Psychological trauma can be pushed out of our awareness. Nothing seems easier than turning off the light of consciousness when reality becomes unbearable. However, we cannot simply get rid of our traumatized bodies. All of our trauma experiences remain visible there, even if pain, fear, anger, disgust, or shame are no longer part of our conscious experience because they have been split off or numbed. A medical operation is similar: it is an illusion to think the body does not experience trauma just because our consciousness is turned off by anesthesia. It is not even certain that consciousness is completely turned off, as people sometimes remember conversations held by the surgical team while under anesthesia. Therefore, one can say: The body stores the truth about our life experiences. The body does not lie!
If trauma has caused the consciousness to retreat to the upper level so that it only operates from the cerebral cortex, the body is exposed to conflicting forces regarding who is in control. As a result, the body can become a puzzle of isolated areas where traumatized parts are pushed away (such as persistent toe inflammation). In such cases, the various survival parts compete for the exclusive right to use the entire body.
As long as people are caught in their trauma biography, they live under high pressure. It is often surprising to see how much physical strain some people can endure under such circumstances. However, this endurance comes at a cost:
- The cardiovascular system is constantly under high pressure and can suddenly break down.
- Muscles and bones ache and become deformed due to the strain caused by adapting to traumatizing conditions.
- Teeth grinding at night ruins the teeth when the traumatic situation appears over and over again in sleep.
- The digestive system lacks the knowledge required to distinguish between what nourishes the body, what needs to be eliminated, and what can still be used.
- The organs eventually fail under the toxic stress.
- The immune system can no longer distinguish between foreign and self, and it begins to attack its own body.
- The nervous system can break down under this ongoing stress, and even the brain may eventually lose its function, leading to dementia.
- Through poor nutrition, medications, and drugs, the body becomes increasingly poisoned.
The deeper someone is caught in their trauma biography, the more physical symptoms can become visible. Some signs of suffering are very specific and show a direct connection to a traumatic situation (e.g., pelvic inflammation). Others, however, are very unspecific and send signals to various parts of the body (e.g., if physical violence in childhood was ignored or denied). Behind every bodily symptom lies a piece of life history. "Illnesses" are often just the tip of the iceberg.
The ACE study
It has long been known and researched that trauma can make people physically ill (Maté 2011). In one study, for instance, Vincent Felitti, Robert Anda, and others examined the health status of 17,500 predominantly white and highly educated patients at a weight-loss clinic. At the same time, they asked about childhood experiences as defined by the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study. These include: physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, neglect, parents with mental illnesses, substance abuse or imprisonment, parental separation and divorce, and domestic violence.
The results were clear: The higher a person's ACE score, the worse their physical health. 67% of those surveyed had at least one ACE, and 12.6% had more than four. Those who had endured more than seven ACEs in childhood had three times the risk of lung cancer and 3.5 times the risk of a heart attack. Even when the participants had no additional risk behaviors such as smoking, poor diet, or lack of exercise (which are often just trauma-survival strategies), they still faced a higher risk of illness. According to the authors, it was the toxic stress that damaged their health (Felitti, Anda et al. 1998).
Further research has confirmed this result: early trauma leads to an increased risk of mental disorders and physical illnesses and reduces life expectancy. The body is unable to forget the violence it has suffered. Early Trauma remains stored in the body. Time does not heal trauma wounds. On the contrary: The older we get, the weaker our powers of repression become, the less effective our survival strategies are and the more visible our wounds become.
A 75-year and ongoing Harvard study of American men from both lower and upper classes confirms that it is not cholesterol levels, but safe and supportive relationships that keep us physically and mentally healthy into old age. Living alone and in isolation, on the other hand, makes you sick.
«I don't feel traumatized!»
A key feature of psychological trauma is that it is denied on both a personal and a societal level (Broughton 2013). Here is an example:
Maria M. (22 years old) visits the doctor due to a bladder infection. The doctor asks her if she has experienced any trauma. Maria M. answers no to the question, but after talking to her foster mother, she later provides more information and shares that she was given to her foster parents when she was 2 years old. Her mother was a heroin addict and had used drugs while pregnant with Maria. With this knowledge, the doctor recommends that she see a psychotherapist.
The therapist Maria first visits tells her not to worry, that she is a healthy young woman who has not been traumatized. Although relieved to hear this, she feels uncertain and comes to me to ask what I think of the situation. When she tells me she came into the world with a very low birth weight, I congratulate her for having survived what I consider massive trauma while in her mother's womb. After birth, she also received no love or care and was surely completely overwhelmed by such a situation as a newborn. "But I don't feel traumatized!" she replies to this. Her bladder infection has been treated with antibiotics.
My response is that it is entirely her decision whether or not she wants to work through her early life history, meaning whether she wants to explore topics such as a possible attempted abortion, lack of care, poisoning during pregnancy, a lack of motherly love, and the experience of being abandoned as an infant. It might be helpful to look into this before she becomes a mother herself and has children. This argument seems to convince Maria, because she has a friend who also ended up in foster care at an early age, and for that friend, both pregnancy and childbirth were a nightmare.
Based on the experiences of both myself and the people I work with therapeutically, the following is clear: Psychological traumas are repeated until they are understood, felt, and thereby resolved!
Prof. Dr. Franz Ruppert
