5 Physical Signs of Past Trauma That Most People Miss

[Music] I'm here with triple board-certified neuropsychologist dr. Judy thanks for being here she wants the attention calli the lab I'm Kyle Kilson within that circle if you have not already make sure you subscribe to this channel we I know we deliver weekly videos on mental health topics that matter to you so make sure you subscribe and hit that bell so you can make sure not to miss one dr. Judy we're talking about signs of unaddressed trauma that can manifest in people so and these are people who have trauma but they might not even realize that they have trauma that they haven't dealt with and so it's manifesting in many different ways let's talk a few about some of those let's start with number one so number one is a chronic sense of fight-or-flight you know like you're always hyper vigilant you always feel unsettle the sort of keyed up is another way that people talk about or they just feel agitated that's a sign that there's some unresolved trauma there because basically there's something that is triggering this idea that you have to run or you have to hide or maybe that you even have to freeze which is a lesser talked about third response to traumatic events and major stresses yeah in our series that we just filmed that talked about this new evidence-based treatment or newer treatment which we talked about at the end of this video so make sure you stick around for that you shared a really amazing story about a client you had who who had a fear or not a fear but a really strong objection to some restaurants yeah and this happened because ultimately he was able to discover that this was where he first learned that his parents were getting a divorce right but for the longest time as an adult he just like didn't want to go near the restaurant he would have this very visceral reaction you couldn't explain it cognitively it was just look I don't want to be anywhere near that he would like leave when his friends wanted to go and he didn't really realize why his response was so intense and finally when he connected the dots it was actually very relieving for him to realize Oh something kind of traumatic happened to me here yeah and that's why I didn't want to come near this restaurant and then he allowed himself to cry and to have a huge physiological response and then now he can go to the restaurant status but he's able to tolerate it and it's not a problem yeah I call that being imprisoned in an invisible Jail yeah because you don't even know that you have this unaddressed trauma until you start to learn the signs and then start to become aware of that of those feelings and then you can take action so let's move on to the second sign so second sign is chronic fatigue or always feeling tired like no matter how much you sleep you're just exhausted sometimes individuals will even go to seek medical opinions like what's going on do I have chronic fatigue syndrome do I have fibromyalgia do I have something even worse than that and then they discover wow it's none of those things it's actually unresolved trauma and again this is partially related to that fight-or-flight response again because if you're constantly sort of in that fight-or-flight well then you're going to be tired because your body is not designed to be like that long term it's supposed to have spurts of fight-or-flight you navigate that issue then you move on your body regulates and returns to homeostasis well these are individuals who spend way too much time in that fight-or-flight their adrenaline their cortisol is always running and that leads to that crash of the fatigue right are these relating to you I'd like to know in the comment section below sometimes they sound obvious but we had never thought of them until you would bring them up let's move on to the next one so the next one is a sort of sense of chronic pain so a lot of individuals will have pain in various parts of their body and again sometimes it is tied to a medical issue but a lot of times it's not so they'll have chronic back pain chronic shoulder pain and they don't know why and there's no good explanation for it well oftentimes that chronic pain is where you're holding the distress it's an a sign that some distress hasn't been processed in our bodies and our minds are intricately connected people who used to think that there was a dualism of mind and body being separate that's no longer that's a myth mine and body are completely connected we know that now because mental distress leads to physical distress and vice versa and chronic pain can also happen oftentimes with individuals who are also battling depression a very common co-occurring symptom of individuals who have PTSD and so it doesn't actually surprised me that chronic pain could be one of those signs of an unresolved stressor or an unresolved trauma because chronic Payne oftentimes feels exacerbated and more intensified if you've had traumatic experiences in the past and it's much more common for a child to come to a parent or a caregiver with complaints of physical pain which are really manifestations of some mental health distress or disorder right because they don't have the language of saying oh I have a lot of anxiety because I'm yeah or they'll say my stomach hurts were my back hurts or I don't know why exactly and so that can still happen in adults especially people who are kind of repressed that memory away it'll come out in your physiological response instead yeah alright I think we're on number four yeah we're on number four so number four is GI distress Wow the stomach but got mind access it's huge where's my Crohn's people and I got Crohn's here any other ideas oh my gosh so so interesting oh my gosh I can't even imagine what you deal with with Crohn's I know that that's really serious stuff when you have a flare-up yeah but GI distress is a huge sign of unresolved stress unresolved trauma makes sense a lot of times people who have ulcers that's triggered by stress that's exacerbated by stress a number of other types of responses autoimmune responses when people all of a sudden start to have these autoimmune reactions that can be triggered by stress and oftentimes that relates to the sort of gut brain access and so I think people can really should really pay attention like when they have IBS but it's unexplained it's unexplained by anything else like is that tight or stress or possibly even a trauma I think that's an important question to ask yeah a really big question and I know for me personally if I get more stressed or I don't get enough sleep immediately my Crohn's will go through the roof and they are tied together so hard right yeah that self-care is really important all right what's our final one so the last one is chronic headaches and migraines so people often times will have stress or tension headaches so that actually says it right there in the name it's tied to stress it's tied to tension often times people don't realize that they're holding their neck and shoulder in a certain way when they're stressed out and that creates tension in your head and then you start to have these chronic headaches people will go they'll get MRIs they'll get neurology exams they'll do sleep studies what's happening why am I having these headaches well oftentimes that's a sign of unresolved trauma and once recognize that there's body stress that you haven't dealt with and you learn to relax the body you learn other coping techniques people's headaches greatly improved yes okay now so the thing I'm most excited for there is a treatment specifically for trauma that blew my mind away somatic experiencing what is that so today we talked about somatic experiencing therapy which