[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/the-urgency-in-understanding-and-healing-of-the-trauma-brain\/#NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/the-urgency-in-understanding-and-healing-of-the-trauma-brain\/","headline":"The urgency in understanding and healing of the trauma brain","name":"The urgency in understanding and healing of the trauma brain","description":"(CONTENT WARNING: Content speaks about sexual abuse and domestic violence) Being in a car accident or an earthquake is traumatising for many, if not most people. But, someone who is neglected as a toddler and left to cry endlessly can also suffer from trauma when they grow up. The effects can be so severe that […]","datePublished":"2021-08-24","dateModified":"2022-01-12","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/Atalia%20Chua\/#Person","name":"Atalia Chua","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/Atalia%20Chua\/","identifier":339,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a83f1814f9ae936340d5c9530df0dcd78295c85ee63b72b84945716f843d62d2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a83f1814f9ae936340d5c9530df0dcd78295c85ee63b72b84945716f843d62d2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TheHomeGround Asia","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","width":640,"height":640}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/feature-image-trauma-brain-.jpg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/feature-image-trauma-brain-.jpg","height":626,"width":1280},"url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/the-urgency-in-understanding-and-healing-of-the-trauma-brain\/","about":["Community","Health & Wellness","Local","Singapore"],"wordCount":2560,"articleBody":"(CONTENT WARNING: Content speaks about sexual abuse and domestic violence)Being in a car accident or an earthquake is traumatising for many, if not most people. But, someone who is neglected as a toddler and left to cry endlessly can also suffer from trauma when they grow up. The effects can be so severe that it interferes with the sufferer\u2019s ability to live a normal life.\u00a0Often trauma is managed and coped through trauma responses, trauma bonds and patterns of adaptations, which, experts say,\u00a0 are caused by a \u2018trauma brain\u2019. Many sufferers are not aware that they are living under its influence, and the cost can be grave if healing is not sought.\u00a0Trauma brain and its causesWhen trauma is intensely internalised, it can rob the sufferer of the potential to be safe with himself because a \u2018trauma brain\u2019 has been formed.(Photo source: Nicole LePera \/ Instagram)Marie, who declined to give her full name, says that the trauma she had experienced when she was raped and sexually abused as a child is a \u201clasting one\u201d. \u201cMore than 20 years later, I\u2019m still reeling from it. The scars are there for life,\u201d the 36-year-old, who works in logistics, says.Marie\u2019s father died when she was a year old. Her mother, who could not work and needed to support herself and her daughters, allowed her two boyfriends to sexually abuse the girls as they all depended on the two men financially. The girls were \u201ccollateral\u201d.\u00a0\u201cI suffered the most,\u201d Marie says.\u00a0She has since forgiven her mother for \u201cletting it happen\u201d but she says she \u201ccan\u2019t forget\u201d the abuse.\u00a0\u201cTo [be able to] forget is the hardest thing to do because it never leaves you,\u201d Marie says.\u00a0\u201cNo one understands my trauma [and] people tend to tell me\u00a0 \u2018it\u2019s all in your mind\u2019, \u2018it\u2019s all in your heart\u2019 and ‘only you can help yourself’,\u201d she adds.Marie feels that is one of misperceptions of what trauma is how it affects the sufferer.\u00a0Graphic designer and painter Yvonne Peh, 33, agrees. She is still experiencing the trauma of her father trying to throw her off a building when she was six and her house catching fire last year (2020). However, she is not sure how it manifests itself within her, and only that \u201cit haunts me now and then\u201d.When someone is traumatised, the \u2018fear centre\u2019 becomes overactivated and they may experience hypervigilance, chronic stress and fear. (Photo source: Banyan Mental Health)Breaking down how trauma infiltrates a brain system, Ms Celynn Chang, manager of the Clinical Intervention Centre at Boys\u2019 Town which is part of Safe Circle, a collaboration across seven agencies in Singapore that focuses primarily on trauma and trauma-informed care, says: \u201cTrauma can change brain function in three most important ways: the prefrontal cortex, also known as the \u2018thinking centre\u2019; the anterior cingulate cortex, also known as the \u2018emotion regulation centre\u2019; the amygdala, also known as the \u2018fear centre\u2019.