Welcome to this talk about eight physical symptoms of trauma.
This is a third one of a what is trauma series.
The first talk being what is trauma with my own experience and the second one was emotional traumas and this is now the physical ones.
I'm Chantal a psychotherapist and Reiki master and what you may find as you listen to the talk is that you have some of these symptoms anyhow in life but you may not have linked them back to a trauma.
Now remember it may or may not be but it's something to think about.
First one I want to talk to you about is always feeling like you're in danger because when you feel you're in danger you're feeling fearful,
You're actually feeling unsafe and this is because your body is in hyper arousal.
You've got this constant flood of adrenaline and cortisol going through you.
This in turn keeps you feeling restless,
You feel constantly on edge and you feel like you need to move at the same time.
Your body might also feel frozen or you feel you're constantly in this flight or fright mode and you just don't know how to regulate yourself again and you might not even be aware that this is what's actually happening.
This is why I want to do these talks so we become aware of what's going on in our bodies and why I recommend you also get support to help you to understand this.
The second symptom is having constant aches and pains,
Headaches.
You feel your body is rigid,
You feel tight and your muscles feel sore all the time.
I know I walked around like this for so long not realizing and what I didn't realize was that again I was protecting myself,
I was holding on.
I needed to protect my heart and my vulnerability.
So what this means is learning to feel safe again.
It's being able to be in flow in your body,
To have movement again and to know that you can look around and be in the world without forever feeling in danger.
Knowing the world is not a dangerous place to be in,
That you can be safe and you can trust yourself to protect yourself again.
The third one is you might find you've developed gut issues or digestive problems because when you're stressed you might not eat well,
You might overeat,
You can get constipated,
You can get diarrhea and these are all part of the physical symptoms because your body is completely out of order,
It's not able to operate in its usual way.
It's no longer processing things in a normal and natural way.
So it's really important to check out what are you eating,
How much you're eating,
Has it become a habit,
In fact has it even become an addiction because that can also be covering up to protect yourself.
Check those headaches and migraines because they can also be digestive related and trauma related.
Are you finding you're using more prescriptions because you've got so much aches and pains?
Sometimes it's just easier to take a pill and what you'll find if you are taking more medication it's a sign of perhaps you're not coping as well as you thought and also sometimes you actually do need them because you do need to support the pain.
And again do go and seek help if needed.
But all I want you to be aware is are you using them as a crutch because that is an easy way out or are you using them because you really do have headaches,
Aches and pains and you're supporting yourself through this.
The fourth one is you're finding you're no longer able to sleep well.
You're having disrupted sleep,
You've got insomnia,
You're having nightmares and you're having panic attacks at night.
So again this is another sign that you are still feeling traumatized in your body because again what this is showing you is that you actually don't feel safe being here,
Being in your body.
Your aches and pains are keeping you awake,
You are constantly on alert,
You're not quite sure why it is just constantly there.
So this keeps you hyper aroused all the time.
So it's about finding things just to support yourself,
To soothe your nervous system,
To bring you back here into your body feeling safe so you can get a really good night's sleep because that is what a good night's sleep is.
It's healing,
It is so restorative and supportive which in turn then supports you in your life.
So number five,
You might find that you're easily startled,
That you're like this all the time for no apparent reason.
Of course this could create more stress and people don't understand because there's no reason why you're startling all the time,
Why you jump at any little thing but it's because your body isn't feeling safe so you're easily frightened which comes back to number one where you're constantly on edge,
Hyper aroused with this constant rush of adrenaline and cortisone.
The sixth one is that you have difficulty concentrating.
Because there's so much happening in you and around you and you are as I mentioned already so hyper vigilant you actually don't know how to concentrate.
Your brain is overworking,
Your memory isn't as good as it was.
You can't hold appointments,
You can't hold times,
You forget to do things,
You forget where to place things.
Now that can happen with stress anyhow or if you've got a busy life but actually can be also trauma related and this feels really disconcerting because you can't stick to one thing.
You find you need to be doing this and this,
You keep moving,
Keep doing but never finishing anything and you just can't piece things together,
You can't remain focused.
So just check in with yourself,
Is this happening for you not being able to concentrate because that actually can be a sign of trauma and childhood trauma.
Number seven,
You develop or have panic attacks and nightmares.
You find your body is sweating profusely,
Your heart's pounding,
Your heart rate is up,
You find you're trembling.
When you're having those panic attacks you actually feel like you're dying.
Again you need to find someone to support you and soothe you so you can understand how to manage them and manage the after effects and have people around you knowing how to support you and if these are some of the symptoms you are having it's actually important to go and see your GP to make sure it is only a panic attack or not actually a heart attack because once you find out and you get an understanding you're able then to support yourself more.
You can work through them knowing that they will pass despite them feeling incredibly uncomfortable.
Number eight,
You can have sexual dysfunction.
So what can happen is you have low libido,
You have no desire for sex because you're feeling too fatigued,
It all feels too much and also because you might not have a sense of self which is again is an emotional one but when you don't have a sense of self and lost your self-esteem you no longer feel attractive.
Something might have happened in your body inwardly and outwardly that you no longer feel desirable,
You no longer feel sensual or sexual.
So that's another thing to look at.
This last symptom can be very difficult to talk about because often we don't want to talk about that we don't feel sexually aroused or we don't have interest or our libido is low,
We don't even want to go to our GP,
We feel so embarrassed and ashamed,
We don't even know how to talk to our partners about it because this is something we don't talk about.
So again do reach out,
Get help,
Talk to someone and know this can happen and can be part of trauma.
Thank you for listening.
