Understanding Trauma and Chronic Illness

This post will give you an understanding of the price of trauma and chronic illness. You may harbor trauma in your body; most humans do. And having a chronic illness brings with it many possible traumatizing events, from medical procedures to stigmatization, to marginalization. The following introduction to trauma is provided to help you to understand what trauma is.

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What is MCAS?

Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) is a chronic condition that affects all organ systems. MCAS is serious and disabling and people with MCAS experience often significant and debilitating symptoms daily, including anaphylaxis, which can be fatal.

MCAS is often found in combination with other chronic conditions such as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).

Frequently healthcare providers do not know about MCAS, and the tests for MCAS are problematic because they are not uniformly reliable. MCAS can be difficult to manage. Treatments include blocking mast cell mediators with anti-histamines and mast cell stabilizers, as well as avoiding triggers.

Check out this post on how to manage MCAS.

What is trauma?

Trauma can be divided into four basic categories: physical trauma; emotional trauma, or psychic injury; psychological trauma, or mental injury; and spiritual trauma. You usually have no conscious choice about whether or not you will experience some kind of injury or trauma. But when/if you are ready you can choose to address what has happened through trauma healing modalities. Your mind, body, and spirit have the ability to reorganize the power of an event, create meaning and purpose, transform an injury into a tool for seeing things differently, and bring forgiveness to the event. Apart from the pain, some traumatic experiences can also be seen as initiatory, such as an event that pushes you out of your comfort zone and allows you to learn and grow.

Trauma and chronic illness

Trauma will show up in different patterns in your life, and here is one such way:

“Urgency is a trauma response. Traumatic events require us to act quickly, without much thought for the long term. Trauma responses limit our ability to slow down and be mindful of the big picture. When you notice yourself feeling like you have to figure everything out all at once, pause and notice your breath. Notice the urgent energy with compassion. Validate the part of you that feels threatened. Let that part of you know: “I see you. I know you feel afraid. I’m here for you now. In addition to acknowledging this part of us with compassion, we can also use the power of the breath to release these trauma responses from our nervous system.” – from @peaceofmindbreath

Dissociation

Trauma is an underlying factor in poverty, abuse, mental illness, an inability to form healthy emotional attachments with other people, and substance abuse, among other things. The mind responds to trauma by dissociating, shutting down, and withdrawing from harm. This state of withdrawal becomes habitual and is an automatic defense mechanism that may be triggered even in the absence of harmful circumstances. The unconscious habit of dissociating keeps you from being fully present at the moment; part of your mind turns off, so you cannot give your full attention to anything. All aspects of life are affected by trauma because part of the mind is constantly “busy” trying to hold the unpleasant or painful feelings at bay.

Types of trauma

You may have experienced trauma caused by events in a past lifetime(s), as a child before you were conscious, or at any point during your life. You might experience an event that suddenly triggers a traumatic memory to surface, without knowing where it came from or what to do with it. You can experience what is sometimes trauma with a “small t” when cumulative events in your life add up to a big pattern of trauma. Your body may experience the daily cumulative trauma of living in our fast-paced media-driven world where troubling images come at us devoid of their context all the time and lodge in the subconscious. And then there is collective or generational trauma that the family, community, or society holds and passes on to younger generations genetically.

Trauma symptoms

On his website, Peter Levine, a psychologist who developed the trauma healing technique known as Somatic Experiencing, discusses how the symptoms of trauma can hide in the subconscious for decades. When they surface, the symptoms may occur in a cluster of occurrences, becoming more complicated, and further removed from the actual traumatizing event, as time goes by. 

Surviving trauma and chronic illness

Trauma lodges in the older “reptilian” areas of the brain concerned with survival, so trying to get at trauma in the brain using the prefrontal cortex is not helpful. Cognitive therapies can be effective in addressing trauma stored in the brain when they are focused on gentle re-exposures paired with mindfulness. But recent trauma research has shown that simply talking about a traumatic experience, as in talk therapy, is not helpful to heal it, and may actually cause more harm from re-traumatization. A hallmark of cognitive trauma is a sense of hypervigilance, being always “turned on” and watching for signs of danger.

Somatic or body-based symptoms of trauma

Trauma also settles into the body and can manifest as physical symptoms like stomach aches, rapid heartbeat, aches, and pains, or an exaggerated startle reflex. So in order to effectively heal trauma, it needs to be addressed in both the body and the mind. Body-based somatic trauma therapies can focus on movement, tapping on the body, vagal re-training, or eye movements. Animals are adept at physically processing trauma on their own immediately after experiencing a traumatic event by shaking, running, or other movements. Humans tend to rationalize traumatic experiences, pushing them further into the subconscious, or “bright-siding” situations with toxic positivity. We can learn from animals to let ourselves feel the experience closer to the traumatizing event.