\u201dThe centres move inward into the brain but all three have an interplaying role.\u00a0\u201cOur \u2018thinking centre\u2019 is located at the upper brain area [and] is responsible for abilities such as rational thinking, problem-solving and awareness of ourselves and others,\u201d Ms Chang says. The \u2018emotional regulation centre\u2019 is \u201clocated next to our \u2018thinking centre\u2019 but deeper inside the brain\u201d. \u201cThis area is responsible for the regulation of difficult thoughts and emotions without being completely overwhelmed by them.\u201dWhen someone\u00a0 manages this centre well, it will help with the responses to unpleasant situations. But when the fear centre, located in the deepest part of the brain, is activated,\u00a0 this tiny structure turns on the body\u2019s \u2018fight or flight\u2019 response.\u00a0\u201cWe will feel reactive, vigilant and afraid but\u00a0 [for someone who] is traumatised, [this] centre becomes overactivated. She may experience hypervigilance, chronic stress, irritation and fear. Consequently, the \u2018thinking centre\u2019 will become \u201cunder activated\u201d and the person can have a hard time concentrating, paying attention or thinking clearly,\u201d Ms Chang says.Managing emotions can be difficult because the \u2018emotion regulation centre\u2019 has been weakened when there is trauma. (Photo source: KSU \/ The Sentinel Newspaper)The \u2018emotional regulation centre\u2019 is also affected, she adds.\u00a0\u201cWe may also have difficulties managing our emotions and find it really hard to \u2018let go\u2019 of minor annoyances [because] the \u2018emotion regulation centre\u2019 has been weakened.\u201dMr Asher Low, executive director at Limitless, a non-profit organisation that helps youth with issues such as mental health and abuse, explains trauma in a similar vein.\u00a0\u201cTrauma happens when an individual goes through an event or series of events that they experience as emotionally, physically, or psychologically harmful or life threatening that has a lasting negative effect on their functioning and wellbeing,\u201d he says.Ms Chloe Calderon Chotrani, a somatic therapist at Illuma Health, a clinic that provides treatment for mental health and trauma, also sees the \u201cintegral part [of] trauma recovery [as] taking care of brain health\u201d, as she quotes Dr Kharrazian who has developed evidence-based models to treat chronic diseases with non-pharmaceutical applications.With trauma in the brain, people can feel \u201csome degree of trauma that often leaves [them] feeling fragmented and disconnected\u201d, Ms Chotrani says. The consequences of this is that it hinders the person\u2019s \u201cability to feel safe, calm, or easy in the mind and body\u201d.\u00a0But trauma cannot be understood in isolation with just the brain as it needs to be connected to the body as well, Ms Chotani says.\u00a0\u201cNeurological issues and trauma are not isolated in the brain [alone]. Rather than talking and understanding the ‘trauma brain’, trauma should be looked at as a whole – including the body,\u201d she adds.\u00a0The mind can forget trauma, but the body stores it as a memory. (Photo source: Freepik)The body can hold a \u201cmemory of threat\u201d from a traumatic experience that the mind remembers. \u201cIf we have experienced a traumatising tsunami as an infant or in our early childhood developmental years, this could have a ripple effect of being fearful of water in our adulthood. We still feel a sense of threat, even if the water is calm,\u201d she says.When it manifests itself in the body, it can cause anxiety, depression and panic because \u201cthe body often bears the burdens of traumatic events\u201d.\u00a0\u201cEven if we have forgotten, the energetic impact on the body can still be present,\u201d Ms Chotrani adds.The lack of awareness of living under the influence of a trauma brainOne would think such a strong reactive neurological and physical response would signal to the person that there had been a previous trauma but this awareness often can be lost in transmission.\u00a0Ms Chang says a reason for this could be because we do not know of or might have forgotten its existence or effects. \u201cMost of us do not have knowledge of how trauma can alter brain function. Some of us may or may not even realise that our daily lives have been affected after experiencing a traumatic event.\u201dShe adds that usually when someone has learned\u00a0 \u201chow trauma can affect our brain function\u201d he or she will know how to manage the influences.