Why Trauma Memories Are Overwhelming

The clinical definition of trauma is an “emotional, psychological, or physical response to an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that are experienced as harmful or life-threatening.”

But trauma isn’t just what happened to you, it’s how your brain and body responded to what happened. Your brain’s perception of your experience is what has the biggest impact on your life after a traumatic experience.

Trauma Memories aren’t stored like normal memories.

Trauma memories are stored differently in your brain compared to your regular day-to-day memories. They are stored in high definition.

If you’ve experienced trauma, you probably remember every detail. What you saw, what you heard, what you felt. You remember everything as if it was yesterday even if it was actually 20 years ago.

Trauma Memories are living memories.

Not only are trauma memories stored in high detail, they’re not categorized in your memory in the same way as your trip to the grocery store yesterday would be.

When you experience something traumatic, your brain has a hard time of moving that memory to the folder labeled “past” in your brain. Instead, it keeps that trauma memory filed as “present” which keeps it active in your mind.

As long as your brain believes that the trauma is in the “present” as in believing that it is happening right in this very moment (even if your conscious mind knows otherwise), you’re not just going to feel threatened in your mind, but also in your body.

Your brain prioritized survival, not processing.

The biggest problem isn’t that you still have a memory of your trauma, but that the memory itself was unprocessed. It’s like having an open tab in your brain, that you never actually closed down.

Your brain did exactly what it had to do in order for you to survive through your trauma, but then it got stuck in survival mode.

Human bodies are only designed to tolerate survival mode in short bursts, but when you experience trauma, your body might get stuck in survival mode.

As long as your brain is focused on surviving, it can’t actually process or integrate the traumatic memory.

Your body remembers what happened to you.

Your conscious mind may try to push away memories of your trauma by binge watching Netflix, doom scrolling on TikTok, or using alcohol or other substances to drown out the memory.

Even if your mind can successfully push the memory away, your body can’t. Trauma memories are also stored in your body. It could feel like a tightness in your chest, a pit in your stomach, or a splitting headache. 

Your body is always talking to you.

As a therapist that treats trauma, I believe that our subconscious mind isn’t just part of our mind, it’s actually mostly held in the body. 

When we tap into what’s happening physically, noticing even subtle sensations, we learn more about what’s going on in our minds as well.

If your mind still feels like it’s under threat, your body will tell you, if you pay attention.

How Therapy Can Help Trauma.

Trauma Treatment can help (re)connect you to what is happening in your body. It gives you a safe place to process your traumatic experiences and can help your brain finally file that memory in the past. We can’t erase the memories, they’re a part of your history, but trauma therapy can help turn down the volume of those memories so that you have an easier time functioning in your day-to-day life. If you have questions about treatment for trauma or would like to book a session with me, please use the Contact Me button below.