When Trauma Gets Trapped in the Body, Mind, and Spiritual Self
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CONTENT WARNING #1: I would like to mention that I am not a medical doctor, psychologist, psychiatrist, or therapist and that this blog post is written for educational purposes only. This blog post is not intended to provide any professional services. Social media should never be used as a substitute for mental nor medical health care. If you suspect that you and/or a loved one are experiencing any mental and/or physical health concerns, it is okay to get help. I highly recommend seeking professional help from a medical doctor, psychologist, psychiatrist, therapist, and/or other medical/mental health professional who is qualified to do so.
CONTENT WARNING #2: The religious/spiritual opinions in this blog post are mine based on my own experiences and do not reflect the opinions and experiences of everyone. Commentaries published on my First Former Buddy Club President influencer page represent diverse viewpoints. If you would like to submit a commentary, please contact me for more information. All perspectives and experiences are welcome here.
TRIGGER WARNING: If you are affected by trauma and the impact that it has on mental and physical health, this blog post may be triggering. If you need support right now, please seek help from a therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist, medical doctor, and/or other medical/mental health professional who is qualified to do so. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text "HOME" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 if you live in the USA or text "CONNECT" to the Crisis Text Line at 686868 if you live in Canada.
In Islam, the punishment for disobeying the commandment against stealing is, "As to the thief, male or female, cut off his or her hands" (Qur'an 5:38). It is common for many people to interpret written religious content literally. Many people tend to interpret the words "cut off" in this statement as "to amputate"; however, "some scholars assert that it simply means 'to cut' which has the meaning of leaving a mark or scar" (pg. 179, Silverman & Silverman 2018). Just like this consequence for stealing in Islam, any types of traumas can leave physical or emotional scars. Emotional scars are prolonged feelings of strong emotional pain, sadness, or depression as a result of traumatic experiences.
Trauma is any event that causes emotional distress and people of all ages and differences can experience trauma. While trauma can be life-threatening, it is important to keep in mind that this is not always true. Examples of trauma include but are not limited to the following:
- Bullying
- Emotional, psychological, physical, or sexual abuse
- Emotional, educational, physical, medical, supervisory, or environmental neglect
- Domestic abuse (also known as intimate partner abuse and family abuse)
- Divorce/separation
- Romantic relationship/friendship breakups
- Estrangement
- Abandonment
- Institutionalization
- Ableism
- Discrimination
- Mental illness in households (ex: exposure to Munchausen by proxy which is a mental illness and a type of child abuse)
- Legal rights violations
- Job loss
- Physical illnesses, such as cancer or COVID-19
- Injuries
- Hospitalization
- Surgeries
- Gun violence
- War
- Car/automobile accidents
- Death
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Several studies have shown that trauma can negatively impact survivors' mental and physical health. To elaborate more, traumatic stress can aggravate the parts of the body that are responsible for physical and mental health when the brain goes into fight, flight, freeze, or fawn mode when it recognizes a threat. As a result, some organs shut down and trauma gets trapped inside of a person's body, mind, and spiritual self.
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It is common for many people who are strongly and negatively impacted by trauma to be diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or symptoms associated with PTSD. Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) also known as brain damage are another common post-trauma diagnosis depending on the nature of the trauma. It is highly recommended that people with PTSD, symptoms associated with PTSD, or who are impacted by current or past trauma should attend Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy, Dialectal Behavioral Therapy (DBT), somatic therapies, or Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy. It is important to acknowledge that it can take a very long time for survivors to heal from trauma. Progress in healing journeys can take days, weeks, months, or years and are usually lifelong. This is especially true when the trauma is abandonment, intentional social isolation, or estrangement. Abusers do not like it when someone tries to provide victims with the support that they are refusing to provide and will use a strong imbalance of power to stop this quickly. According to chapter seven of Rise Above It: Spiritual Development for College Students written by Ray and Star Silverman, "the piercing brightness of sheer truth is overwhelming to evil spirits. When someone has been in darkness and a bright light has turned on, 'the piercing brightness' can be intolerable. If this is multiplied a thousand or a million-fold, imagine the unendurable pain it might cause. Evil hates the light, much preferring to dwell in the darkness where its crimes cannot be seen. In this way, it can operate by stealth" (pg. 179, Silverman & Silverman 2018). "The word 'stealth' describes the way that stealing takes place. It is sly, secretive, and silent" just like abusers may betray their victims with their manipulative ways (pg. 179, Silverman & Silverman 2018).