\u00a0Trauma survivors do not realise that they have experienced trauma because the traumatic event could be a common occurrence in their lives. (Photo source: San Bernardino County District Attorney)Mr Low has observed the same thing within the context that trauma does not stand out in someone\u2019s life anymore because of the frequency within his life. \u201cTrauma survivors sometimes don\u2019t realise that they\u2019ve experienced trauma because an event like violence could be a common occurrence within the family or environment, \u201d he says, adding that the individual can suppress or \u201cdownplay the experience\u201d.Ms Chotrani says the lack of awareness that a trauma brain exists is often due to three reasons: cultural conditioning, loss of choice and systemic demands.\u00a0She says with Asians, \u201cgenerational conditioning\u201d has exerted pressure on how Asian society should express emotions.\u00a0\u201c[We are] not allowing difficult emotions to be expressed because it is inappropriate or disruptive, and this leads to people not knowing that trauma plays a role in their lives,\u201d she adds.\u00a0Ms Chotrani elaborates that the ignoring emotions caused by trauma could also be due to the limited choices or lack of control one, especially a woman, has on the environment, feelings and thoughts, and therefore the feeling of entrapment.\u00a0\u201cWhen the nervous systems start to perceive threats, [it] can leave one feeling helpless, or powerless, [and to recover] from trauma involves realising that you do have a choice available now,\u201d she says.\u00a0The popularisation of productivity and pressures of success drives our bodies and brains to simply survive. (Photo source: Changeboard)The last factor Ms Chotrani cites is \u201csystemic demands\u201d such as those in an urban city and a \u201ccapitalistic society\u201d. \u201cThe popularisation of productivity, pressures of success, and glamorisation of overworking and achievement [demands] labour of our bodies and brains to simply survive,\u201d she says. With a hectic lifestyle, there will always be \u201cless space for restful reflection or feeling guilty or anxious when we do nothing\u201d.\u00a0This disequilibrium in activity and rest will often \u201clead to a difficulty in regulating and rebalancing our state of equilibrium\u201d, causing us to ignore the influences of trauma.Manifestations in adulthood\u00a0The effects that trauma has on a person is unique. Some may heal from it sooner than others, but, it always manifests itself in different forms.\u00a0Ms Peh says as a grownup, she has \u201cissues with middle-aged men, compounded with depression and feeling [unwanted]\u201d.\u00a0She also suffers from anxiety and fear of loud noises and explosions.\u00a0Marie, on the other hand, struggles with \u201cunderstanding what true love is\u201d.\u00a0\u201cI can\u2019t differentiate [between] love and sex,\u201d she says. Marie now experiences sex as something physical that is to be enjoyed rather than a connection with someone she loves.\u00a0As such, she has \u201chad many [sexual] partners\u201d and thinks she may be addicted to sex. \u201cIt has affected my outlook in life, choices I make and not being loved [for who] I am,\u201d she says.\u00a0Trauma survivors who experience childhood trauma are more likely to have mental health disorders. (Photo source: European Hospital)Mr Low says with trauma, interpersonal relationships can be affected, especially if \u201cthe trauma is interpersonal in nature, such as abuse, assault, neglect and bullying\u201d.Ms Chotrani concurs that trauma can adversely affect \u201cfuture relationships with friends, peers and romantic partners\u201d if a person\u2019s \u201crelational dynamic with [the] main caretakers (parents, grandparents, or relatives) had been harmful.\u00a0\u201cSince familiarity brings a sense of comfort, we tend to become attracted to certain archetypes which sometimes are unhealthy for us,\u201d she says.Mr Low adds that it is possible that \u201ctrauma survivors who experience childhood trauma, or Adverse Childhood Experiences, are more likely to [have] mental health disorders, attachment issues, PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), depression and anxiety in adulthood\u201d.\u00a0These mental manifestations lead to physical ones when \u201cpoor coping responses, such as risky behaviour and poor eating, [lead to an] increased risk of physical disorders such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke\u201d, he says.\u00a0Dangers of not healing trauma\u00a0Being aware and understanding the trauma brain is the first step to healing. Wanting to and knowing how to is another ball game altogether.\u00a0Ms Chotrani says that there is danger in choosing not to process or heal from trauma.