Your Brain Changes After Trauma

Photo by Robina Weermeijer on Unsplash

One of the things I found so interesting is the ways in which the brain changes through trauma.

Those of us who have had trauma(s), that have affected us in mind and body - those who have diagnoses of cPTSD and PTSD, we have brain damage.

And that’s fascinating to consider - how and why.

But it’s been likened to developing neuro-divergency, because your brain literally doesn’t work the way that it used to, before the trauma.

Here’s [some of] what happens:

—the HPA axis gets stuck on high; this is the stress system. This also creates massive amounts of cortisol, the stress hormone, to pump through your system. (Too much cortisol can actually harm your brain cells and disrupt brain circuits that are critical for memory and emotional regulation.)

—the amygdala ramps up because it’s scanning for danger. It gets more sensitive - your internal alarm bell but rings all the time, even for things that aren’t threats.

—whereas the prefrontal cortex dims down and loses strength. (That’s the part that helps you think, plan, and stay calm.)

I also find it important to note - these aren’t just theories, but brain scans reveal these changes for those with PTSD - real physical changes within one’s brain.

Essentially, your brain has reshaped itself to try to survive; in doing so, it gives more power to fear and less to thinking and memory.

It’s fascinating our brains can do it.

It also makes a lot more sense why/how the startle reflex, the getting stuck in fight, flight, and fawn and freeze take place for so many trauma survivors.

This is why trauma survivors can’t make sense that the event(s) has already happened and that we’re safe.

This is why it feels like it is still happening, because that’s why our brains are posed for - the brain never filed it away.

You don’t just remember it; you relive it.

Survival mode stuck on -

I also appreciate this reframing of how the nervous system is affected to not be suggested as a weakness.

Rather, your nervous system is rewiring and your brain is adapting and doing its utmost to help you survive.

This is why you can’t think your way out of trauma. Or a dysregulated nervous system.

It’s powerful -

Brain damage.

Neuro-divergency.

When you have trauma, it’s not something simple, though we toss the word around rather cavalierly these days—

Very flippantly - I’m traumatized.

Maybe not everyone means that, but it is also true that trauma can create physiological changes to the mind-body.

It’s powerful stuff.

Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash