“Long after a traumatic experience is over, it may be reactivated at the slightest hint of danger and mobilize disturbed brain circuits and secrete massive amounts of stress hormones. This precipitates unpleasant emotions intense physical sensations, and impulsive and aggressive actions. These posttraumatic reactions feel incomprehensible and overwhelming.”
About This Quote
Dr. Van der Kolk notes that long after a traumatic experience is over, the brain and the body remembers it. The body goes into "fight or flight" mode when encountering situations that might be similar to the trauma or evoke a trigger that brings us back into the past. While our fight or flight response is helpful when faced with truly dangerous situations, it can exhaust our body when the threat is a minor one, causing us expend stress hormones and physiological responses that aren't warranted for the situation. It's almost as if the brain is mistaken into believing that what was happening before is happening all over again, causing a form of hypervigilance that can be troubling.
More from Bessel Van Der Kolk
“After administering several courses of electric shock, the researchers opened the doors of…”
“The brain gets very confused. And that leads to problems with excessive anger, excessive…”
“If you’re an adult and life’s been good to you, and then something bad happens, that sort…”
“It's about becoming safe to feel what you feel. When you're traumatized you're afraid of…”