TRAUMA

By trauma we define a situation or experience, real or symbolic, that involves a very great threat to our soul or our likeness. This threat translates into a threat to organization, so it also brings a lot of disorganization. For this reason, our body develops specific ways to cope with trauma. For this reason, our body develops specific ways to cope with trauma. Trauma can be a loss, any form of abuse, neglect, conflictual relationship or parental divorce, a natural disaster (which can also be a collective trauma).

Some of these mechanisms may be overused or dysfunctional, leaving us exposed to post-traumatic symptoms.

The younger the trauma occurs, the more difficult it is to manage because the rational part of us has not yet developed. , people who are traumatized at a young age are more likely to be re-traumatized in the future, because any trauma they encounter comes and sits on top of and reinforces the already existing trauma within them.

When our body is faced with a traumatic experience or even a particularly stressful experience, it shows predictable reactions. The first natural reaction that comes is fight or flight. Much of anxiety psychopathology (panic disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders) lies on this axis. It is a mobilizing mechanism.

When this fight or flight mechanism is no longer sufficient and the organism enters a state of numbness, the next mechanism in the series, freeze and fragment, comes into play. The person can no longer mobilize, literally and figuratively, so they enter a state of disconnection. In this state, the unpleasant experience he experiences is fragmented and stored in a special way in the brain.

When a wound is triggered, we can either put it to flight (flight) or freeze it (freeze). When someone freezes in this way, they feel like their feet are nailed to the floor, their breath doesn’t come out, dizziness, numbness, they feel like they’re not there, the noises and images around them are distorted. It’s like he’s sinking into his body. He may even feel that he is not himself or that the environment around him is not real.

This brings us to depersonalization and derealization:

Depersonalization is a dissociative experience where the person does not have a good self-image. He can experience himself that is, as if he were in a dream or like a robot, doing everything mechanically.

Derealization is the dissociative experience where the person feels that the environment around them is changing, feels as if they are watching a movie or a dream, or as if everything is in slow motion.

The antidote to disconnection is the security of connection.