[libribook.com] Traumatic Scar Tissue Management 1st Edition

Pathophysiological Consideration
According to van der Kolk:
Trauma victims are alienated from their bodies by the cascade of
events that begins in the amygdala, which triggers a fight-or-flight
response and consequent flood of stress hormones. Stress response
usually persists until the threat is vanquished. But if the perception of
threat isn’t vanquished, the amygdala keeps sounding the alarm and
we keep producing stress hormones. It’s similar to what happens in
chronic stress response, except that in traumatic stress, the memories
of the traumatic event invade patients’ subconscious thoughts, sending
them back into fight-or-flight mode at the slightest provocation.
Traumatized individuals will attempt to avoid the emotional pain by
‘dissociating’– taking leave of their bodies, so much so that they often
cannot describe their own physical sensations.
(Interlandi 2014).