The Body Keeps the Score Summary
3 min read ⌚
Mind, Brain and the Body in the Transformation of Trauma
Mind, Brain and the Body in the Transformation of TraumaHave you experienced a traumatic event in the past? “The Body Keeps the Score” of it.
About Bessel van der Kolk
Bessel van der Kolk, MD, is an author, a physician, teacher and researcher who specializes in post-traumatic stress.
“The Body Keeps the Score PDF Summary”
We all have heard of someone who has experienced violence during war and could not fit in into society.
There are plenty of books, movies, and real stories about soldiers that battle with their memories and return from combat as strangers to themselves and their families.
What happens in the mind of these people? Why is it so hard to break away from trauma and continue living as before?
We can ask the same questions for a broader context as well.
Trauma is not something that happens only to soldiers. In fact, you can find it in every corner of society.
It can happen to everyone, and that is why it is essential for people to realize what it truly is, and what it means for them.
Trauma is the result that happens from facing extreme pain or stress, which make a person feel helpless in the face of adversity.
Wars can cause traumas, but so can other accidents and crimes, such as child abuse, or rape.
Violent crimes are much more common than you might imagine.
No matter what the source of the trauma, the result is usually PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder), which then becomes the fuel that pushes people to abuse substances or develop depression.
Moreover, these people feel misunderstood, believing that no one can understand the suffering they have gone through unless those people have experienced something similar as well.
Establishing a connection with trauma victims is quite a challenge.
Just imagine what it is like for those people who consist the traumatized person’s closest circle: family and friends.
But what happens in the mind of a traumatized person?
Well, there is no exact way to describe it, but let’s try by making you remember the most embarrassing thing you ever did. Whenever you think about it, you still squirm and feel regret, don’t you?
Now you understand how a simple memory can influence your body.
Just, when a person has PTSD that impact is magnified since the person experiences the memory as it is real.
Key Lessons from “The Body Keeps the Score PDF”
1. Traumatized Children
2. Remembering Traumatic Events
3. How Do People Live With Trauma?
Traumatized Children
Traumatic experiences are hard for adults but even harder for children.
Children are at more risk of developing different negative consequences since their brains are not fully formed yet.
Traumatized children always expect the worse scenario to happen.
Remembering Traumatic Events
Most people, when it comes to some experience, do not remember the details of it, but the feeling it caused them to feel.
However, traumatic memories tell a different story. People can always remember traumatic memories as if they are happening at the moment, and the memories do not change or get blurry with time.
How Do People Live With Trauma?
To have a balanced life, we need to comprehend that emotions affect our bodies.
Traumatized victims have developed a hypersensitive alarm system, which can make them uncomfortable even in harmless situations.
As a result, many traumatized people start using different substances or overwork to keep their minds from wandering back to the trauma.
However, these are only momentary, and unhealthy solutions.
The much better solution for relieving trauma is yoga.
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“The Body Keeps the Score Quotes”
Traumatized people chronically feel unsafe inside their bodies: The past is alive in the form of gnawing interior discomfort. Click To Tweet Trauma victims cannot recover until they become familiar with and befriend the sensations in their bodies. Click To Tweet Neuroscience research shows that the only way we can change the way we feel is by becoming aware of our inner experience and learning to befriend what is going inside ourselves. Click To Tweet As long as you keep secrets and suppress information, you are fundamentally at war with yourself. Click To Tweet The critical issue is allowing yourself to know what you know. That takes an enormous amount of courage. Click To Tweet
Emir is the Head of Marketing at 12min. In his spare time, he loves to meditate and play soccer.