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Some mental health trauma responses can include but are not limited to:
- Anxiety
- Depression or depressive episodes
- Grief
- Constant crying
- Bad flashbacks
- Fixation also known as rumination
- Suicidal thoughts
- Intrusive thoughts
- Hallucinations
- Out-of-body experiences (OBE)
- Self-harm
- Nightmares
- Survivor's guilt
- Negative self-talk
- Low self-esteem
- Lack of motivation to get out of bed, take care of oneself, go to school, go to work, do other tasks, and/or participate in other interests that they once loved
- Difficulty with paying attention
- Poor working memory (WM)
- Short-term memory (STM) loss
- Social anxiety
- Loneliness
- Abandonment issues
- Trust issues
- Anxious, avoidant, or ambivalent attachment style or Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD)
- Hypervigilance
- New fears, such as but not limited to fear of losing people, being alone, being abandoned, being injured, dying, germs, getting sick, going to certain places, or the same thing happening to them again
- Loss of developmental skills also known as regression
- Altered brain development (increased "overstimulated amygdala" and "underactive hippocampus") (Shaw 2019)
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- Fatigue
- Acute insomnia (difficulty with falling or staying asleep)
- Back pain
- Neck pain
- Abdominal pain
- Nausea or throwing up
- Gastrointestinal (GI) issues
- Shaking
- Headaches
- Overeating
- Loss of appetite
- Obesity
- Difficulty with breathing
- Heart attack
- Stroke
- Skipped menstrual cycle/period
- Development of chronic or terminal illnesses
- Neglecting physical health
Sometimes these effects of traumatic experiences can hold people back from being their best selves. Sometimes survivors get too preoccupied with the trauma that they do not take care of themselves. Some survivors may also be taking care of themselves in one way, but not be taking care of themselves fully in a way that will help them to move forward. In addition, they may have the thought that their trauma defines them and doubt themselves. Trauma can make survivors doubt themselves about whether they can be faithful or not along with doubting their other abilities. Trauma responses can cause people to harm themselves physically, mentally, and spiritually. Sometimes people experience traumatic events when they are trying to do the right thing. These mental and physical health concerns can occur in survivors with and without PTSD or symptoms associated with PTSD. Traumatized people will never be able to unsee, unhear, or remove their senses of what happened to them.
- Pain being present mostly in the neck and radiating down the back in the lower, upper, and/or middle back areas or on the spine
- Aching
- Stiffness
- Tightness
- Throbbing
- Shooting pains
- Numbness
- Hurts to stand, move, or twist neck
- Hurts to exercise
- Pain gets better when exercising or moving but is still present
- Poor posture
- Headaches
If your back and neck pain is caused by traumatic stress and other diagnoses have been ruled out by a medical health professional, use a heating pad to try to relieve the pain. You can also listen to a trauma-informed mindfulness meditation music (Available on YouTube!) to sleep and maintain concentration when completing homework, studying, work responsibilities (if your job allows it), and house duties. If the pain starts to worsen, let your pediatrician or a medical health professional know immediately.
In addition to trauma responses that may affect your physical and mental health, trauma can change people in many personal ways. Not all but many positive parts of someone can reduce. There is a quote in the Bible that states, "You have turned a house of prayer into a den of thieves" (Matthew 21:13). This makes me think of how survivor's bodies, minds, and spiritual selves are like houses where trauma has robbed the positivity that they once had; as an educator with a background in Trauma-Informed Care and Education, however, I know that I would validate and educate anyone to speak up if they were experiencing any mental and physical health concerns and to turn their pain into action. While I know that what happened will always stay with us trauma survivors, I would encourage other trauma survivors to do this so that they can "move forward." So, I tell myself and other trauma survivors to "move forward" instead of "moving on" because trauma survivors usually cannot move on. Instead, we move forward meaning that we do let what happened control our lives completely while it will always be a part of us. This is because, "With God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26).
