Status Updates From Transforming The Living Leg...

Using list of triggers then make a plan for similar situations in the future.

Things that can trigger: being told no, not being understood, waiting in line, disappointment, being ignored or not noticed, not being believed or taken seriously. Some can be paradoxical- being alone and being with people. Notice patterns, even when you don’t know why you may understand your story. Avoid connecting trigger to a specific event in life. Feeling memory may be the memory of many events not one.

You may doubt yourself as you don’t remember an event, so think you made it up or you’re wrong or it isn’t true cuz you would remember it more clearly if it happened. At those times remind yourself there’s more to recalling than a story or images.
Keep a list of events and people who trigger you. Write what thoughts, feelings and emotions you had.

Trauma is remembered somatically and emotionally, not by thinking. I may not remember, but feel shame, tremble, tightness, afraid, startle suddenly, self-hatred.It may be confusing and overwhelming. Frontal lobes shuts down and we feel emotions and impulses instead of recalling events. Limbic system increases activity of amygdala saying you’re in danger. Brainstem increases heart rate stops breathing or quickens it

MacLean’s brain model talks about the reptilian brain controlling basic living functions/ sleep breathing eating and nervous system, automatic and instinctive. The mammalian brain nonverbal, emotional, gut feeling, social development, traumatic memories- develops between age 11-25, decision based on emotions not reason. The thinking brain reasoning, problem solving, memories for events and facts.

We then lose the ability for conscious thinking and to bear witness to the entirety of the experience. After the event the hippocampus puts the nonverbal experience into chronological order and creates a memory. Since it’s the not essential part during a threat it can’t do that and you don’t have a memory or it’s fragmented. That gives conclusion of I am in danger or There’s something wrong with me.

When we sense danger, that information goes to the thalamus- gest sensory info, where it’s evaluated in the amygdala- danger detector, and in the prefrontal cortex to determine if it’s a true or false danger. If it’s false, the amygdala shouldn’t react, but when it senses a threat it stimulates the brain to turn in the sympathetic system preparing for fight flee freeze fawn response.

Symptoms if trauma: depression, irritability, decreased concentration, numbing, loss of interest, insomnia, emotional overwhelm, loss of a sense of the future, hopelessness, shame, worthlessness, few or no memories, nightmares, flashbacks, hypervigilance, mistrust, anxiety, chronic pain, headaches, substance abuse, eating disorders, addictions, feeling out of body. self destructive behavior, loss of sense who am i

Trauma isn’t remembered as clear memory, rather as sensory elements we can describe like tense body, racing heart, fear, pain or rage. It makes people with trauma think that their current situation is not safe, or there’s something wrong with them.