What does trauma do to your mind and body? Why do some people seem stuck in a constant state of stress and anxiety?
In Waking the Tiger, trauma expert Peter Levine explains how our bodies respond to threatening situations and why these responses can become chronic. He outlines the common symptoms of trauma and shows how they stem from our natural survival mechanisms gone awry.
Keep reading to discover how trauma affects your nervous system and learn why your body might be stuck in survival mode.
Common Trauma Symptoms
According to Levine, trauma symptoms are extensions of the body’s immediate stress response to a traumatic event. Since people suppress the recovery response that would relieve their stress, the bodies of traumatized people essentially act as if they’re continuously experiencing a threatening situation. This causes many problems throughout their lives.
Levine identifies four common symptoms of trauma, each of which is a chronic form of the original stress response:
- nervous system hyperactivity
- tightening (physiological and perceptual)
- dissociation
- inaction
We’ll explore these four symptoms in detail.
Symptom #1: Heightened Physiological Arousal
Levine asserts that traumatized people suffer from heightened physiological arousal. When in danger, the body stimulates the nervous system, increasing alertness and strengthening its ability to identify specific immediate threats. However, when this stress energy becomes trapped, this heightened arousal becomes chronic. Consequently, traumatized people continue searching for threats at times when none exist. As a result, they’re often plagued with irrational fears and persistent feelings of anxiety.
| Heightened Arousal Without Anxiety Not everyone with a tendency toward heightened physiological arousal has been severely traumatized. In The Highly Sensitive Person, Elaine Aron discusses Highly Sensitive People (or HSPs), individuals who experience the world more intensely than the average person. This sensitivity is an inborn genetic trait present in around 20% of the world’s population. Like trauma survivors, HSPs are quicker to sense and react to signs of danger than the average person. However, if HSPs grow up in a relatively stable and trauma-free environment, they’re no more likely than the average person to develop an anxiety disorder. Why? Potentially, HSPs’ other unique traits equip them with strengths that can help mitigate anxiety. For example, their increased capacity for empathy could lead to more supportive relationships that serve as a buffer against anxiety. |
Symptom #2: Physiological and Perceptual Tightening
According to Levine, another common symptom of trauma is tightening—a traumatized person’s physical and mental processes become more restrictive. Physiologically, their bodies readily tighten up to deal with an immediate threat: Their muscles tense and their blood vessels constrain, reserving blood for strenuous muscle activity.
(Shortform note: In The Upside of Stress, Kelly McGonigal contends that stress-induced chronic physiological tightening can cause long-term health issues like faster aging, weakened immunity, and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. On the other hand, McGonigal asserts that if you’re regularly tackling challenges you care about (like a job interview) and feel safe while doing it, you can experience a similar exhilarating reaction without negative health effects: You engage your muscles without your blood vessels becoming constricted.)
Levine explains that mentally, traumatized people suffer from a tightened focus. In the presence of immediate danger, this perceptual tightening helps people filter out unimportant details and focus solely on the threat. However, when this narrow focus becomes chronic, it can leave trauma survivors involuntarily fixated on anxiety-provoking threats and traumatic flashbacks.
(Shortform note: Obsessively focusing on the sources of your distress in this way is called rumination. Other experts theorize that rumination isn’t just an extension of the instinctive focus you feel when in danger. Rather, you may be trying to process the traumatic event and understand how it fits into your meaningful view of the world. Additionally, by constantly thinking about what happened, you may feel like you can better avoid similar situations in the future.)
Symptom #3: Dissociation
During a traumatic event, a person’s nervous system triggers dissociation, making them mentally disengage from their body. Levine states that in chronic form, dissociation is a lifelong unconscious habit: Trauma survivors’ self-awareness will frequently diminish or disappear completely, especially as a response to intense situations or traumatic memories.
Levine explains that another common form of dissociation is denial: Traumatized people are often disconnected from the intense feelings brought on by the traumatic event, so they act as if it didn’t affect them. In severe cases, trauma survivors firmly deny that the traumatic event ever occurred.
(Shortform note: Severe recurring dissociation often manifests as one (or more) of three dissociative disorders. First, there’s depersonalization/derealization disorder, in which someone feels distant and uninvolved in their life. Second, there’s dissociative amnesia, in which dissociation causes significant memory loss—denial, as Levine defines it, would be a form of this disorder. Finally, there’s dissociative identity disorder, in which someone develops multiple personalities, periodically discards their identity, and “becomes” someone else.)
Levine contends that physically, chronic dissociation manifests as reduced sensation or total numbness in various parts of the body. This numbness causes some traumatized people to struggle to discern what emotions they’re feeling.
(Shortform note: The condition of struggling to feel, identify, and communicate your emotions is known as alexithymia, and it’s not exclusive to trauma survivors. According to one study, approximately 13% of people exhibit some level of alexithymia, and the condition is more common in men than women (17% versus 10%).)
Levine also asserts that dissociation can cause physical issues like headaches or back pain.
(Shortform note: According to some trauma experts, people with a complex dissociative disorder (such as C-PTSD) almost always suffer from physical symptoms like those Levine describes. However, they warn traumatized people not to assume that every physical symptom is the result of trauma and dissociation. These experts recommend that trauma survivors check with a medical professional to ensure these symptoms aren’t caused by another underlying medical condition.)
Symptom #4: Inaction
Finally, Levine asserts that inaction is a common symptom of trauma. People tend to freeze in threatening situations. When this freeze reaction becomes chronic, trauma survivors frequently find themselves unable to move, especially in stressful situations. The powerlessness experienced in these moments isn’t just anxiety—it’s a physiological state where action is impossible.
(Shortform note: Research supports Levine’s assertion that the freeze response is primarily reflexive and physiological, rather than the result of specific fears. One study exposed 404 people to uncomfortable levels of carbon dioxide to study their freeze stress response. The researchers found that 13% of participants felt strongly unable to move, showing that the freeze response can be triggered reflexively—even when people understand that they’re not in true danger.)
According to Levine, the chronic form of the freeze response also causes long-term inaction: Trauma survivors often feel unable to improve their lives or escape stressful life circumstances (even when escape is possible). Thus, they’re more likely to live unhappy and consistently stressful lives.
(Shortform note: In The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel van der Kolk contends that the reason that trauma survivors feel unable to change their lives is because of chronic dissociation. Disconnected from their emotions, they can’t discern what parts of their life make them feel bad—so they struggle to figure out how to make things better.)
| How Polyvagal Theory Explains Trauma Symptoms While Levine asserts that these four symptoms are simply caused by traumatic stress trapped in the body, a neurological framework called polyvagal theory provides a more detailed physiological explanation of where trauma symptoms come from. According to this theory, when someone perceives danger, their nervous system transitions through three stages: First, it moves from a peaceful state called ventral vagal social engagement to the fight-or-flight state, or sympathetic nervous system activation. Then, if the danger persists and seems inescapable, the nervous system shifts into dorsal vagal shutdown. This third state triggers the freeze response, slows down bodily functions like your heartbeat, and hinders social behaviors like eye contact. When someone experiences a traumatic event, the part of their nervous system responsible for detecting threats and transitioning through these stages becomes overly sensitive, reacting even to minor or nonexistent threats. Thus, trauma survivors frequently experience sympathetic nervous system activation, which triggers heightened physiological arousal and tightening. Additionally, they frequently experience dorsal vagal shutdown, which triggers dissociation and inaction. |
