traumatic stress

Following any disturbing or overwhelming event that threatens our sense of safety, our systems can experience the following responses:

Emotions like fear, grief, anger, or panic;

Exhaustion and fatigue;

Increased vigilance and startle response;

Dissociation, feeling foggy, or unreal, like you are the observer of your body, or on autopilot, zoning out, lost in something other than the here and now;

Disturbances of sleep and appetite;

Changes to focus, concentration, and memory;

Physical pain or uncomfortable sensations.

These are difficult but normal reactions to the activation of our neurological threat response systems. If these adaptations persist long after the threat is gone, we respond in the present as though it were the past, distorting our feelings, thoughts, interactions with others, and views of ourselves.

When thinking about trauma, we tend to picture only the big Ts, overlooking the ongoing stressors or “smaller” events that activate our threat response systems all the time. This ‘every-day stress’ can have similar effects on our nervous systems. 

“Animals do not view freezing as a sign of inadequacy or weakness, nor should we."

— Peter A. Levine