Other times, the feelings are activated without the memory, causing the individual to feel confused and sometimes even “Crazy” because they will overreact to situations. Because they feel so little control over themselves, this can lead individuals to withdraw from others, to become confrontational or to act out in any number of ways, including substance abuse and other self-destructive behaviors.
It is very difficult, and sometimes impossible, for someone to simply “get over” a traumatic situation if the information remains incorrectly processed in the brain. While medications can help with some symptoms, the best long-term solution is to see a professional counselor who specializes in a trauma therapy like EMDR Therapy to help your brain reprocess the stuck information, allowing the emotional and sensory disturbance to be pruned away, leaving only a memory, instead of a nightmare.