How Trauma Affects the Body: A Plain-Language Nervous System Overview

Trauma doesn’t just change how you think or feel — it changes how your body works. For many people, especially in Black, Indigenous, and marginalized communities, the body has been carrying fear, stress, and survival for so long that these sensations begin to feel “normal.”

But trauma is not just emotional. Trauma is physiological.

Your heartbeat, breathing, digestion, sleep, muscles, memory, and even your immune system can all be shaped by what you’ve lived through.

Understanding this helps you release shame. Your symptoms are not your fault. Your body is reacting to real conditions — past or present.

Your Nervous System: The Body’s Safety Scanner

Your nervous system has one main job: Figure out if you’re safe.

It does this automatically, even when you’re not thinking about it. This automatic process is called neuroception (Porges, 2011). Your body reads people’s facial expressions, tone of voice, environment, and even energy in the room long before your mind forms a thought.

If your body has learned that danger is common — because of trauma, racism, neglect, or unstable environments — your nervous system may stay in protection mode even when you’re technically safe.

This is not “overreacting.” This is a survival system doing its job.

The Three Survival States of the Nervous System

Most trauma responses fall into one of these states:

Fight or Flight (High Activation)

This is when the sympathetic nervous system takes over. Your body prepares to protect you or escape danger.

You might notice:

Fast heartbeat
Tight chest
Sweaty hands
Irritability or anger
Anxiety or panic
Racing thoughts
Trouble sleeping
Feeling unsafe in crowds or public spaces

This state becomes common for people who grew up in or lived through:

Racism and discrimination
Community violence
Unpredictable homes
Military trauma
Domestic violence
Childhood abuse or neglect

Your body learned to stay ready.

2. Freeze or Shutdown (Low Activation)

This is the dorsal vagal system — your body’s “emergency brake.”

It activates when things feel overwhelming or impossible to survive.

Symptoms may include:

Exhaustion
Feeling empty or numb
Trouble speaking in stressful moments
Feeling disconnected from your body
Daydreaming or zoning out
Feeling “foggy” or far away
Wanting to hide or isolate

This isn’t laziness. This is your body saying:

“This is too much. Let me shut down to protect you.”

3. Rest and Safety (Regulated State)

This is the parasympathetic state — the one that trauma makes harder to access.

Here, you may feel:

Calm
Connected
Curious
Present
Able to think clearly
Emotionally open
Safe enough to breathe fully

Trauma makes it hard to stay here for long, but healing helps you return to this state more often.

How Trauma Changes the Brain

Trauma affects key regions of the brain:

The Amygdala (Alarm System)

After trauma, the amygdala becomes extra sensitive (Rauch et al., 2006). It goes off even when there’s no real danger.

This may show up as:

Constant worry
Startle responses
Feeling easily overwhelmed
Misreading neutral situations as threatening

The Hippocampus (Memory + Time)

Trauma can shrink or disrupt the hippocampus (Bremner, 2006). This affects memory and orientation.

You might:

Have trouble recalling events
Experience fragmented memories
Feel like the past is happening “right now”
Struggle to trust your own recollection

The Prefrontal Cortex (Thinking + Decision-Making)

This part of the brain slows down during trauma (Arnsten, 2009).

That’s why survivors may:

Struggle to focus
Have difficulty planning
Feel mentally “foggy”
Overreact emotionally
Feel impulsive or frozen

These are not character flaws. They are trauma adaptations.

How Trauma Shows Up in the Body

Because trauma is stored in the nervous system, the body often communicates distress through physical symptoms.

Survivors commonly experience:

Sleep Problems

Difficulty falling asleep
Nightmares
Light, restless sleep
Feeling tired even after resting

Muscle Tension

The body stays braced for danger. Shoulders, stomach, jaw, and back often hold the most tension.

Digestive Issues

The gut is directly connected to the nervous system. Trauma can cause:

Nausea
Constipation
Diarrhea
Stomach pain

Chronic Pain

Pain becomes wired into the nervous system over time.

Fatigue

Surviving takes energy. Your body is tired because it’s been carrying too much for too long.

Immune Changes

Chronic stress weakens the immune system (McEwen & Wingfield, 2010). You may get sick more easily.

Why Trauma Responses Feel Like “Overreactions”

Many survivors say:

“I shouldn’t be this upset.”
“Why can’t I calm down?”
“Other people handled this better.”
“I don’t know why I shut down.”

Here’s why:

Trauma trains the body to react faster and stronger than the mind can understand. This is biology, not personal failure.

Your body is doing exactly what it learned to do to protect you.

Trauma, Race, and the Body

Black and Indigenous bodies carry the added weight of:

Racial profiling
Medical racism
School-based trauma
Microaggressions
State violence
Historical trauma
Land loss
Family separation
Community violence
Cultural erasure

Research shows that racism activates the same stress response as physical danger (Comas-Díaz et al., 2019; Williams et al., 2019).

This is why Black and Indigenous clients often feel stress and tension even in environments where others feel comfortable.

Your body is not imagining this. Your body is responding to reality.

Healing the Body from Trauma

Healing is not about forcing yourself to “calm down.” It is about teaching your body that it is safe enough to soften.

At Little River Psychological Services, healing the body includes:

Building a Felt Sense of Safety

Small, repeated experiences of safety retrain the nervous system.

Somatic and Body-Based Healing

Grounding, breathing, movement, EMDR, and trauma-informed somatics help the body release old patterns.

Restoring Connection

Healing relationships — including therapeutic ones — help the nervous system trust again.

Culturally Rooted Practices

Many BIPOC clients reconnect through:

Land
Water
Ceremony
Prayer
Music
Community
Ancestral traditions

Sleep and Dream Work

Supporting the brain’s natural healing systems.

Slowing Down

A regulated life is not rushed. It is paced.

If You Need Support Right Now

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — Call or text 988
BlackLine — Call or text 1-800-604-5841
Black/African-American Support — Text STEVE to 741-741
Native-Focused Support — Text NATIVE to 741-741
IHS Suicide Prevention — https://www.ihs.gov/suicideprevention

Readiness does not mean being unbroken. Readiness means you have reached a doorway—and you are brave enough to pause there.

References

Arnsten, A. F. T. (2009). Stress signaling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(6), 410–422.

Bremner, J. D. (2006). Traumatic stress: Effects on the brain. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 8(4), 445–461.

Comas-Díaz, L., Hall, G. N., & Neville, H. A. (2019). Racial trauma: Theory, research, and healing. American Psychologist, 74(1), 1–16.

McEwen, B. S., & Wingfield, J. C. (2010). Stress and allostasis. Hormones and Behavior, 57(2), 105–111.

Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory. W. W. Norton.

Rauch, S. L., Shin, L. M., & Phelps, E. A. (2006). Neurocircuitry models of posttraumatic stress disorder. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 29(1), 1–23.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2014). SAMHSA’s concept of trauma and guidance for a trauma-informed approach.

Williams, D. R., Lawrence, J. A., & Davis, B. A. (2019). Racism and health: Evidence and needed research. Annual Review of Public Health, 40, 105–125.

Contact