What Trauma Can Feel Like
Our brains have a natural way of processing our experiences and memories. Take, for instance, going to put gas in your car. This is an everyday, normal thing you have done time and time again. As you do this, your brain has a natural way of filing the memory, keeping information it needs, and getting rid of information you don't. Say, for instance, while you're going to get gas, there is a hurricane happening as you are putting gas in your vehicle to drive to safety.
Since this can be an event that is out of the ordinary and may feel stressful to our bodies and brains, we may have a more challenging time processing the information. Our brains have a natural defense for situations like these, and that's to focus on survival. After the event is over, we can still be left with the effects in our memories, beliefs, emotions, and reactions. This is no one's fault, and it's simply how the brain processes.
As we continue through our day-to-day lives, past the hurricane or other stressful events, this past event can get triggered in our present life. This can look like an emotional reaction, for instance, becoming angry, terrified, overwhelmed, or extremely withdrawn out of nowhere. When really, it isn't entirely out of nowhere, and we were just triggered by something we didn't consciously recognize as a trigger.
This can also look like a physical response; for instance, we become tense, we start to experience pain in our bodies out of nowhere, or we begin to have a stomach ache or headache for no reason. There may undoubtedly be medical reasons for this, so if these issues are ongoing, I would encourage you to consult with your doctor. These emotional and physical responses can also impact our reactions to others and what's happening around us. We may snap at people, withdrawal, or shut down.
How EMDR Therapy May Be Able to Help
EMDR therapy can help in situations like this and other traumas to help the brain process the memory and how it's stored in the brain and the body. For example, a weed in the garden, if you trim the leaves of that weed, it is very likely that the weed will continue to grow and spread through the garden. The roots need to be found and taken out of the ground to get the weed out of the garden. EMDR works a lot like this by helping the brain get rid of what it doesn't need, find the information it needs, and file it in an adaptive way that allows the brain and body to move forward.
I hope this has helped illuminate what trauma can feel like and how EMDR may help. If you have any questions or would like to discuss more EMDR therapy in Tampa or virtually here in Florida, please get in touch with me today.
