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Trauma and PTSD

Part 1: The "Lizard Brain"

By Rebecca BrooksPublished 3 years ago 6 min read
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Trauma and PTSD
Photo by David Matos on Unsplash

Roughly 20% of people who have suffered through a severely traumatic experience or repeated trauma will develop PTSD. Also known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, this condition can last a short time, or in some cases, can cause symptoms and behaviors that last for years, decades, or the reminder of a person's life.

A person with PTSD has a brain that reacts differently than someone who does not. Imaging studies have shown definitive differences in the brain of someone with this condition vs. someone without.

Let's take a brief look at the different parts of the brain to get a better understanding of how PTSD affects virtually all aspects of the person's daily life.

Neuroscientist and physician, Dr. Paul D. MacLean developed something called the Triune Brain Model to best describe the (3) parts of the brain that are often impacted by this condition.

1. Brain Stem/Amygdala (sometimes called the Reptilian/Lizard brain) is the innermost part of our brain. It is directly responsible for our survival instinct. It is also responsible for our autonomic (subconscious) body processes like breathing.

2. Mammalian (Limbic/Midbrain) is the middle section of our brain. This is where we process emotion and have sensory relays and input.

3. Neomammalian (Cortex/Forebrain) is the most evolved part of our brain. This is where we have cognitive thought processes, learning, store our memories, make decisions, and have our inhibtions.

In a traumatic experience the "Lizard Brain" takes over. It stops all of our non-essential mind/body responses putting us into fight or flight mode. Today's article is going to focus on this primal part of our brains and how with a condition like PTSD, for some people, what should turn off once the perceived threat is over, sometimes stays on.

To better understand this, think of a time when you have experienced something really frightening. Didn't it feel like you "couldn't think?" Did you feel like you needed to react? Either by leaving the situation or standing your ground? Or, perhaps, if you are like some, you found yourself frozen in place, uncertain what to do because your brain had suddenly turned into a sort of foggy, mist.

That is your "Lizard brain" in action. It is an evolutionary response to danger that tells you that you need to be on alert, you need to be ready for the danger you are facing.

Your body actually goes through a host of hormonal changes with your sympathetic nervous system increasing stress hormones and your body begins to physically respond with things like an increase in heart rate, sweating, dilated pupils, and more. All of these are responses that occur in response to perceived danger.

For someone with PTSD, the Amygdala is actually bigger than it is in others. This ancient, primal part of our existence becomes triggered to stay "on" which in turn makes it hard for the person with PTSD to relax, or ever "come down" from that constant feeling of vigilance that accompanies a dangerous situation.

As a result, the person with PTSD, may do things like:

1. Constantly scan a room when in a new surrounding to ensure they know where the exits are

2. Jump when someone comes up behind them or when they hear a loud noise

3. Feel "hyper-vigilant," stuck in a state of continuous worry or fear that something bad is "just around the corner."

4. Find it difficult to be in small or confined spaces with no "easy way out"

5. Suffer from repeated nightmares where they relive the same trauma again and again.

6. Find that certain sounds or scents associated with their trauma trigger an immediate sense of fight or flight

These are just some of the symptoms associated with PTSD but if you have it or you love someone that does that probably feels very familiar, am I right?

There is a fourth trauma response called "Fawning," which is typically seen in people with CPTSD which is the type that I have. This reaction is a little more complex.

Essentially your brain is hard-wired to "people please," in essence to make the person or the situation less fearful by giving in to the circumstance to stop it from being fearful. I'll write about this one in a different post as the behaviors are so different from the typical (3) responses we often think about with trauma that it will need an explanation on its own.

As you can see from this article, PTSD is not a "just get over it type of thing." It takes treatment, in some cases medication, and lots of hard work to "shut off" those responses that should activate and deactivate on their own when we are in need.

The more you understand the complexities of the brain and how trauma impacts our responses the easier it is to understand either yourself or someone you love.

What can seem silly, trivial, or just downright annoying to you actually is rooted in some real and serious science that you cannot disprove.

The next time you are with someone who has PTSD or, if you yourself, have it, hopefully being armed with this knowledge will give you the opportunity to either be the teacher or the student.

Understanding the science behind the reactions can take away a lot of the frustration that is often felt when there doesn't seem to be a "reason" behind the response.

Come back tomorrow as we discuss the Mammalian brain and how its functions are impacted by extreme or extensive trauma. As always thank you for reading and sharing if you feel so inclined.

As someone who has dealt with Cptsd her entire adult life, I cannot express enough how sad it makes me when I am judged for reactions that may not make sense to someone else but are instinctual to me because of things I've been through in my life.

The way I see it, the more I educate, the more I write, the more I share with each of you about this condition and others like it, the easier it will be for myself and others like me to feel safer and more accepted in a world that is not always kind.

Not to mention the nerd in me is uber happy to do this research and share it with each of you. I find the science behind things a comfort. It reminds me that I am not alone in my aloneness that there are others who deal with the same things that I do.

I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I am enjoying posting them for you.

Have a great one folks and always remember, the nicest thing we can do for anyone, is quite simple; to try and be understanding and most of all kind.

#mentalhealthmatters #cptsdawareness #traumarecovery #yournotalone #traumainformed #PTSDAwareness #mentalhealthawarenessmonth #mentalhealthawareness #traumasurvivor #traumaresponse #PTSD

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