If you suffer from trauma symptoms like migraines, insomnia, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, crohn's
disease, pain syndromes etc. my
last posting of my trauma education series might shine a bit of a light into an
often misunderstood area in terms of nervous systems.
I have talked about the play between sympathetic (activating) and parasympathetic (calming)nerve. It’s a wavelength-like
reciprocal homeostatic up and down when things are in balance. When we sleep the
sympathetic nerve takes a break while parasympathetic nerve and a low dorsal nerve let us rest
peacefully.
When we wake up our sympathetic
nerve lets us become active (increased
heart rate, getting ready for action) and
the parasympathetic nerve comes in to
keep us in balance (while maintaining functioning of gut, kidney, liver etc.), so we can stay relaxed. If something upsetting
happens, our sympathetic nerve goes higher than normal and the parasympathetic
nerve has to work harder to balance things out, but after a while both nerves
settle back to where they used to be before the unsettling event and return to
normal functioning, a happy reciprocity.
When the stressor is bigger and becomes chronic though, the
parasympathetic nerve can’t balance things out and the high energy from the sympathetic nerve doesn’t completely discharge. The failure to return to normal baseline
results in the nervous system not functioning properly and a person will notice
this in their life by being unbalanced and things being “not quite right”.
When severe trauma happens though the play between the two
nerves becomes completely out of whack – they fall into an unpredictable chaos. With this nervous system background trauma symptoms are being created: migraines, insomnia, irritable bowel
syndrome, fibromyalgia, crohn's disease, pain syndromes....
Does a client present with these patterns, it will take a
longer time to teach the nervous system to return to equilibrium. Patience and
going slow are crucial for healing
to occur here while pushing, rushing and overriding are the biggest hindrances
for the nervous system returning to homeostasis. Small
shifts will occur along the way when the right trauma treatment is
administered. These changes need to be noticed and celebrated so the nervous system then can identify that a new way
of being is possible. In the end, once
the nervous system is functioning properly again, the trauma symptoms will
leave and a person can return to full health. This is a very delicate process
impossible to explain in this article and it is something I only learnt in an
intense 3 year Somatic Experiencing
training – it will take me many more years to refine this. Learning to read
Nervous systems is not something you can learn from a book!
In my personal experience counselling alone won’t be the solution if your nervous system is in
chaos. I find it is imperative to support the nervous system with the right food (minerals, pre- and probiotics, amino acids), exercise, rest and loving support.
I myself find the right constitutional homeopathic
and bush flower remedies very
supportive and powerful as well. Trauma specialized psychiatrist Basel Van der Kolk emphasizes that all
areas need to be treated equally in trauma treatment: Social, Emotional, Physical, Cognitive,
Spiritual.... So I encourage you to take a honest look and see which of these
areas you might tend to neglect. Most of us have our favorites, but to achieve
balance, all 5 areas of our life need equal attention.
If you fall into the last category of nervous system
behaviour it is more than likely that your digestive
system (our reptilian brain looks
after the gut) is out of balance and needs a lot of support restoring. Inflammation
and leaky gut syndrome are at the heart of (mental health) issues. I suggest
you find a good naturopath or functional doctor who specializes in this area to
find out how to support your digestive system differently. I cannot emphasize
enough how important a good diet (and some healthy foods might not be tolerated
by you until your gut is healed!) is to support your mental health!
Life is so much easier with a well functioning nervous
system. Pleasure, joy, relaxation, connection increase naturally when it’s coherent and in homeostasis.
This is my last post in my trauma education series! Thanks
for your encouraging feedback - I might
write more in the future.
If you like these
posts, please share them.
Information on trauma is something that needs
to go viral. Everything
I have written is copy righted and I am requesting to give me credit
for information passed on and copied. Thanks.
Should you miss a
post, just check out my Facebook page “Barbara Schmidt Counselling Somatic” or
have a look under the blog section on my web site www.counsellingsomatic.com.au
where you can subscribe to my newsletters so you won’t miss any future ones.
So far I covered “What is trauma?” ,“Freeze state that follows fight flight
survival mechanis”, Reptilian, mammal and rational brain “speak” different
languages” ,“How the self soothing Parasympathetic Nerve develops and how
patterns of worrying and over-thinking can be set up in childhood” and “Corrective experience creates a new imprint in cells of our body”
This is the last post
in my trauma education series. Your questions will inspire me to write a new
series. If you are looking for good trauma counselling, look for someone
who is offering therapies like Somatic
Experiencing, EMDR, Hakomi, MATES or Brain spotting.
Have a great day,
Barbara
Barbara Schmidt Mental Health Social Worker, EMDR, Somatic
Experiencing Practitioner
Barbara Schmidt
Mental Health
Social Worker
EMDR, Somatic
Experiencing Practitioner
144 Stirling
Terrace, Albany &
3/55 Strickland
Street, Denmark
e:
barbara@counsellingsomatic.com.au
m: 0458 234 410
