Knights Counselling
How Trauma affects the brain
07948 252 407
Helping you to understand how the brain and body remembers and holds on to traumatic events.
The brain stem is the part that deals with impulse; it’s our arousal system which regulates basic bodily functions such as heart rate and breathing. It responds to stimuli and is not a thinking part of the brain.
The limbic system, works out the emotional meaning of everything that happens to you. Within the limbic region there are two other lobes, called the Hippocampus and the Amygdala.
The Amygdala is the brain’s alarm system and works out the emotional meaning of everything that happens to you.
The Hippocampus is the memory storage area of the brain. It puts context to events, e.g. venue, date, time, what happened next?
(Research has found that the amygdala is mature at birth, and the hippocampus matures between the ages of two and three years. This may account why later in life we cannot always recall very early childhood memories).
The brain stem is the part that deals with impulse; it’s our arousal system which regulates basic bodily functions such as heart rate and breathing. It responds to stimuli and is not a thinking part of the brain.
The limbic system, works out the emotional meaning of everything that happens to you. Within the limbic region there are two other lobes, called the Hippocampus and the Amygdala.
The Amygdala is the brain’s alarm system and works out the emotional meaning of everything that happens to you.
The Hippocampus is the memory storage area of the brain. It puts context to events, e.g. venue, date, time, what happened next?
(Research has found that the amygdala is mature at birth, and the hippocampus matures between the ages of two and three years. This may account why later in life we cannot always recall very early childhood memories).
The hippocampus is highly vulnerable to stress hormones and once the amygdala’s alarm system is activated; cortisol is released, which prepares the body for fight or flight. The hippocampus is turned off, memories are fuzzy. The rational part of our brain, at the front, shuts down and is not able to differentiate between danger and safety.
Freeze is the last resort response, when fight or flight does not work. The body becomes immobile (which can look like playing dead).
An area found at the front of the brain, called Broca’s area, this is responsible for speech, when in a state of terror, this area can be suppressed, and words cannot be spoken.
In addition, during all of the above, the bodies’ nervous system plays a key role during a traumatic event. The sympathetic nervous system activates and gets ready for action, its response to fight or flight. The heart may race faster, breathing irregular, increase in blood pressure, pupils dilate and extra blood supply goes to the muscles.
During the freeze response the parasympathetic nervous system kicks in, the breathing rate slows down, slower heart rate, pupils constrict and less blood supply around the body and to help with survival the body produces its own pain numbing drug, called endogenous opioids.
There are two types of memories: explicit and implicit, these memory systems distinguish what type of information is stored and how they are retrieved.
Explicit memory we use every day, when we recall appointments or information for an exam; you can consciously recollect and give an explanation.
Implicit memory has to do with the storage and recall of learned procedures and behaviours. It appears to be present before birth. Implicit memory makes it possible to learn how to walk without thinking about it. This kind of memory is unconscious and unintentional; you do not have to recall how to perform certain tasks. It operates automatically, unless made mindful through a linking to explicit memory that makes sense of the recalled event, emotion or sensation.
Traumatic memories are accumulated differently than other types of memory; therefore, recollection of events can be difficult. One reason for this is that traumatic memories are often kept as implicit and disconnected from explicit memories, which is why the survivor may have no words describe the trauma.
Memories of trauma can be programmed just like other memories, both explicitly and implicitly. However, for the survivor of the abuse, they are missing the explicit information necessary to make sense of their distressing bodily sensations.
The limbic system, works out the emotional meaning of everything that happens to you. Within the limbic region there are two other lobes, called the Hippocampus and the Amygdala.
The Amygdala is the brain’s alarm system and works out the emotional meaning of everything that happens to you.
The Hippocampus is the memory storage area of the brain. It puts context to events, e.g. venue, date, time, what happened next?
(Research has found that the amygdala is mature at birth, and the hippocampus matures between the ages of two and three years. This may account why later in life we cannot always recall very early childhood memories).
The brain stem is the part that deals with impulse; it’s our arousal system which regulates basic bodily functions such as heart rate and breathing. It responds to stimuli and is not a thinking part of the brain.
The limbic system, works out the emotional meaning of everything that happens to you. Within the limbic region there are two other lobes, called the Hippocampus and the Amygdala.
The Amygdala is the brain’s alarm system and works out the emotional meaning of everything that happens to you.
The Hippocampus is the memory storage area of the brain. It puts context to events, e.g. venue, date, time, what happened next?
(Research has found that the amygdala is mature at birth, and the hippocampus matures between the ages of two and three years. This may account why later in life we cannot always recall very early childhood memories).
The hippocampus is highly vulnerable to stress hormones and once the amygdala’s alarm system is activated; cortisol is released, which prepares the body for fight or flight. The hippocampus is turned off, memories are fuzzy. The rational part of our brain, at the front, shuts down and is not able to differentiate between danger and safety.
Freeze is the last resort response, when fight or flight does not work. The body becomes immobile (which can look like playing dead).
An area found at the front of the brain, called Broca’s area, this is responsible for speech, when in a state of terror, this area can be suppressed, and words cannot be spoken.
In addition, during all of the above, the bodies’ nervous system plays a key role during a traumatic event. The sympathetic nervous system activates and gets ready for action, its response to fight or flight. The heart may race faster, breathing irregular, increase in blood pressure, pupils dilate and extra blood supply goes to the muscles.
During the freeze response the parasympathetic nervous system kicks in, the breathing rate slows down, slower heart rate, pupils constrict and less blood supply around the body and to help with survival the body produces its own pain numbing drug, called endogenous opioids.
There are two types of memories: explicit and implicit, these memory systems distinguish what type of information is stored and how they are retrieved.
Explicit memory we use every day, when we recall appointments or information for an exam; you can consciously recollect and give an explanation.
Implicit memory has to do with the storage and recall of learned procedures and behaviours. It appears to be present before birth. Implicit memory makes it possible to learn how to walk without thinking about it. This kind of memory is unconscious and unintentional; you do not have to recall how to perform certain tasks. It operates automatically, unless made mindful through a linking to explicit memory that makes sense of the recalled event, emotion or sensation.
Traumatic memories are accumulated differently than other types of memory; therefore, recollection of events can be difficult. One reason for this is that traumatic memories are often kept as implicit and disconnected from explicit memories, which is why the survivor may have no words describe the trauma.
Memories of trauma can be programmed just like other memories, both explicitly and implicitly. However, for the survivor of the abuse, they are missing the explicit information necessary to make sense of their distressing bodily sensations.
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