Understanding the relationship between the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and anxiety is essential to treatment. The SNS is a part of the autonomic nervous system that activates our body’s "fight or flight" response. For those with trauma histories, this response can become overactivated, even in non-threatening situations, leading to heightened and persistent anxiety.
Trauma leaves a profound impact, often shaping the way people perceive the world, relate to others, and even experience themselves. The good news is that trauma doesn't have to define you, and through therapies like EMDR, there is a way to find relief, process the pain, and move forward into a healthier and more empowered life.
Trauma is the physiological and psychological response to deeply disturbing or distressing events that overwhelm our ability to cope, leading to profound feelings of helplessness and hopelessness protecting ourselves (or others we care about like parents or siblings) when faced with real (or perceived) threats.
When left untreated, patterns of disturbance which are experienced for more than 1 month after a traumatic event has occurred, and cause significant disruption in social and occupational areas of one’s life often become what is known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
To say the least, 2020 was a strange and chaotic year for us all. With the COVID-19 pandemic at the forefront of great challenges and change in our social, political, and economic systems, many of us were forced into an unfamiliar and unpredictable world wrought with fear of what’s to come, grief at what was lost, and uncertainty about how to navigate it all.
There are three existential questions all of us have asked or will ask at some point in our lives:
1) Who am I?
2) Where did I come from?
3) What is the meaning and purpose of my life?
These questions are extraordinarily complex and intricate, as they are unique to the individual person and are exceedingly difficult to answer by one’s self. The reason these questions are more challenging to answer is because we cannot answer them by mere thought alone.
“Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible – the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family” – Virginia Satir
For most of us, our family – mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, grandfathers, and grandmothers – is an essential part in our lives, and are some of the most meaningful and important relationships we have.