\u00a0\u201cIf we unknowingly continue on with unprocessed trauma, which we often do, we can have heavily built up emotional tension that is held and stuck in the body. This can lead to chronic stress and fatigue, deep depressive states, or even long-term resentment and anger,\u201d she says.\u00a0When the nervous system is in a constant state of threat, the mind and body is easily and often triggered to function in ‘survival mode’. (Photo source: TheCourage)These unhealthy emotions will affect \u201cour neurology and when our nervous system is in a constant state of threat, we are easily and often triggered and in ‘survival mode‘.Ms Peh attests to this, as she \u201cis always [living] in fear and [getting] flashbacks every now and then\u201d.\u00a0If these escalate, Ms Chotrani warns that they can cause \u201cviolent outbursts or suicidal attempts, which we have seen spike in Singapore\u201d.\u00a0Ms Chang calls to attention the toxic physiological effects if trauma is not treated. \u201cWe may experience eating and sleeping problems, panic attacks, irritability, prolonged anger and mental health issues such as depression, anxiety,\u201d she says,s adding that it will \u201chave an impact on our physical health such as gastrointestinal issues, extreme fatigue and in the long-term heart, liver, pulmonary diseases as we may adopt negative coping [mechanisms] such as smoking, substance abuse, and alcoholism to deal with the extreme stress\u201d.\u00a0These have apparently become Marie\u2019s coping habits as she engages in \u201cself-destruction\u201d.She says the reason she harms herself is because she is “unable to appreciate [herself] or have self love”, and confesses that she has attempted suicide twice.\u00a0Healing is a holistic approachIn order to process and resolve trauma, there are multiple holistic trauma-healing methods to turn to, and Ms Chang believes in Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR).\u00a0Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a popular treatment in healing trauma. (Photo source: Freepik)She advocates a strong support network as well, such as \u201cparents, family members, friends, teachers and colleagues\u201d. \u201cPositive and supportive relationships are key to recovery because positive experiences in our relationships can help us to heal, [while] negative ones can make our emotional and psychological problems worse,\u201d Ms Chang expounds.\u00a0Mr Low also recognises the \u201ctherapeutic modalities such as CBT, Trauma Focused CBT, EMDR, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), Somatic Therapy, Art Therapy, and Animal Therapy\u201d which he feels are \u201cclinically effective\u201d.\u00a0However, while healing is an individual\u2019s journey, the people around that person plays a role too.\u00a0\u201cGood social support such as having supportive loved ones, friends, and family, and positive spiritual practices have also been found to be beneficial to recovery from trauma,\u201d Mr Low says.\u00a0Ms Chotrani has seen the results and effects in Somatic Touch Therapy and the somatic experience.Somatic experience and trauma release exercises are some ways people have sought to process trauma. (Photo source: Integrated Trauma Therapy)She says that the \u201cgentle touch provides co-regulation which will help one eventually self regulate\u201d because trauma healing requires a \u201cdeeper connection to our sense of self, which involves strengthening the relationship between our bodies and our brains\u201d. This in turn will \u201cincrease our capacity for coping, recovering, and thriving [as] the intention is to help the nervous system feel safe through providing support\u201d.\u00a0Ms Peh sees the value in hands-on hobbies as part of her healing journey, such as \u201cpainting and journal writing\u201d. Ms Chotrani says that this is a good avenue for healing. \u201cIt can come in the form of fitness and nutrition, which is empowering\u201d. But what she ultimately believes is that \u201cthere is no one way or solution because each person has to find what is most resonant and relevant for them\u201d. Understanding and peeling the \u201cdifferent layers of processing the trauma\u201d in each individual will facilitate the \u201chealing of our bodies, our minds, and our souls\u201d, Ms Chotrani sums.\u00a0Join the conversations on TheHomeGround Asia’s Facebook and Instagram, and get the latest updates via Telegram.\u00a0"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Destinations","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Singapore","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/\/singapore\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The urgency in understanding and healing of the trauma brain","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/the-urgency-in-understanding-and-healing-of-the-trauma-brain\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]