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Telling your nervous system you are safe

Part of getting the message to your body and brain that you are safe involves getting past these defenses in a non-threatening way. You can start by getting quiet and assessing yourself to determine where you are internally. Tune in to what you are experiencing in your body and mind to try to discover where the energy is stuck. 

Processing trauma

If your dominant processing modality is somatic (or body-based) you might more easily process trauma in the body on your own and need more help with the cognitive (or thinking) part of the trauma. Conversely, if you are more of a cognitive processor you might need more help processing the somatic parts. So healing does not always need to target both locations. Successful trauma healing addresses the whole person, in body, mind, and spirit, and proceeds at a pace that creates a sense of safety while gently allowing the underlying pain to surface over time in a safe and nurturing environment.

We re-process trauma in bytes or segments as it rises to the surface from the subconscious. After reprocessing a traumatic event you might be surprised to have it come up again to be processed at another level with greater intensity. You may also be caught off guard when trauma comes to the surface to be processed when your body has a chance to rest and relax, and you have let down your guard.

Getting help

Though you may fervently wish to heal your trauma on your own, this can be challenging because the body and mind act protectively to keep trauma from your consciousness. Working with a professional to address trauma can be extremely helpful, but there are also some things that you can do on your own. Knowing that trauma lives in your body for a reason is a helpful way of thinking about it. Dr. Megan Voss says about trauma, “the first step in the path towards healing trauma is to thank your body, to reframe what is happening from a disorder to an adaptation.” Your body and mind created the trauma response in order to keep you safe, and they will continue to hold that energetic pattern until it is clear you are no longer in danger. Trauma can be less about the stressors in your life, and more about how you become empowered to respond to them.

Vagus nerve healing for trauma

Suki Baxter offers accessible YouTube videos on vagus nerve retraining exercises to turn off the fight-flight-freeze response in the sympathetic nervous system to release trauma stored in the body. (see also my post on Vagus Nerve Health) where you can gently reprocess trauma without needing to know where it resides in your body or mind.

Homeopathy for trauma healing

I discuss homeopathy for MCAS and chronic illness in this post. My favorite form of homeopathy for MCAS is Energetix. Energetix homeopathic products are prepared according to the HPUS guidelines (Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of the United States) and are formulated to effectively address a wide variety of modern concerns. The pleasant-tasting liquid form of Energetix remedies is easy to dose and use.

Energetix makes three types of homeopathic remedies: Paths, Tones, and Chords.

• Paths – Product names ending in “Path” are for symptoms related to weakness or imbalance in systems, organs, glands, or tissues.
• Tones – Product names ending in “Tone” are for symptoms related to congestion or stress in systems, organs, glands, or tissues.
• Chords – Product names ending in “Chord” are for symptoms related to systems, organs, glands, or tissues that are compromised or overburdened by toxins.

With Energetix remedies you are best off combining a Chord with a Tone; the Chord addresses toxicity in the body, while the Tone provides drainage support to excrete the toxins. Paths can be taken without the support of a Tone.

Here is my list of go-to Energetix Remedies for MCAS.

Calm Five – is helpful for trauma

Relax Tone is one of my favorite supports for restlessness and sleep

Relief Tone is helpful for addressing injuries and trauma

Isopathic Phenolic Rings supports those with multiple sensitivities

Drainage Tone supports detox pathways

Hypothamalapath – assists with neuropathy, concussion, brain fog, sleep, and hot flashes

Lymph-Tone II assists with detoxing chronic issues

Lymph-Tone III is helpful in detoxing issues due to hypersensitivities and neuropathy

It is important to pair Chords with Tones, so if you would like help choosing remedies for your specific situation please schedule a session with me for individualized support. Click here to schedule a session.

Trauma resources

If you are looking for professional help to address trauma, many trauma professionals and modalities can help address trauma and its effects from an informed position. Here is a partial list of trauma resolution therapies:

• Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) https://acceleratedresolutiontherapy.com/
• Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS) https://retrainingthebrain.com/
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) https://www.emdr.com/
• Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) https://www.thetappingsolution.com/what-is-eft-tapping/
• Somatic Experiencing https://traumahealing.org/

If you or someone you know are experiencing PTSD or surfacing trauma please reach out to a caring professional. Betsy can supply referrals if you are in need, and the links above will take you to websites with lists of providers by geographical area to aid your search. 

Check out this powerful frequency device

Healy is an individualized specific microcurrent device (ISM) that runs beneficial electrical currents directed by an app on your phone. Healy can be used to magnify your intention and to get the most out of your life. Check out this post for more about Healy. And this post provides some tips and tricks for Healy.

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Disclaimer

The preceding material does not constitute medical advice. This information is for information purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, cure or treatment. Always seek advice from your medical doctor.