Stored trauma in your body can look like this

Today, I’ve decided to create a list about all the ways trauma can look like when it ”decides” to stay in your body for quite a while. This is what I could think of from my experience and from talking to others who went through various sorts of trauma.

1. Increased heart rate. This happens because your body feels like it’s in a constant fight or flight mode. You can read this text to realize the differences between anxiety and panic attack.
2. Fatigue that won’t go away even when you rest. Chronic fatigue is truly common within trauma and sometimes even the simplest daily tasks can look like a burden.
3. Self-harm. It can be an active sort of self-harm or it can look like a slow & silent suicide.
4. Dissociation. You don’t feel like belonging in the present moment or cannot find your place in life in general.
5. Skin picking or nail biting even in adults. Nervous habits are often seen in adults, too. Leg tapping counts as well.
6. Muscle tension. It can be your shoulders, your jaw, or even in your legs, stopping you from walking normally and naturally.
7. Loss of appetite. Food doesn’t taste as it used to.
8. Headaches. All sorts of headaches, but mostly migraines and those related to TMD.
9. Exessive sweating. This can again be related to anxiety or your body remembering a trauma and staying in a fight mode for too long.
10. Stomach issues. It can be irritable bowel syndrom or anything else, such as increased production of stomach acid.
11. Unexplained pains in some parts of your body. I remember those as quick and sharp pains that would come out of nowhere, usually on my arms or legs.
12. Spontaneous crying or quick tears. You are on the edge and can burts into tears anytime, or you completely stopped crying.
13. Binge eating. Overeating with a purpose to feel that void inside yourself.
14. Insomnia or oversleeping. We already covered these 2 topics on our website, which you can find more about here – insomnia / oversleeping.
15. Quick and shallow breathing. Try breathing from your stomach instead of from your lungs. It may take some time to practice but this helps a lot.
16. Being startled easily. Everything annoys you quickly and you cannot control your reactions all the time.
17. Increased stress hormones. Cortisol is high, causing many other physical and mental issues. I will write a separate blog post about this.
18. Poor immune system. You get sick quickly and often.