The body keeps the score

 

The Body Keeps the Score.

The Body Keeps the Score is a non-fiction book about how the body stores trauma and what you can do about it.

My most distressing takeaway from this book was how common trauma is. Author Bessel van der Kolk discusses how people from all walks of life suffer from trauma.

I finally wrote a review on this book, a bit longer than expected, but I think it’s worth reading if you haven’t already read it.

Discussions of PTSD still tend to focus on recently returned soldiers, victims of terrorist bombings, or survivors of terrible accidents. But trauma remains a much larger public health issue, arguably the greatest threat to any country’s national health, and it’s a hidden pandemic.

One can see the awareness programmes on diseases like cancer, AIDS, etc. But we seem too embarrassed or discouraged to mount a massive effort to help children and adults learn to deal with the fear, rage, and collapse—the predictable consequences of having been traumatised.

In today’s world, your ZIP code, even more than your genetic code, determines whether you will lead a safe and healthy life. People’s income, family, structure, housing, employment, and educational opportunities affect not only the risk of developing traumatic stress but also their access to help address it. Poverty, unemployment, inferior schools, social isolation, and the widespread availability of guns are breeding grounds for trauma.

Trauma breeds further trauma; hurt people hurt other people. 

We are fundamentally social creatures; our brains are wired to foster working and playing together. Trauma devastates the social engagement system and interferes with cooperation, nurturing, and the ability to function as productive members of a clan.

In this book, I have learned how many mental health problems, from drug addiction to self-injurious behaviour, start off as attempts to cope with emotions that became unbearable because of a lack of adequate human contact and support.

People can learn to control and change their behaviour, but only if they feel safe enough to experiment with new solutions. 

The body keeps the score: if trauma is encoded in heartbreak and wrenching sensations, then our first priority is to help people move out of flight or fight states, re-organise their perception of danger, and manage relationships. Where traumatised children are concerned, we should place more focus on the chorus, physical education, recess, and anything else that involves movement, play, or other forms of joyful engagement.

All of us, but especially children, need the kind of confidence that others affirm and cherish. Without that, we can’t develop a sense of agency that will enable us to assert: "That is what I believe in; that is what I stand for; that is what I will devote myself to." As long as we feel safely held in the hearts and minds of the people who love us, we will climb mountains, cross deserts, and stay up all night to finish projects. Children and adults will do anything for people they trust and whose opinions they value.

But if you feel abandoned, worthless, or invisible, nothing seems to matter. Fear destroys curiosity and playfulness. There can be no growth without curiosity, and no adaptability without being able to explore through trial and error.

Resilience is the product of agency—knowing that what you can do can make a difference. Many of us remember what playing team sports, singing in the school choir, or playing in the marching band meant to us, especially if we had coaches who believed in us, pushed us to excel, and taught us we could be better than we thought was possible.

Trauma constantly confronts us with our fragility and with man’s inhumanity to man but also with our extraordinary resilience.

He also has an entire chapter on alternative therapies such as mindfulness, meditation, breathing exercises, and yoga. He stresses the importance of becoming aware of one’s own body, and not just in the sense of noticing when you are hyperventilating or your heart is jumping out of your chest—although these are good things to notice too—but also where memories feel like they are stored in your body. You know where it is uncomfortable to be touched or, in yoga, which positions make you feel vulnerable and why that might be.

 When people think about trauma, they generally think of it as a historical event that happened some time ago. Trauma is actually the residue of the past as it settles into your body. It’s located inside your own skin. When people are traumatised, they become afraid of their physical sensations; their breathing becomes shallow; and they become uptight and frightened about what they’re feeling inside. When you slow down your breathing with yoga, you can increase your heart rate variability, and that decreases stress. Yoga opens you up to feeling every aspect of your body’s sensations. It’s a gentle, safe way for people to befriend their bodies, where the trauma of the past is stored. Studies show that yoga is equally as beneficial—or more beneficial—than the best possible medications in alleviating traumatic stress symptoms.

And last, but not least, most great instigators of social change have intimate personal knowledge of trauma. That brings to mind Maya, Angelou, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King.