Trauma Symptoms That Shouldn’t Be Ignored (Illinois Treatment Guide)
The amygdala, a part of your brain, is supposed to detect danger. If something threatening happens, the amygdala floods your body with stress hormones to prepare you to fight or run. However, certain extremely stressful situations (such as a major accident) can break this process, which means your alarm doesn’t switch off and your brain stays in emergency mode long after the danger is gone.
Also, if a negative event occurs, its memory and feeling can be stored in your body and nervous system. Even if you don’t consciously think about it, it starts showing up in unregulated ways. For instance, you might have flashbacks of an accident you almost survived, and your brain will immediately switch on the fight-or-flight alarm, eventually disrupting the nervous system.
Mental health experts say that if you want a calm nervous system, you must overcome the trauma and regulate your nerves. Since some trauma signs are more harmful than others, let’s understand which ones shouldn’t be ignored. Keep reading.
Trauma Signs to Not Ignore
Not treating trauma traps your mind and body in survival mode, which can slowly damage your physical and mental health. Sure, you can simply turn a blind eye to the horrific memories or how it leaves your body tense, but it’ll only consume you.
If you have any of the below-discussed trauma symptoms, don’t ignore them and seek help so the past doesn’t ruin your present and future:
Flashbacks of the Events
Your mind can suddenly take you back to a traumatic event and make it almost feel realistic. In that situation, you experience things like a racing heartbeat, tense muscles, and extreme fear. Some flashbacks can be so strong that you physically feel their impact.
Experts say it happens when some trauma remains untreated in your nervous system, and anything can trigger it. Needless to say, living with such memories is exhausting because you’re always at the mercy of your own mind. This burden slowly wears you down and pulls you away from reality, eventually harming your relationships.
If you experience something like this, it’s in your best interest to approach a mental health expert and find a way out. They will likely suggest trauma-informed therapy and some grounding skills to keep you connected to the present. Once you complete treatment, that painful memory won’t haunt you anymore.
Intrusive Thoughts
If you’re cutting onions and think, “What if I chop off my finger with this knife’, that’s an intrusive thought. These thoughts are unwanted and disturbing mental images that can quite literally shock you.
If you have been through severe trauma, your brain stays in the threat-detection mode and keeps replaying worst-case scenarios, sad memories, and dark ‘what if’ questions that can disturb your peace.
Notably, many people don’t admit these thoughts and think they’ll reveal something dark about their character, but that’s not true. Intrusive thoughts are a symptom of an unsettled nervous system, which can be fixed with treatment.
Hypervigiliance
Hypervigilance means your body is always on guard, even when there is no threat. As explained earlier, your nervous system gets rewired after trauma to treat everything as dangerous. That’s why you’re always alert and keep scanning the surroundings, as if you’re waiting for something to go wrong.
And as one can tell, living like this can tire you mentally and physically because your body is running on stress hormones around the clock. If this doesn’t get fixed, it can weaken your immune system, affect your sleep, and even damage your relationships because you’re just never relaxed.
Therefore, you must not overlook this symptom and start therapy to offload this burden. Discussing your constant watchful nature with the therapist will give you a direction to let things go and keep your nerves relaxed. So, don’t delay.
Dissociation
Sometimes your mind detaches from your thoughts, feelings, or even surroundings. The brain does it as a survival response to stress that overwhelms you, so you don’t have to face the uncomfortable reality.
For instance, you might zone out and feel emotionally numb to whatever is happening around you. It’s worth noting that this thing doesn’t only affect your mind; it can also hamper your ability to function. Because when you’re frequently disconnected, you cannot process emotions or make clear decisions.
Also, you pull back from people because your mind says they will cause you pain, and you blame yourself because you believe you deserved it. Hence, mental health experts treat dissociation as a meaningful trauma symptom and don’t want you to underestimate its potential effect.
Behavioral Red Flags
Trauma doesn’t only make you sad; it can also make you reckless. For example, one might start drinking too much or doing drugs after a major negative life event to cope with the pain.
While these behaviors can feel like temporary relief, they further damage your mental well-being. When the actual problem is there, untouched, and you only numb its pain with these harmful tactics, you set yourself up for further chaos.
Slowly, these impulsive patterns begin affecting your health and relationships. Since you start carrying the original trauma along with everything these behaviors have added on top of it, the pain becomes even more unbearable.
Never Ignore the Signs
You might think you have gotten over a hurtful event, but it’s most likely stored in your memory. Something small (like a location or smell) can trigger its pain and make you spiral. If you want to live a relaxed life where you aren’t always on high alert or worried that something bad might happen, don’t ignore these important trauma signs. Talking to a mental health expert can reveal the burden you’re silently carrying, which is weighing you down. So, never take your mental health lightly and let Forrest Behavioral Health know when something feels heavy.
