Back to Stories

TRAUMA in the BODY: Exploring New Hopes for HEALING

Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D. is the Founder and Medical Director of

By Elissa Melaragno
Apr 21, 2018 1 min read
Source: stillharbor.org

something so we can build roads, theaters, and hospitals, etc. Many traumatized people grow up to be sick. So, resources are used for drug rehabilitation, chronic illness, unemployment, and prisons. All terrible ways to spend too few resources.

Melaragno: Because most of the people in these situations are there because they have been traumatized. 

van der Kolk: Absolutely, show me a person in jail who has not been traumatized. Eighty percent of prisoners in California have spent time in the foster care system. They were unwanted and did not have a steady caregiver. These are huge things that are continuously pushed off the radar screen. Drug addiction is a function of child abuse. It’s possible to become a drug addict without child abuse, but it’s very hard. 

Melaragno: I would think just that would be enough for the National Institute of Mental Health to fund your neurofeedback research. This is a difficult conversation to end, but it is important to realize how much more there is we can do to support healing from trauma for individuals, communities, and nations. I hope our readers enjoy it as much as I have. Thank you, Dr. van der Kolk.

van der Kolk: Thank you. §

 
Share this story:

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

8 PAST RESPONSES

User avatar
Frank Sterle Jr. Jun 2, 2023
I live with adverse-childhood-experience-related chronic anxiety and clinical depression that are only partly treatable via medication. Thus I endure an emotionally tumultuous daily existence. It’s a continuous, discomforting anticipation of ‘the other shoe dropping’ and simultaneously being scared of how badly I will deal with the upsetting event, which usually never transpires. The lasting emotional/psychological pain from such trauma is very formidable yet invisibly confined to inside the head. It is solitarily suffered, unlike an openly visible physical disability or condition, which tends to elicit sympathy/empathy from others. It can make every day a mental ordeal, unless the turmoil is treated with some form of medicating, either prescribed or illicit. My experience has revealed [at least to me] that high-scoring-ACE trauma that essentially results from a highly sensitive introverted existence notably exacerbated by an accompanying autism spectrum disorder, c... [View Full Comment]
Reply 1 reply: Frank
User avatar
Frank Sterle Jr. Jun 9, 2023
[Cont.] Left unchecked, chronic emotional/psychological abuse readily results in a helpless child's brain improperly developing. The trauma acts as a starting point into a life in which the brain uncontrollably releases potentially damaging levels of inflammation-promoting stress hormones and chemicals, even in non-stressful daily routines. It has been described as a continuous, discomforting anticipation of ‘the other shoe dropping’ and simultaneously being scared of how badly you will deal with the upsetting event, which usually never transpires. It can make every day a mental ordeal, unless the turmoil is prescription and/or illicitly medicated. To a significant degree, I know such self-medicating from personal experience. It basically amounts to non-physical-impact brain damage. The lasting emotional/psychological pain from such trauma is very formidable yet invisibly confined to inside one's head. It is solitarily suffered, unlike an openly visible physical disabili... [View Full Comment]
[Cont.] Left unchecked, chronic emotional/psychological abuse readily results in a helpless child's brain improperly developing. The trauma acts as a starting point into a life in which the brain uncontrollably releases potentially damaging levels of inflammation-promoting stress hormones and chemicals, even in non-stressful daily routines. It has been described as a continuous, discomforting anticipation of ‘the other shoe dropping’ and simultaneously being scared of how badly you will deal with the upsetting event, which usually never transpires. It can make every day a mental ordeal, unless the turmoil is prescription and/or illicitly medicated. To a significant degree, I know such self-medicating from personal experience. It basically amounts to non-physical-impact brain damage. The lasting emotional/psychological pain from such trauma is very formidable yet invisibly confined to inside one's head. It is solitarily suffered, unlike an openly visible physical disability or condition, which tends to elicit sympathy/empathy from others. Really, a psychologically/emotionally sound future should be every child’s fundamental right — along with air, water, food and shelter — especially considering the very troubled world into which they never asked to enter. But, sadly and unjustly, no such right exists. Meantime, serious PTSD trauma very often becomes a strong compulsion for substance abuse and debilitating addiction. With lead-ball-and-chain self-medicating, the greater the drug-induced euphoria or escape one attains from its use, the more one wants to repeat the experience; and the more intolerable one finds their sober reality, the more pleasurable that escape should be perceived. By extension, the greater one’s mental pain or trauma while sober, the greater the need for escape from reality, thus the more addictive the euphoric escape-form will likely be. The lasting mental pain resulting from trauma is very formidable yet invisibly confined to inside one's head. [Hide Full Comment]
User avatar
TR Jan 30, 2020

I'm so amazed they went through that whole interview without saying "PTSD". That's probably a good thing?- in order to help us to view trauma in a way that we can deal with it. IDK. I've been through a lot of trauma myself. I'd like to see an article on Daily Good regarding self-inflicted trauma, why we do it to ourselves and how to end those behaviors.

Reply
User avatar
Kristin Pedemonti Apr 26, 2018

Thank you so much for sharing Dr. Besser van Der Kolk's important work. Much of the work I do currently in storytelling focuses on how We become the stories we tell. The first phase is the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. These stories impact how we view ourselves, interact with others and navigate through challenges and situations. If we were traumatized, these stories in our heads often prevent us from being able to interact in a healthy way or even to allow ourselves to push through a challenge without being re-traumatized. The good news is, we are the author of our own story and with tools and techniques we can re-frame our narrative and tell a different more healthy story. I love doing this work and am grateful for your article re-confirming the power of story! <3

Reply
User avatar
Sabina Gatti Apr 23, 2018

I love also Arthur Janov http://www.arthurjanov.com/, http://www.arthurjanov.com

Reply
User avatar
Anne Grant Apr 21, 2018

Thank you for this excellent introduction to Bessel van Der Kolk's work (and to others in the trauma field, like the South African experience, Joan Borysenko, tapping, Shakespeare for prisoners, etc.) So much excellent work is being done to help us notice and know ourselves more wholly. I appreciate the non-theist approach for those who have had traumatic experiences with people who use God-talk.

Reply
User avatar
Patrick Watters Apr 21, 2018

I would humbly add that the "life force" we are tapping into in healing is none other than the Lover of our very souls, Divine LOVE (God by any name we choose). }:- ❤️

Reply
User avatar
Linos Muvhu Apr 21, 2018

thanks good information

Reply