The Hidden Impact of Emotional Trauma
Understanding & Healing Your Body’s Biological Response
Trauma Was Holding My Body Hostage
I sat alone in my 26-foot RV—the last thing I still owned—as tears streamed down my face. Confusion, anger, and an aching loneliness filled the small space around me. My career, my home, and even my health had been ripped away, leaving me feeling like a hollow shell. My body felt ancient, like I was 90, though I hadn’t yet hit 40.
I was dying. Everything had been building for years, leading to this moment: numbness in my feet that kept me from walking, relentless tremors, brain fog clouding my thoughts, and now, even my ability to speak was slipping away.
Doctors had exhausted their answers, sending me home with medication meant to dull the pain.
For decades, my body had been screaming at me, pleading for acknowledgment as I pushed through relentless pain and stress to survive in a world that didn’t understand me.
Everything changed when I finally discovered the truth: trauma was woven so deeply into my being that it was tearing me apart from the inside out. Trauma had changed my biology; it was keeping me hostage, and Western Medicine wasn’t trained to understand it.
Healing, Hope, & Inspiration
In 2021, I set out to save my own life, determined to heal my mind, body, and spirit. I had to find the answers to regain my ability to walk and even to speak, feeling my body grow stronger each day.
This journey has brought me closer to my truth in ways I never imagined possible. Now, I’ve dedicated myself to understanding how trauma impacts the body—not only to heal myself but to support others who feel trapped by trauma and overlooked by conventional medicine.
These are the things I wish I’d known sooner….
Emotional Trauma Changes your Brain
Understanding The Biological Impact of Emotional Trauma
Have you ever thought about the hidden depths of trauma’s impact on the body, mind, and spirit? Most people haven’t, and Western medicine often overlooks how profoundly the mind influences the body. Crazy, right?
Trauma is not just an emotional experience; it leaves a lasting imprint on our biology, and it changes you on a cellular level. It even lives in your genetics passed down through generations.
When we understand how trauma has impacted our body, we unlock the potential for profound healing..
Exploring the Extent of Trauma's Impact
Traumatic events trigger physiological responses, that can reshape our brains, alter our immune systems, and even influence our genes.
Trauma refers to an experience that is highly stressful or distressing that is beyond our ability to manage or control. It can be a one-time event or an ongoing occurrence that lasts for an extended period. It’s safe to say that everyone goes through a traumatic event at some point in their lives. Yet, we won’t all be affected the same way.
When you face a traumatic event, your body naturally responds by releasing stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones prepare you to fight, flee, freeze, or fawn. And this is meant to keep you safe.
When trauma remains unresolved, your body continues to relive the experience, gradually throwing your stress response system off balance. This shift leaves your body stuck in survival mode, with an overactive nervous system that sets off a chain reaction of health issues throughout the body.
Let’s explore that ripple effect….
Impact of trauma on your brain
Trauma rewires the brain in ways that impact how we think, feel, and respond to the world, keeping us locked in patterns of survival even when we’re technically safe.
One key area of the brain that is affected with unresolved trauma is the amygdala, which processes emotions like fear and stress. Due to increased activity, the amygdala can increase in volume.
So, what’s the effect of an increased amygdala? You’re more fearful by default. Essentially, it’s like your brain is on high alert, constantly scanning for danger.
On the flip side, chronic stress and elevated cortisol levels associated with trauma can affect another crucial brain structure, the hippocampus. This region is essential for memory formation and learning. However, under the strain of ongoing stress, the hippocampus may decrease in size. This shrinkage can impair your ability to remember details or create new memories, making it challenging to process and retain information.
So, in essence, trauma can lead to a brain that’s hypersensitive to threats while struggling to retain and process memories effectively. These neurological changes highlight the deep impact trauma can have on your mental and emotional functioning.
Can you see why it might be difficult to meditate if your brain has been shaped by trauma?
P.S. Want to learn how to become a master meditator and reverse the impact of trauma on your brain? I teach that here.
Impact of trauma on your nervous system
The nervous system is like the body’s operating system—when it’s running smoothly, you’re cool under stress and quick to respond to danger. You are in a state of flow.
But when trauma throws it out of balance? Everything feels like chaos. Your body stays on high alert, reacting to everyday situations like they’re emergencies.
This ‘stuck’ mode keeps you in a loop of exhaustion and hyper-vigilance, leaving you feeling like you’re running on empty, no matter how hard you try to relax.
Trauma has a lasting impact on the nervous system, keeping it stuck in overdrive. At the core of this response is the sympathetic nervous system, which activates our fight-or-flight reaction. For those with unresolved trauma, this system stays highly active, creating a constant state of alertness, even in safe environments.
Meanwhile, the parasympathetic nervous system—responsible for rest and recovery—struggles to kick in. This imbalance can lead to chronic symptoms, such as heightened anxiety, digestive issues, and fatigue. In essence, the nervous system becomes locked in survival mode, affecting physical and emotional resilience.
Wonder why it’s hard to fall asleep? Or why you startle so easily?
Impact of trauma on your immune system
The immune system protects the body from infection while preserving its own cells.
We’ve heard that stress is bad for the body. But did you know that chronic stress from trauma can weaken your immune response?
Yes, trauma can weaken your body’s ability to defend against infections and diseases. This weakening happens because prolonged exposure to stress hormones disrupts the balance of immune cells in your body.
