Life After Sexual Abuse by Stacie Glass

Author:Stacie Glass [Glass, Stacie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781914447204
Publisher: Stacie Glass

When the trauma is a past event but the symptoms and effects persist, they are no longer serving us. These coping mechanisms may negatively impact upon quality of life and relationships. Unresolved/unprocessed trauma manifests within the physical body. The body holds and stores all of our experiences, even when the brain is in protection mode and limiting the memories of the trauma. Trauma can get stuck within the body until it is moved and processed. Research is unequivocal that unresolved trauma results in disease and results in shorter life spans. The combination of disconnection from the body and the self is what makes it difficult to inhabit the body on a mental level. Stress is more than a mental state – it affects our whole being and creates disharmony. This is why I knew I needed to write a book about healing the whole self, mind, body and soul. One cannot exist without the other – there is no wellbeing without all parts of ourselves.

At university, I became aware of abdominal pain that worsened during times of stress, but there was always this underlying level of discomfort. I’ve lived with this for many years, and it wasn’t until recent years and after many medical investigations that I got a definitive diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). I’ve come to learn that IBS is quite typical after experiencing trauma. Trauma manifests within the body in many ways, usually to get our attention, but we aren’t programmed to tune into the body as a way to tune into ourselves and the messages that the body is trying to tell us.

A book I highly recommend to find out more about the body holding trauma is The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma (Bessel van der Kolk, 2015). Dr van der Kolk in his book talks about how when animals experience trauma, they naturally shake to release the tension and to process the experience; they literally shake their body. Humans don’t seem to have that intuitive connection to the body as a way to heal, and this contributes to trauma getting stuck and having a long-lasting effect and impact.

The reconnection to the body requires learning to feel safe and comfortable within the body again. To do so, we need to move from a heightened nervous state (sympathetic nervous system of ‘fight, flight, or freeze’) to the parasympathetic nervous system ‘rest and digest’ state. In this state, the body relaxes, our heart rate and blood pressure fall and our digestive organs are much more functional; this is the state that our bodies can function best in. The mind and body need assurance they are safe to move from a state of alarm and hypervigilance to a state of calm and presence in this moment.

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