Trauma and Your Nervous System: Why You React the Way You Do

Your reactions make complete sense

When you understand what trauma does to the nervous system, the reactions that have confused or shamed you start to make complete sense. You are not broken. You are not overreacting. You are not too sensitive.

You are a person whose nervous system learned something and is running that program faithfully even in contexts where the original threat no longer exists.

What trauma does to the nervous system

Trauma rewires the threat detection system. The brain becomes better at identifying potential danger, faster at mobilizing a response and slower to return to baseline after the response fires.

This is adaptive during the original threat. It becomes a problem when the nervous system cannot distinguish between then and now. When it fires in response to cues that resemble the original trauma even when the actual danger is not present.

A tone of voice. A particular smell. A look. A situation that shares some features with what happened before. The nervous system responds to the pattern not to the current reality.

The three responses and what they look like

Fight. The anger that seems out of proportion. The defensiveness. The reactivity that surprises you and the people around you.

Flight. The avoidance. The need to get out of situations that feel overwhelming. The busyness that keeps you from having to slow down and feel things.

Freeze. The shutdown. The dissociation. The going blank in situations that should require a response. The inability to speak or move that is terrifying when it happens.

Why this matters for healing

If you try to heal trauma by only working with your thinking you miss most of where the trauma lives. The nervous system needs to be part of the work.

That is why body based approaches like mindfulness and somatic awareness are not just nice to have in trauma work. They are essential. Because the healing has to happen at the level where the trauma is actually stored.

Your reactions make sense. And they can change. Both are true.

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