Search this site

Navigation

Post-trauma Reactions as Signs of Strength

Understanding the Price of Survival

Copyright 2009, Pamela Woll

Resilience skills are powerful, but what about the events that overwhelm them?  What happens when stress and threat are extreme (like a disaster), long lasting (like violence in the community or abuse in the family), or both (like combat)?

The brain and body chemistry are organized to go through some powerful changes under stress and threat (see Brain Stuff), so we can stay alive, save others' lives, fight back, escape, or just endure.  These changes are automatic.  We don't choose them.  They're built to be far more powerful than our will, because the survival of the species depends on how well they work in all of us.  We may be able to control our behavior in crisis situations, but our bodies are still going to do what bodies do under extreme stress.

Of course, all these changes come at a price.  Often we pay this price later, when the threat is over—and sometimes long after it's over.  It might be a mild price like a tendency to shut down or a temporary case of the jitters, or a high price like posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression.  This price can include the whole range of post-trauma reactions:

  • From exhaustion through anxiety
  • From having no emotions through overwhelming anger, sadness, or fear
  • From a sense of being empty and numb through an inability to sit still
  • From amnesia through flashbacks and nightmares
  • From cravings for stimulant drugs through cravings for substances that calm us down




These things are all driven by physical reactions in the brain, the rest of the body, and the chemicals the body makes (see Brain Stuff).  These reactions often have thoughts and feelings attached to them, but that's because they have human beings attached to them, and human beings have thoughts and feelings— especially when we're trying to make sense of difficult situations.  But it's not the thoughts or the feelings that are causing the intensity of these reactions.  It's the physical stuff—the way the brain and the body react, having too much or too little of certain natural chemicals—that are driving this intensity and making things more difficult.

And these physical reactions are just signs that we, as individuals and as a species, have bodies and brains that do extraordinary things to keep us alive and functioning under stress and threat.  These reactions—as painful, dangerous, and exhausting as they can be—are signs of our incredible power as human beings.


The Role of the Survival Instinct

The major force behind post-trauma reactions is the same as the major force behind many of our most powerful experiences—the human instinct to survive and to preserve our species.  It’s not only the thing that makes us jump out of the way when a car is coming at us.  It's also the unconscious force behind things like:

  • Sexual desire for an attractive potential mate
  • The urge to protect children
  • The drive to make a living and get ahead in the world
  • Generosity toward people who are less fortunate
  • The desire to serve our community, our state, or our country
  • The service member’s dedication to the safety of his or her comrades in arms

It’s all about keeping us—all of us—going.  Our species is wired to survive.

So the body's survival-level reactions don't just happen when we ourselves are threatened. This may be why things that happen to other people—even people we don't know or think we identify with—can have such powerful effects on us.  For example, just seeing a stranger injured or killed can cause deeply rooted post-trauma reactions, and if we witness the injury or death of a loved one, the reactions can be far more intense.  The guilt and loss that can come from hurting or killing others can be some of the most profound injuries that police officers and service members sustain—even if their actions were justified and they had no other choice.

The human being lives on many levels, from the most basic chemicals in the body to the indescribable and unquantifiable thing that is the human spirit—and all points in between.  Everything that happens to us happens on all those levels at once.  Who we are, and what we choose, may affect the direction of some of our post-trauma reactions—like whether we feel angry or afraid, whether we grieve or shut down, whether we blame others or ourselves. 

But the force that drives the intensity of our reactions is physical, rooted in a body that was hard-wired to keep itself—and its species—alive.

If you're interested in how the brain protects us during times of stress and threat—and sometimes causes challenges for us later on—you'll find more information on the sub-page called Brain Stuff.

If you'd rather skip the brain and look at more evidence of the power of the body's survival reactions, you can go to the next page, How Memory Works in Trauma.


Getting Help or Training for Post-Trauma Effects

If you're unable to sleep because of nightmares, or jumping out of your skin in everyday situations, the idea that your symptoms are signs of strength may not be much consolation.  But maybe realizing that these are normal and natural reactions will make it easier to consider the possibility of telling someone what's going on with you and getting some help.

If you do decide to look into getting help or training for post-trauma injuries and effects:

  • You might find that you have a lot of options, and have a hard time deciding which one is best for you
  • You might have access to only one service provider who only offers one option, and wonder whether that's the only option you have, or the best option
In either case, this site has a few pages to help you figure that out.

(Page taken from The Power and Price of Survival:  Understanding Resilience, Stress, and Trauma, Copyright 2009, Pamela Woll.)
Subpages (1): Brain Stuff