How the body keeps the score on trauma | Bessel van der Kolk for Big Think+

Acclaimed psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, author of “The Body Keeps The Score,” discusses the widespread existence of trauma and how it manifests in our bodies.

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Bessel van der Kolk has studied trauma for 50 years. Though we once considered trauma exclusive to veterans and people growing up in extreme circumstances, we now know it is an extremely common experience. Van der Kolk discusses the impact of trauma and the pathway to healing.

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About Bessel van der Kolk:

Bessel van der Kolk MD spends his career studying how children and adults adapt to traumatic experiences and has translated emerging findings from neuroscience and attachment research to develop and study a range of treatments for traumatic stress in children and adults.

[helenvann]

The thing I’ve learned is that trauma doesn’t always mean big things like assault. There can be a series of micro traumas that can accumulate and give the same result

[ChristellaBihozo]

A year of trauma informed therapy absolutely changed my life. I genuinely think therapy should be a human right just like anything related to healthcare.

[hopsiepike]

Perhaps the most painful aspect of dealing with trauma is being conditioned into believing that one’s response is exaggerated, that what happened is trivial, and thus the built-in guilt and shame that blocks any real progress and healing.

[o.h.w.]

At 44 I just realized I don’t have bad posture, I kept my core collapsed inward because I spent my childhood protecting myself from being randomly hit by my mom everyday. It’s hard to remind myself no one is going to hit me anymore.

[salomeyul]

In words of Gabor Maté: “Trauma is not what happens to you; it is what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you … It is not the blow on the head, but the concussion I get.”

[billbucktube]

There are traumas of neglect as well.
When we grow up in an environment that doesn’t show you that you are loved and valued we don’t learn to love ourselves.
When we don’t have it modeled for us we find it difficult to accept it about ourselves.
As a result other traumas reinforce this worthless feeling.
When our parents don’t take time to go to our school plays, games or graduations we are being taught that we are not worth their time.
Internally, we feel worthless.
Especially when we see all the other parents urging their kids on.

[stingerzing]

This explains why there is such a heightened agitation after the pandemic. The collective trauma felt by the the fear, the lockdowns, and the rise in addiction are all around us today.

[thisisfyne]

It's not often that an 8 minute video can fundamentally make you understand yourself better.
Clear, concise, heartfelt, and true. Looking forward to reading the book now. Thank you sir.

[patiakreles]

The book the body keeps the score helped me tremendously to understand that I am not alone in my struggles. I ended up doing EMDR on myself and I finally could start sleeping without having terrible nightmares. I tried neurofeedback and did a family visualizing therapy because it was recommended in the book. A year later I no longer think I have PTSD, I'm off antidepressants and I'm much better. I can be aware of what I like and don't like and I am starting to Really Enjoy Life. For the first time in my life I feel safe. I never thought this could be possible, but it is.

[SouthernGothicYT]

"You're not crazy, your environment is" - my therapist

[PierceArner]

Another important factor is that aggression & submission are _both_ trauma responses but just expressed differently. Because submission often cycles into detachment & learned helplessness, it is far more difficult to identify or address because by nature it doesn't get exposed to others the way aggression does, and often causes us to misinterpret trauma as leading to violent behaviour rather than just an override of survival mechanisms.

[meadowrae]

The thing about PTSD that I never expected was the embarrassment and shame that comes from it. In that moment you are genuinely in fight or flight and feel like you will die; you can't override it and it makes you not want to leave the house.

[mechanical_chaos]

I had a particularly stable and loving childhood with nearly zero events of something bad happening. Yet I started showing clear signs of CPTSD in my teens. I know now when looking back that I had undiagnosed autism and I found a lot of regular events to be extremely overwhelming until I turned into a neurotic ball. Videos like this help me untangle a lot of the confusion I still have decades later about it.

[arlenefernandez-lb]

as an adult, my trauma has been eating at me more and more because i am so aware of it now. im constantly caught between still healing and having to push myself to get up and keep going because i am an adult and the world doesn't care what i've been through. some days are so hard, and i realize i just don't allow myself to take care of myself. Protect your energy and health at all costs, or itll send you straight to the grave

[shittycusa]

Complex PTSD is sometimes worse than PTSD. I read his book 10 yrs ago. It was a tremendous help. If you live in the Boston area his clinic is still open.

[JohnGeorge-pwxo]

I was severely traumatized years ago as a teenage, got diagnosed with bipolar. Spent my whole life fighting bipolar. I suffered severe depression and mental disorder. Not until my wife recommended me to psilocybin mushrooms treatment. Psilocybin treatment saved my life honestly. 6 years totally clean. Never thought I would be saying this about mushrooms.

[neutralsoymotel]

"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

[enolp]

One thing that I’ve learned from my trauma schooling (including use of aspects introduced in The Body Keeps the Score) is that we aren’t made to *not* go through trauma. The body understands that life itself is traumatic and will cover traumatic memories with amnesia in many instances. Take birth for example. Mothers forget the feeling of the pain of labor, only remembering the fact that it included some large amount of pain. And newborn babies are suddenly pulled from the warm, cozy space they’re used to in the womb into this cold, bright, unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people poking you and wiping the gunk off you and you have no idea what the heck is happening. There is no such thing as a “perfect parent, ” because even if one did exist, the children would still have trauma just based off the fact that trauma happens in the perception of events, not in the events themselves. How interesting is that?? I feel like I could go on for days about trauma and examples of normal human traumatic experiences that people don’t even think are leading to further problems down the line. Fascinating.

[islandbirdw]

Hyper vigilance and sleep disturbances are a big part. Once you start re-experiencing the trauma, you start to feel irritable and for me I often need many hours or even days to regain my composure. I never had insomnia before my accident but it’s been a stubborn side effect of PTSD.

[kymfrancis]

I’m a clinical psychologist & this philosophy really resonates on a personal professional level. My cardiologist told me about the book last year when I developed endocarditis from pneumonia; my mitral valve & chordae ruptured. I’ve had a lot of grief, loss & trauma throughout my life, I have several autoimmune disorders. The philosophical perspective of being compassionate to people who have experienced trauma, makes so much more sense than toxic positivity♥️♥️♥️