A Word About Trauma And Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
It's becoming common knowledge that those who have experienced trauma, especially in childhood, are more likely to suffer poor health, anxiety, depression, and functional illnesses like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. If we can start to understand the reasons for this, then we can start to understand how separation from the body, from our true selves causes illness, and especially difficult to treat functional and chronic illnesses.
Many times those who suffer trauma want to go back in time, to the time and place the trauma occurred, to the specific incident itself, in order to heal. They are constantly reliving the trauma, trying to come to grips with what happened and how it has negatively affected their lives.
The problem with this is that it doesn't work. We can tell our stories over and over again. We do this at the risk of becoming "stuck" in the story, and then making our lives about the "story", rather than about moving beyond. I believe their is a physiological reason for being "stuck", which also makes it hard to mentally and emotionally move beyond trauma. Besides the theory that trauma becomes trapped in our bodies, it also becomes trapped in our minds, creating grooves in our bodies, minds and souls. Oftentimes, trauma victims will replay that groove daily.
So why does this happen? Why do we get stuck in our traumas and have a difficult time moving beyond them? Why does our life seem to stop at the moment we experienced trauma? When we undergo a traumatic event we separate ourselves from our body, in the very moment it occurs.The emotional or physical pain becomes too much to bear, and so we simply stop feeling.Oftentimes, the pain is excruciating. We run up to our heads, escape with drugs or alcohol, or medication, in order to numb the pain. We live from a "head space" completely dissociated and detatched from our bodies. ( as a yoga teacher I've witnessed this many times...many first time yoga students, even those who are naturally athletic and play sports, are surprisingly dissociated from their bodies...only one reason why yoga is so helpful for everybody, but also for victims of trauma!) So when this detachment occurs, important information that the body is trying to convey to you is blocked. Since emotions are physical and hormonal in nature, and take place in the body, rather than the head, a person who has detached from their body is missing important emotional information. This happens on a subconscious level, leaving the person unaware that they have disconnected from their true selves. They think they know how they think and feel, and they do so from a "head space" but not from a physical/emotional space.
I've observed that a couple of things happen when someone has experienced physical or emotional trauma. They either become addicted to alcohol or drugs, medicate themselves with pharmaceuticals, and/or, spend a lifetime of looking for something outside of themselves, something that will cure or complete them. In fact, drugs and alcohol provide a sense of comfort and completion, that can't be accessed any other way.
So how does trauma heal? The opportunity to heal trauma occurs in the moment. Remember that their is no time. So when we start to address the addiction, the depression, stop the pharmaceuticals or stop looking outside of ourselves (which can also become an addiction), and address the root causes, then we start to heal. The root cause usually is separation from the physical body, which is really separation from the emotional body, and when you start to feel again is when you start and how you start to heal. Probably from almost anything.
Many times those who suffer trauma want to go back in time, to the time and place the trauma occurred, to the specific incident itself, in order to heal. They are constantly reliving the trauma, trying to come to grips with what happened and how it has negatively affected their lives.
The problem with this is that it doesn't work. We can tell our stories over and over again. We do this at the risk of becoming "stuck" in the story, and then making our lives about the "story", rather than about moving beyond. I believe their is a physiological reason for being "stuck", which also makes it hard to mentally and emotionally move beyond trauma. Besides the theory that trauma becomes trapped in our bodies, it also becomes trapped in our minds, creating grooves in our bodies, minds and souls. Oftentimes, trauma victims will replay that groove daily.
So why does this happen? Why do we get stuck in our traumas and have a difficult time moving beyond them? Why does our life seem to stop at the moment we experienced trauma? When we undergo a traumatic event we separate ourselves from our body, in the very moment it occurs.The emotional or physical pain becomes too much to bear, and so we simply stop feeling.Oftentimes, the pain is excruciating. We run up to our heads, escape with drugs or alcohol, or medication, in order to numb the pain. We live from a "head space" completely dissociated and detatched from our bodies. ( as a yoga teacher I've witnessed this many times...many first time yoga students, even those who are naturally athletic and play sports, are surprisingly dissociated from their bodies...only one reason why yoga is so helpful for everybody, but also for victims of trauma!) So when this detachment occurs, important information that the body is trying to convey to you is blocked. Since emotions are physical and hormonal in nature, and take place in the body, rather than the head, a person who has detached from their body is missing important emotional information. This happens on a subconscious level, leaving the person unaware that they have disconnected from their true selves. They think they know how they think and feel, and they do so from a "head space" but not from a physical/emotional space.
I've observed that a couple of things happen when someone has experienced physical or emotional trauma. They either become addicted to alcohol or drugs, medicate themselves with pharmaceuticals, and/or, spend a lifetime of looking for something outside of themselves, something that will cure or complete them. In fact, drugs and alcohol provide a sense of comfort and completion, that can't be accessed any other way.
So how does trauma heal? The opportunity to heal trauma occurs in the moment. Remember that their is no time. So when we start to address the addiction, the depression, stop the pharmaceuticals or stop looking outside of ourselves (which can also become an addiction), and address the root causes, then we start to heal. The root cause usually is separation from the physical body, which is really separation from the emotional body, and when you start to feel again is when you start and how you start to heal. Probably from almost anything.
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