Trauma and the Body

Mandy P
family systems | Inflammation | trauma
5 Feb, 2021

This is one of a series of posts on trauma and inflammation. You can find the others on the Trauma Treatment page.

Our Body on Trauma – The Freeze Response and Chronic Health Issues

The mere perception of threat puts our body into freeze mode, especially if we have a history of trauma. The process of dis-ease happens when the normal process of ‘flipping our lid’ (see Dr Dan Siegel’s Hand model of the brain video below) gets stuck and cells are caught in a repeating loop of incomplete recovery. The stressed cells release ATP to signal danger which encodes memory more vividly. That makes really rigid neural pathways in our psyche, like channels in our brain, so our negative beliefs can feel really strong, and yet our life depends on knowing these pathways. The positive things, those that are going well, don’t help us survive – they help our wellbeing but the brain will focus on the negative as a self-survival mechanism.

 

Neuroplasticity – the wiring in our brain is a fascinating subject and gives hope and optimism to many that just because we have behaved in a particular way in the past, doesn’t mean we have to continue doing that. I love this video from Smarter Every Day which explains neuroplasticity in simple terms in about 7 minutes.

 

Our Body Rewards our Bad Behaviours

Our body rewards us when we evade a threat – for example, if we are asked to give a presentation at work but we have anxiety about it, maybe because if feels unsafe to do so (just like when it might not have been safe to put head above parapet as a child), then procrastination could be seen by body as evading threat, and therefore it releases dopamine as reward. And you wondered why you procrastinated!

To reduce the amount of the chemicals that keep us in threat response, evidence shows that we should get into nature, by water, get some sunshine on our face and forearms (which is melatonin), and of course fresh air.

Chronic Illness – Can it be Reversed?

Triggering events for myalgic encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) fell into five broad groups:

  • biological
  • chemical
  • physical
  • psychological
  • unknown

The research found these factors alone are not enough, the conditions must be present with the activation of cell danger response (naviaux et al, 2016). The activation is a really important part – the activation is ‘flipping the lid’, our pre-frontal cortex going offline.

Many people ask if you can you reverse CFS/ME? The truth is that you need multi-disciplinary teams, which as we know costs lots of money. I’ve found this blog inspiring, written by an ex-doctor who re-trained as a trauma therapist and has her own chronic illness story.

Fibromyalgia or chronic widespread pain, which is well recognised as neurological disorder, but doesn’t show inflammation in the blood results. Common themes emerging are that fibromyalgia is a misfiring of nerves, and misuse of signalling channels in the body. This can only be diagnosed, in the UK, as a result of rheumatologists ruling out all other immunological issues.

Trauma and Epigenetics

Epigenetics is the study of how our environment and behaviours can effect how our genes work and is linked strongly to trauma in the body. Our basic DNA remains the same but their expression can change, markers on our genes can be switched on or off due to infections, aging and where the cell is in our body. External interventions such as body work (breathwork, yoga, somatic psychotherapy) and sunlight can all have an effect on gene expression. Once these markers have been switched on or off, they can be passed down from generation to generation, which is known by the term intergenerational.

An experiment with mice used the smell of acetophenome (a fruity smell) paired with an electric shock to the foot to determine a fear response, and researchers were amazed to find out that the offspring of the mice were born with a fear of that small, despite never being around it. The fear of the smell was epigenetically passed down, instilling fear in the genetic code. Why is this important? If our ancestors have experienced trauma, culturally, societally or at home – their DNA markers will be changed for it. That means unless they undertook some work to change those markers, that we will have inherited them.

In the therapy room, it becomes really important to ask about the history of the family, as the history can be a major factor in the clients development. A genogram, or family tree enhanced with relational factors can be a very useful tool. This example below looks at heritage, but they can also be used to track trauma.

 

An example of a genogram. Intergenerational trauma

As previously mentioned, intergenerational trauma can be passed down from an individual, a collective, systemic oppression and marginalisation of communities. They include first nations people, people of colour, the lgbtq community and women.

It was found that children of holocaust survivors had a higher prevalence of PTSD (Yehuda and Lehrner, 2018). The research showed that they had HPA axis alterations associated with PTSD, such as lower cortisol levels and enhanced GC receptors responsiveness. Dr Yahuda interviewed and took blood from participants noting gene FKBP5, and observing the epigenetic change, both in children of first generation, and grandchildren of first generation. This shows that children could experience or be more sensitive to their parents traumatic experiences and shows clearly how trauma lives on in the body.

Intergenerational trauma and conditioning can travel from a traumatised parent to a child and our learned behaviours still result in biological changes. As the gene markers can be turned on or off – trauma can affect how our genes are expressed but so can healing. Connecting with our ancestry is healing, both nature and nurture play a part.

Further reading in this area can be found here:

If you’d like to discuss working through familial or intergenerational trauma using genograms or trauma work, please do get in touch.

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