The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind and Body In The Healing of TraumaTrauma is a potentially fatal menace, one to which society needs to pay attention
Trauma has the power to disrupt and destroy one’s life, and therefore, we need to know more about it. Traumatic experiences come from events that cause deep pain, sorrow, and sadness. If a person is traumatized, they suffer the risk of depression and even death.Dealing with trauma requires a lot of things, many of which you’ll find detailed in this summary. Trauma is widespread across the world, and it's worrying. What's worse is we pay little attention to it, making it hard for people to seek help.Trauma is not limited to war veterans who have experienced terrible things, it’s prevalent among many people in society. Trauma doesn't necessarily require a horrific thing to occur, it can happen to anyone, and that's why we should pay it more attention. It can be due to an experience or something that has caused you frustration, stress, or deep pain, leaving you totally helpless. It can also occur due to a mistake or adversity that has plagued your life.To fully understand how to overcome depression and painful experiences, continue through the chapters of this easy-to-follow summary.2 of 10Numbness causes a lack of emotional attachment, especially among war victims For war veterans and victims of war, numbness might set in. Many find it hard to love their family or friends; the only thing that interests them is the adrenaline rush of the war they've experienced. Numbness occurs when a person is emotionally uninterested in things that are supposed to matter to them. Some traumatic events like rape, assault, and child abuse are terrible events that leave a lifelong stain on the memory of victims. As traumatic as these events are, they are unfortunately widespread in society. In 2014, an estimated 11 million women in the United States alone were victims of rape and sexual abuse. In an even more worrisome revelation, more than 50% of these victims were abused when they were 15 years or younger, not taking into account the more than three million child abuse cases reported annually.Traumatic experiences can affect the lives of victims and the people close to them, such as friends, family, and colleagues.3 of 10Trauma causes post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition its victims think to be peculiar to themselvesA significantly adverse effect of trauma is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can lead to depression and suicidal thoughts.Traumatized people view the world in a fundamentally different way. Most of them suffer from flashbacks that affect their current imagination. A patient of Bessel van der Kolk was left with his baby, and all was going well until the baby started crying. The baby's cry triggered the traumatic events he experienced during the Vietnam War as babies cried to death in agony. The traumatic event overpowered his imagination, and he started panicking.Alongside the trauma itself, traumatized people find it hard to trust and associate with anyone who hasn't experienced and shared the same suffering.Trauma victims often assume that nobody can understand their pain, actions, and positions.Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., organized a therapy group for Vietnam veterans with the aim of helping them overcome their trauma. Even though the group helped the veterans find people to share their experiences with, those who hadn't been victims of the war were not accommodated by the veterans.Traumatized people find it very difficult to trust anyone, and this tells in their relationships with people. Often, they end up losing their connection with loved ones because they just can't find a way to trust anyone anymore.4 of 10Distressed people can be addicted to pain, and recollection of pseudo-trauma can trigger mass hysteria in people living with PTSD "The compulsion to repeat," as Sigmund Freud put it, is when a traumatized patient derives pleasure from the pain that gave them trauma.Julia, a female research participant, had been brutally raped at gunpoint at 16, and even though she was traumatized, she started craving forceful sex. She began dating a pimp who regularly beat her, and if not for therapy, she would have continued experiencing abuse. As you can see, trauma can leave people addicted to pain.Scared animals return home, regardless of whether home is safe or frightening.Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.When a PTSD patient remembers their trauma, it can cause them to enter a state of mind that makes it seem like the memory is real and happening. In a particular experiment, patients consent to listen to a script recreating their individual traumatic experience. When they hear the script, the instructor asks them to inhale a small concentration of radioactive particles. A brain scan device monitors this activity and allows the researchers to see the exact part of the brain active while the patient remembers the event. Marsha, a 40-year-old teacher, was a p
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