Specifically, it leads to decreased production of certain immune cells and impairs their ability to function properly. As a result, your body becomes more susceptible to illnesses, and recovering from infections may take longer.
It doesn’t stop there; chronic stress also triggers inflammation in your body.
Inflammation is the body’s natural response to injury or illness, but when it becomes chronic due to ongoing stress, it can lead to a host of health issues. This chronic inflammation is linked to autoimmune disorders, where the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells, cardiovascular diseases like heart disease and stroke, and chronic pain conditions.
Hmmm, now are you curious why you get sick all the time? Are you constantly the first person to catch a cold in your household or at work?
Impact of trauma on your endocrine system
The endocrine system is a network of glands & organs that produce & release hormones
We’re not done yet; we’re just beginning the exploration of how trauma impacts your body…
The ripple effect continues as we move to our endocrine system, which is responsible for hormone production and maintains physiological balance in the body.
If every other system is out of balance, I wonder what happens here?! You guessed it—chaos.
When you experience trauma, your body’s stress response system, known as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, becomes activated. This activation releases stress hormones, primarily cortisol, and adrenaline, from the adrenal glands.
Imagine sitting in a car, pushing down the gas pedal while jamming on the brakes. Sooner or later, something has to give, right?
In the short term, cortisol and adrenaline help regulate vital functions like metabolism, blood sugar, and heart rate to handle stress.
But when trauma keeps these stress responses firing, it dysregulates the HPA axis, leading to adrenal fatigue and hormonal imbalances. This chronic strain can disrupt thyroid, insulin, and reproductive hormones, affecting metabolism, energy levels, and increasing the risk of conditions like obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Maybe this is the reason you’re so tired all the time? Something to noodle.
Want to learn how to re-balance your hormones from the impact of trauma? I also teach about this, here.
Impact of trauma on your digestive system
The digestive system turns food into nutrients for the body to use.
Wait, there’s more? Yes.
One significant effect of trauma on the digestive system is activating the sympathetic nervous system, also known as the “fight or flight” response. This response redirects blood flow away from the digestive organs and towards the muscles and brain to prepare the body for immediate action.
That means digestive functions such as saliva production, stomach acid secretion, and intestinal motility are disrupted, and when this happens over long periods of time, it leads to indigestion and bowel issues.
Even more alarming, childhood trauma can lead to a state of inflammation (remember, we talked about inflammation as it relates to your endocrine system) in the body and lower levels of cortisol during adulthood. Stress has a significant impact on the gut microbiota and the function of the gut barrier. And during early life, the gut microbiome plays a vital role in shaping your immune system and nervous system functions. Therefore, this period is particularly vulnerable and can have a lasting impact on your health.
Struggle with constant stomach pain, IBS, GERD?
Impact of trauma on your genetics
Genes are sections of DNA that contains instructions for how our body operates.
And finally, let’s talk epigenetic.
This is the good part…
Epigenetics refers to changes in gene expression that occur without alterations to the underlying DNA sequence. I like to think of it as turning switches ‘on’ and ‘off.’
Scientists are discovering that all sorts of things can impact gene expression including toxins in the environment, emotional stress, and even trauma.
Research shows that childhood trauma has been linked to changes in genetic patterns in human sperm, which is believed to have intergenerational effects.
So is this all in your head? NO.
Trauma could also lead to alterations in the expression of genes involved in producing and regulating stress hormones like cortisol, impacting how the body responds to future stressors.
Recognizing trauma’s biological legacy helps us better develop targeted interventions and support systems to promote healing and resilience across generations.
Epigenetics holds the key to healing for trauma survivors
The beauty of epigenetics is that while trauma can negatively influence gene expression, it also opens the door for healing.
Just as stress and trauma can turn certain genes “on” or “off,” positive lifestyle changes, emotional healing, and stress reduction techniques can help shift gene expression back toward balance.
The right trauma-informed tools can change your gene expressions, giving you the power to reshape your biological legacy & promote resilience across generations.
Let me show you how to use simple science-based tools to take control of your life.
- Reduce stress & anxiety
- Improve your overall health
- Overcome constant fatigue
- Increase emotional stability and resilience
- Develop a deeper mind-body connection
- Cultivate self-compassion and self-acceptance
- Achieve restful, restorative sleep
Epigenetics holds the key to healing for trauma survivors
The right trauma-informed tools can change your gene expressions, giving you the power to reshape your biological legacy & promote resilience across generations.
Western medicine is missing the mark
Oh, the conundrum of Western Medicine. Many people assume that if you critique it, you must be entirely against it. But that’s not the case.
Western Medicine is incredible for acute care—surgeries, emergencies, diagnostics. But when it comes to chronic conditions or understanding the mind-body connection, there’s often a gap. Trauma’s impact on the body, for instance, can be overlooked, leaving many feeling dismissed.
Recognizing this isn’t about rejecting Western Medicine; it’s about advocating for a more holistic approach.
Western medicine prioritizes symptom management over addressing underlying causes. It is common to be prescribed medications to alleviate symptoms of different health issues, including anxiety, depression, stomach pain, allergies, back pain, hormone imbalances, and more.
If we fail to address the underlying issue of trauma, health problems can worsen over time. Eventually, your medication may become ineffective, or your doctor may inform you that they have exhausted all available treatment options. This can lead to feelings of confusion and frustration.