One of the most difficult parts of managing the brain’s trauma response is the false alarm. This is often described as hypervigilance—an emergency vehicle drives down your street. You look around—no one else seems to be bothered, but inside it’s like someone threw a thousand pinballs made of ice into your body.
There are tons of very good tools out there to help manage those moments—my favorites are the ones where you have to say your phone number backwards, the ones where you have to look around the room and name (out loud) three green objects, two circular objects, etc. Those methods have names—I tend not to keep those in my head. For me the power isn’t in the name, but in their ability to actually help ground me.
But there’s more to it than just grounding in the moment. There’s the long term consequence of what it means to have this trauma response. To not be able to trust your body’s alarm system.
After a traumatic event, a retraining needs to occur. A reorientation to who you are now. An honoring of what you’ve seen, what you’ve gone through, and how your body responds now.
There are some fantastic ways to retrain, both in very small and very long-term ways. Many of these ways are so individualized I’m hesitant to mention many but may include trauma-informed therapy, guided meditation, EMDR, some botanicals, pharmaceuticals, hydrotherapy, and homeopathy. Each remedy is as unique as the person and the event. I’m curious what’s worked for you? Leave a comment below.
I think with intentional neural retraining comes self-trust. And incredible power. It can happen. You’re not alone.