Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 111860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 559(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 373(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 559(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 373(@300wpm)
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Lennon sat down in an auditorium chair near the back, her eyes focusing on the older man at the front of the room. Dr. Sweeton was facing the whiteboard. His name had already been spelled out above what he was currently writing. He finished the last letter with a flourish and turned toward the audience. Lennon’s gaze went to the word behind his back: Trauma. “What is trauma?” he asked. “And what part of the individual does it affect?”
A young woman in the front row raised her hand, and he pointed at her. “Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event that the person perceives as inescapable.”
“Mostly correct,” Dr. Sweeton said. “However, trauma is not simply an emotional response. Trauma affects the body, the mind, and the brain in profound and lasting ways.” He joined his hands in front of him. “Posttraumatic stress syndrome is the body continuing to fight back against a threat that’s already over. We see this in war veterans and others who’ve survived a harrowing and highly distressing experience, such as a mugging, being raped, or an automobile accident.” He paused as he glanced around. “What happens in our body when we’re confronted with trauma?”
A different young woman raised her hand. “The sympathetic nervous system activates, priming your heart and your lungs and your muscles to either fight or flee.”
“And if both are impossibilities? If there’s no way to escape the threat? No hope in fighting it? What does the body do if the brain ascertains that the person must accept the inevitable incoming horror?” Dr. Sweeton asked. No one answered, and so he went on. “The body experiences a dorsal vagal shutdown. Our metabolism slows so that heart rate plunges very suddenly, our blood pressure drops, our gut and kidney function decrease, as does our immune response. The body ‘saves’ us”—he lifted his hands and made air quotes—“by dissociating, collapsing, or freezing.”
He cocked his head and looked around for a moment. “But what about the child who grew up in a household where they experienced frequent, ongoing trauma? A constant influx of cortisol and adrenaline? What happens to our natural alarm system when it’s constantly activated against a threat the individual has no hope of countering? What does the human mind do when its exposure to rage and terror is almost never ending? How does that child cope? What does the body do to save the mind?”
Lennon looked down at the sea of heads below her. Finally a lone hand went up, and Dr. Sweeton nodded to the young man. “Ah, do you mean, like, a child who experiences sex abuse by a family member from the time they’re very young?”
“Yes. That scenario is more common than we like to acknowledge. One in five children in this country is sexually molested, according to the CDC. And that number is likely even higher, considering many such instances go unreported and therefore untreated in any manner.”
“Damn,” she heard a girl in the row in front of her murmur. Indeed. Lennon crossed her arms, drawing her shoulders up momentarily. It was a difficult thought to consider, even briefly, that right that minute, untold numbers of children were suffering, their brains twisting as their little systems tried their best to protect them. The very same thought she’d cried over after watching all those videos. Another reminder. As if she needed one. Were those kids all fated to wander the streets someday, in filth and misery? To sell their own bodies? The ones they’d been taught were worthless and did not really belong to them anyway?
“What if someone intervenes and they get help early?” someone asked.
“If early intervention occurs with a mental health professional who understands the intricacies of trauma, especially as it affects the brain, then there is always hope that that individual can heal. Specifically, there are windows where the brain is experiencing rapid periods of growth, such as during the teen years, when such treatments are even more effective. However, often, traumatized individuals are too on guard to submit to normal human relationships where it’s necessary to become at least somewhat vulnerable, and this includes a relationship with a clinician. The body doesn’t allow this. Even mothers who’ve experienced extended trauma cannot dial down their natural vigilance long enough to nurture their children. Their mind and body are in a constant state of arousal. Either that or they are too numb to bond with other human beings. They are stuck in fight or flight, or they are permanently shut down. Their circuits need rewiring. Their internal alarm system is very simply broken.”
“Are you saying that people who’ve experienced chronic trauma are brain damaged?” a man in the middle of the theater asked.
“Yes, I am saying that. Individuals who have experienced chronic trauma, especially as children, are brain damaged. The first step in healing must target the brain itself.”