The lesson that I have learned when wanting to move forward is to focus on healing rather than retaliation. Survivors also need to find a path where they can continuously grow and not make the same mistakes as those who wronged other people and them. There are people who inflict suffering or do not care about the suffering that they inflict; however, there are also people who think about how their actions affect others and do not want other people to experience the same negative events. There are people who want to be a force of healing and growth instead of spreading further misery and wallowing in emotional stagnation. This is the person who survivors should strive to be along their healing journeys. People need to take responsibility for their growth above all things, especially at times when it is the most challenging.
[Image Description: The background of the image has a rusty cage-like light brown pattern. "'The single most important issue for traumatized people is to find a sense of safety in their own bodies." is in left-aligned gold text. "---Bessel van der Kolk" is in left-aligned gold text below the quote. Below this text, there is a picture of a gingerbread house. There is a beige teddy bear wearing a blue and green sweater with a snowman on it and a red headband with a bow on it in the doorway of the gingerbread house. The house is standing in snow with a green tree on both sides and a light blue sky in the background. My First Former Buddy Club President logo is in the bottom left corner of the image.]
In the second to last paragraph of this blog post, I mention the following quote from the Bible, "You have turned a house of prayer into a den of thieves" (Matthew 21:13). To reiterate, this Biblical quote makes me think of how survivor's bodies, minds, and spiritual selves are like houses where trauma has robbed the positivity that they once had. There are many different types of traumas that can be experienced in childhood and adulthood and trauma changes people in many different ways. Survivors are not the same person who they used to be before experiencing trauma and what happened will always stay with them; however, they can do many different things for comfort and work on themselves to move forward. The festive graphic design image that I created above has a triple meaning: (1) representation of survivors' safe places, (2) representation of the inner child of childhood trauma survivors, and (3) using nostalgia for comfort. For some people who experience trauma, school, work, or elsewhere in their community is their safe place(s) instead of home whereas home is some other trauma survivors' safe place instead of other places. In today's world, many trends that used to be meant to target childhood audiences are universal for people of all ages. Many studies have shown that tapping into one's inner child for positive purposes, especially by participating in activities from their childhood can bring comfort and benefit mental health. So, I created the teddy bear in the doorway of the gingerbread house represents the inner child of trauma survivors. In addition, the gingerbread house represents trauma survivors' safe places and nostalgic comfort activities.
If you are interested in learning more about how trauma affects the body, mind, and spiritual self, here is a book recommendation below:
- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma written by Bessel van der Kolk
- Trauma's Impact on Mental and Physical Health Can Be Really Scary
- What is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?
- Let's Talk About Survivor's Guilt
- How Traumatic Loneliness Can Be is Not Talked About Enough
- How to Talk to Someone with Suicidal Thoughts
- What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)?
- Bullying is One of the Leading Causes of Suicide
- Bullying Prevention Month 2023: Adult Bullying is Not Talked About Enough and Can Be Just as Traumatic or Sometimes Worse Than Childhood Bullying
- Bullying Prevention 2023: Bullying Prevention Stimulation Activities for People of All Ages
- Lack of Empathy for Students is a Huge Issue in the Education Field
If you are affected by trauma and the impact that it has on mental and physical health, you are not alone and there is hope. If you or someone you know needs support right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text "HOME" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 if you live in the USA or text "CONNECT" to the Crisis Text Line at 686868 if you live in Canada.
You can also visit The Mighty's suicide prevention resources page by clicking on this link: https://themighty.com/suicide-prevention-resources/
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Citations
1. Shaw, B. (23 Oct. 2019). When Trauma Gets Stuck in the Body. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-the-body/201910/when-trauma-gets-stuck-in-the-body
2. Silverman, R. & Silverman, S. Rise Above It: Spiritual Development for College Students. (2018).
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