Introduction: How Trauma Changes the Brain and Body
Bessel van der Kolk first became fascinated by biology while listening to his cousin explain how kidneys maintain the body's balance. This wonder led him to psychiatry, where he discovered that we often overlook how the brain is physically reshaped by trauma. Trauma is more common than most realize, reaching beyond battlefields and into our homes.
While humans are resilient, these experiences leave deep marks on our biology and immune systems. These imprints can even be passed down through generations, affecting how we relate to others. The survival brain is designed to keep us alive, but it cannot distinguish between past terror and present reality.
Years later, a small trigger can still activate intense stress hormones, causing intense suffering. Science now shows that these reactions are not moral failings, but actual physiological changes in the brain's alarm system that keep the body stuck in hypervigilance. This makes survivors feel damaged or out of control.
A large, disheveled man named Tom once burst into a psychiatric office, carrying the heavy burden of his time as a Marine in Vietnam. Although he was a successful lawyer with a beautiful family, he felt like a monster who had to stay away from his own children. The sounds of their play and the heat of summer triggered violent rages and terrifying flashbacks of an ambush in a rice paddy.
When offered medication to help suppress his horrific nightmares, Tom refused to take it. He explained that if the nightmares went away, he would be abandoning his friends who died in the war. He felt he had to remain a living memorial to their sacrifice, even if it meant his own life remained a frozen wasteland.
This kind of suffering is more than just a bad memory, as it represents a physiological change in how the body functions. Early researchers called this physioneurosis because the trauma becomes rooted in the entire organism's response to threat. The brain’s alarm system stays stuck in the on position, making the survivor hyper-vigilant and unable to relax.
Understanding trauma requires realizing that the past is not over for the survivor, as it is an ongoing imprint on the mind and body. Simply talking about the experience is rarely enough to quiet the internal storm. For real healing to occur, the body must learn that the danger has passed, allowing the physical self to feel safe in the present.
Full summary available in the Readsome app
