Rodger Duckworth Physiotherapy Practice
How does trauma affect the body? How unresolved trauma can manifest as chronic pain and illness
How does trauma affect the body?
Despite being very common, trauma is often viewed to only affect and be stored in the brain. In this video, Rodger Duckworth highlights the importance of acknowledging that when our stress / trauma becomes chronic, it is trapped within the body. This unresolved emotion can manifest and cause chronic pain and illness.
When our brain perceives a threat, it turns on the sympathetic fight or flight response in order to protect us. Rodger explains how trauma can dysregulate our autonomic nervous system, making us stuck in a fight or flight or freeze response where we are unable to healthily process the trauma, creating illness.
Watch this video Rodger references of a polar bear releasing trapped trauma from within the body.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHVNUDPMeSY
If the trauma is too overwhelming, or we have not learnt how to manage our emotions from childhood, we carry adaptive coping strategies into adulthood. He explains how many autoimmune diseases can be caused by unresolved trauma, as well as functional illnesses such as anxiety, panic attacks and depression.
He expresses how acknowledging his own trauma helped him to overcome a chronic inflammatory heart problem he struggled with for 8 years.
'When was the last time you felt an emotion in your head? Never' - They are not experienced here, but within the body. We need to learn how to recognise and process them. Watch Rodgers video on the Felt Experience of Emotion for more - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOGorSekWzE&t=23s
Finally, Rodger highlights how important it is to understand and regulate the physical, felt experience of emotion to prevent chronic pain and illness.
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Music by Pixabay - Chill Abstract Intention - https://pixabay.com/music/search/?order=ec
How Trauma Affects the Body 00:00
Why May Trauma Be Unresolved? 2:00
Examples of How Trauma Can manifest as Illness? 4:23
Stored Trauma causing Anxiety, Depression 6:14