Trauma changes the brain.

Trauma changes the brain. As the saying goes, “time heals all wounds”, this isn’t the case with trauma. Trauma doesn’t go away on its own and we must be proactive to use techniques to heal trauma.

Severe trauma or chronic emotional trauma as associated with PTSD or CPTSD changes the amygdala, the part of the brain that governs fear, stress, flight or fight, e.t.c. These traumas cause the amygdala to enlarge. This enlargement leads to an over activity, which translates into an overactive fear and stress response. When this happens, we can get easily triggered, and become afraid or stressed over things that don’t make sense. The logical side of the brain ends up “malfunctioning” and doesn’t communicate well with the rest of the brain. With the brain being in a state of hyper alertness, it becomes unwilling to listen to logic which is a very uncomfortable place to live.

This stress response doesn’t go away unless we are able to work on reprogramming it. Our brain is plastic, thus it has the ability to change when given the right tools to alter the stress response.

What can we do?

On your own you can practice mindful meditation. MRI research showed after 10-12 weeks of mindful meditation, the amygdala begins to shrink back to normal size and the prefrontal cortex, basically the rational portion of the brain, becomes thicker and stronger, causing the brain to become less emotional, more rational and less reactive.

Another thing you can do in conjunction with meditation is neurofeedback sessions. NeurOptimal® Neurofeedback balances the central nervous system, helps break the trauma pathways and create new pathways in the brain so that the emotional triggers drop and your stress response is decreased WITHOUT having to experience the trauma all over again.
One does not have to live with the constant pain and suffering from trauma when we have tools to change the unwanted effects from stressful events.

No one should suffer and I want to help. Do you know anyone who needs to hear this? Message me to set up a demo session to learn more and please pass along the info to someone it may help.

For more info on ptsd and your brain you can read there links below:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-mindful-self-express/201809/how-ptsd-and-trauma-affect-your-brain-functioning%3famp

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-mindful-self-express/201809/how-ptsd-and-trauma-affect-your-brain-functioning%3famp