Trauma and the Brain
Trauma is the lasting emotional response that results from living through a distressing event. Experiencing a traumatic event can harm a person’s sense of safety, sense of self, and ability to regulate emotions and navigate relationships. When most people think about trauma, they tend to think about harrowing events like war, natural disasters or abuse. However, the experience of trauma is personal and any distressing event that goes beyond a person's natural ability to cope can be considered traumatic. Divorce, infidelity, interpersonal conflict, as well as financial and/or legal trouble are all examples. These events are not necessarily life threatening, however, often leave the individual experiencing them feeling helpless.
Whatever the trauma is, a traumatic memory is often difficult for our brains to process. The brain ordinarily works by using what is called the “Adaptive Information Processing” (AIP) model. This model suggests that our day-to-day experiences are digested and stored in associated memory networks in the brain.
Imagine our brain as a room with one giant filing cabinet in the centre of it. The filing cabinet is made up of many drawers (representing memory networks), which are filled with files (representing brain cells). During the course of our life, the files in the room are gradually organized into drawers of the filing cabinet. Files on cat, dog, horse and monkey go in the drawer labeled “animals.” Files on mom, dad, brother and grandmother go in the drawer labeled “family.” This is essentially how learning happens. Brain cells (files) get grouped together to form memory networks (drawers), which house all the relevant information associated with a particular idea or concept. All mental patterns form through brain cells wiring together into memory networks.
In an ideal world, memory networks are highly interconnected, open and flexible; that is, the drawers are constantly being accessed and updated. This flexibility means they can adapt to the current situation by allowing new information in and new learning to happen. However, not all memory networks are quite as receptive to new information. This is especially true of intensely emotional or traumatic memories.
Information that is accompanied by intense emotional states (whether intensely negative emotion, as in anxiety, depression and PTSD, or intensely positive emotion, as in addictive behaviours) seems to be stored differently in our brains. It’s as if these groups of files are laminated and used as wallpaper in the filing room rather than being organized into one of the cabinet drawers. These files are often far too accessible, being triggered much more frequently than we would like, but inflexible, and disconnected from the rest of the filing cabinet that they are often taken out of context. Because of this, these files/memories often have the feel of gross over generalizations. The more emotionally intense a memory is, the more siloed, and therefore inflexible, it becomes. You can see it, but it is difficult to make changes to it.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an extensively researched therapeutic method proven to help people recover from trauma. The magic of EMDR is in its ability to peel these isolated files off the wall and file them into the appropriate cabinet drawer, allowing them to be seen in context of the rest of the files and updated accordingly. More technically, EMDR connects isolated memory networks with the rest of the brain, such that those once siloed areas are able to receive new information and correct out-dated data. As those memory networks become more connected, that “I am unlovable” file can be accessed in conjunction with other files that hold information like “I am loved,” “I am safe” and “I am worthy.” In the face of all that information, that “I am unlovable” file can be updated and revised.
If you’re interested in learning more about EMDR therapy and whether it’s right for you, feel free to reach out and I will do my best to answer any questions that you may have.