The Impacts of Chronic Trauma: Part One – The Impact on Nervous System Responses

In my work as a trauma therapist, it is common for clients to tell me confidently that “They don’t have childhood trauma.” It is often not until I ask more questions and explain the nuances of what trauma is that some clients realize that their childhood experiences impact them in more ways than they had thought.

What is Trauma?

Explained most simply, trauma is a life event which is so stressful that the nervous system is unable to cope and becomes overwhelmed leading to a response of fight, flight, or freeze. When faced with a perceived threat, our nervous system takes over and our limbic system (the oldest part of our brain) responds accordingly. Let’s look a bit closer at the different nervous system states.

Fight:

The fight response is exactly what it sounds like. It is our autonomic response to fight a perceived threat. When we are in a fight state, our nervous system communicates to our brain a number of things; to signal for our heart rate to increase, to send extra blood to our arms and legs, to increase our sense of sight, smell and hearing and make our body language more intimidating to the threat (puffing out our chest, lifting our chin, changing our facial expressions and tone of voice). In addition, our adrenaline and energy levels increase. Anger becomes our core emotion, and our primary focus becomes eliminating the perceived threat by physically overpowering it, or attempting to do so and thus, scaring the threat away.

Flight:

The flight response comes into play when our nervous system interprets that the threat is not one that can be fought and that running/avoidance is the better option to achieve safety. Like the fight response, blood gets sent to our arms and legs, our heart rate increases and our senses become heightened. Feelings of fear and panic are often associated with the flight state. The primary focus is getting away from the threat by means of escape.

Freeze:

Freezing is a response of the nervous system when it interprets that neither fighting nor flighting is a viable option to the safety threat. When our nervous system shifts into the freeze state, our responses to the perceived threat are dampened significantly and it may appear as though the person is in a “daze” or figuratively frozen in space, with the autonomic purpose being protection through non responsiveness.

A good example of a freeze response is that of a possum that is being attacked by a predator. The possum’s nervous system stiffens the muscles of the possum, slows down its breathing and it appears “dead” to the threat in hopes that the predator loses interest and leaves, sparing its life.

Shut Down:

A nervous system state that is like the freeze state, but different, is the shutdown state. This state is most often experienced by those who have experienced trauma. Like the freeze state, it is a nervous system response that occurs when neither fighting nor flighting the threat is an option.

However, unlike the freeze state, the shutdown state is prolonged and appears when someone has been in a state of fight/flight or freeze for a substantial amount of time. Essentially, being in one of those “F” states, takes up a large amount of energy from the body. To save a reserve amount of energy, the nervous system will switch into “shut down” mode until it determines that the threat is eliminated and that the person is safe.

Someone who is in a shutdown state will often appear to have symptoms like depression. Such as; an increase in sleep, lower appetite, loss of interest in socializing, cognitive fog, and isolation (to name a few). The nervous system is now only prioritizing staying alive.

The Impact of Chronic Trauma on the Nervous system

Not all trauma is the same, nor does it have the same impact on our bodies and nervous systems. I like to make the clear distinction that single event traumas bring their own set of challenges. However, those challenges are different than those of someone who lives with a history of chronic childhood trauma. When someone has lived through years of trauma and abuse, their nervous system misunderstands what the baseline feeling of calm, secure and safe is. Survivors of trauma are so familiar with living in a chronic cycle of flight/flight/freeze and shut down, that when they finally reach a place of security and safety in their lives, they are unsure how to settle into it. Essentially, a core piece of trauma work needing to be done by survivors and a trusted therapist, is learning how to give signals of safety to the nervous system to re-learn what a healthy and safe baseline is. It is important to note that one cannot do nervous system repair and trauma work when they are actively in a harmful or dangerous environment.

People who live with chronically dysregulated nervous systems often experience heightened irritability, increased rates of depression and anxiety, greater vulnerability to illness, difficulty concentrating, and challenges in both intimate relationships and friendships. They may also struggle to regulate their emotions and to feel calm even when their environment is stable and safe.

Working with a therapist who understands the complexities of trauma can help survivors make sense of how their experiences have shaped the development of their nervous system. Gaining this insight can reduce shame, offer validation, and guide the selection of coping strategies that best support healing.

As a survivor of complex childhood trauma myself, I found that it did not feel helpful to be handed coping strategies without understanding why I needed them in the first place. Once I understood how my lived experiences impacted my nervous system and brain development, I was able to work with my trauma symptoms in a way that was rooted in understanding. This provided me with a sense of power over my trauma, which is something I felt was taken from me.

In my opinion, acknowledging the impact of our trauma is the first step in trauma work. The next step is understanding how to manage those symptoms so that our triggers become less intense, less frequent, and less overwhelming. In my work with trauma survivors, this begins with understanding the nervous system.