is a really important type of therapy it is a body focused therapy so applies to all of those types of physiological symptoms we just talked about so if that sounds like anybody who is watching this therapy might be for you because it starts with the body and it starts with how you deal with these physiological de stresses and discomforts and trauma doesn't even have to be discussed in detail in this type of therapy this type of therapy really just focuses on your physiological responses when you are traumatized when you are stressed and teaches you safe ways to reorganize your thinking about how to process these sensations so you don't have to be afraid of these sensations this is a biological mother nature response that you haven't allowed to go all the way to the end for a completion a successful navigation of the fight flight or freeze response you disrupted it by trying to impose a cognitive technique or a distraction technique and so it's all about trying to relearn how you cope with these discomforting situations learning resources like grounding and being able to realize that trauma experiences can stay in your body even when your mind is not thinking about it and just discharging that bodily sensations that you can feel better yeah I was very surprised to learn that there are a lot of people out there who are experiencing the negative consequences of past trauma without even realizing that they had trauma because they have completely blocked that out of my mind they don't even remember that the thing happened when they were 8 years old or 15 years old or whatever and they're still dealing with those physical consequences for me it how and you I'm sure you guys do this I feel like everyone does it to some degree but on a much smaller stage if I feel some discomfort like I get a email or something didn't go my way I will find myself instead of dealing with that feeling and allowing that feeling to happen I will get on Instagram I'll call a friend I'll watch TV I'll go eat a cheeseburger I will do things to avoid feeling uncomfortable yes where I would really be better served if when I first feel those feelings of uncomfortability to say all right this doesn't feel great but I can move through this I can let my body have this experience I'm not feeling great and then eventually it'll be over and then I can move on with my life yes and I love that you brought that up because this is really a big part of the really fun part of somatic experiencing is like relating it to animals because this is where dr. Peter Levine who is the person who came up with this whole concept this is sort of where his work was he he looked at prey animals in the wild and they go through things that could be triggering PTSD multiple times a day all the time yeah they're like being chased by predators they see a family member being eaten and attacked and yet they somehow can restore themselves after the fact and they don't develop PTSD type reactions well why is that it's because they allow themselves to go through that fight flight or freeze response sort of in that sort of time limited fashion they allow it to kind of take hold and one of the ways that they discharged that extra energy that gets cooked up when you start to get into that fight-or-flight response is they discharge it through shaking through trembling through all the different kinds of things yawning like all of these different sort of responses that like gets that particular energy to like discharge and then they're on the other side five minutes later they're grazing in the grass everything's fine again and human beings because of our higher learning centers and our executive functioning we're trying to help but we actually sort of disrupt the process we get in there before your body can just like have that experience as you talked about and we're like ooh like block it out block it out and we talked about this example of you know for example your mug but your child is also with you at the same time and you're like taking care of your child well don't lose it and I don't want my child to be afraid so you're are you okay don't worry daddy's okay don't worry everything's fine now I have to talk to the police I don't want to act like a crazy person instead of just allowing yourself to shake tremble cry go through all of those natural responses so then later on that trauma gets stuck in your body and that's what somatic experiencing is about is like let's not disrupt the cycle let's teach you how to go over the cycle in the way that animals do naturally in mother nature that's so good cell phone you guys just really blew my mind this series as we were learning about it I mean imagine being able to deal with your past trauma simply by allowing your body to go through and experience those uncomfortable feelings so then that you can literally Taylor Swift it and shake it off yeah and then start to live a much better life that the trauma is no longer affecting it this series I mean literally I was stopping the whole time going are you kidding are you kidding are you kidding I want to give you guys an inside look so take a look at this from our series on somatic experiencing [Music] [Applause] well I would just say that in my own practice I've used different techniques that are associated with somatic experiencing from the psychoeducation about the biological systems to paying attention to your sensations and learning different resources and I would say that in general people love it because it's tangible and sometimes trauma feel so intangible is just this big dark cloud that's inside their head and they feel like it's amorphous and they can't deal with it but somatic experiencing allows them to have a practical tangible contact with that information but in the less threatening way than having to talk about the details of their trauma that's so important because it's all about restoring power to the self when we talk about trauma and how to deal with people who have had traumatic experiences and restoring them to a place where they feel empowered again it's all about giving them that power back and I think that this technique really helps them with that you can watch that entire series when you visit med circle comm or just visit the links below I want to know I know I've last for a lot of comments during this video but is this your first time hearing of somatic experiencing and what did you think of it it was such good information from you dr. Judy just literally Kalia start demonstrating one of the techniques which is she was shaking it off yeah I just feel like this really this technique just shows us how much we can learn from our animal friends it's true yes true it's really cool I've learned a lot from Kali I hope you guys will learn a lot from dr. Judy in this series thank you for coming on our little youtube channel again I'm Kyle Kittleson remember whatever you're going through you got this subscribe below and remember this video just scratched the surface for more in depth videos on mental health topics go to med circle comm and join for free [Music] you

Channel: MedCircle

Views: 396,960

Keywords: trauma, mental health, psychology, ptsd, childhood trauma, abuse, wellness, health, therapist, therapy, treatment, mental illness, trauma therapy, anxiety, domestic violence, tedxtalks, assault, stress, childhood, recovery, relationships, somatic experiencing, sexual assault, self harm, psychotherapy, dissociation, psychologist, flashback, sexual abuse, post traumatic stress disorder, are u ok, depression, medcircle, chronic pain, migraines, ibs, physical, symptoms, help

Id: 5hUpofqO98Q

Length: 13min 47sec (827 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 26 2020