How to Cope With Body Memories
Readers,
Someone reached out to me recently and asked if I knew anything on the topic of body memories. I didn't, so I did some digging. What I found was an explanation for staggering bodily sensations that can result from trauma. Put simply, most people associate memory with the brain. Even though science does not fully back this phenomena just yet, there remains a number of people who carry the bodily discomfort of depression, anxiety, PTSD etc. Sometimes our bodies can grieve this trauma, and it can go on to impact our affectionate lives without our complete awareness! In my herstory, for example, this may explain my feline-like reactions to my environment, my hyper-peripheral vision, or knee-jerk reflexes when someone is trying to be intimate with me. It might also explain why you feel a certain way around a certain time each year (I know this is true for me!).
Can anyone else relate to this?
For further information and coping strategies visit, How to Cope With Body Memories @Healthy Place For Your Mental Health
From the Above Article:
Dealing With Body Memories in PTSD Recovery
There are things that I can do to deal with what my body is feeling. These are the things that help me get through the tough times with body memories in PTSD recovery:
Allow myself to feel the feeling. This isnt easy. My first inclination when I am feeling a negative emotion is to shut it down, or stuff it away. Ive learned that denying the emotion isnt a healthy way to deal with unwanted feelings. Ignoring or avoiding the feelings is like putting a band-aid on a severed limb, it wont work. The feelings will fester and bubble up until they are properly dealt with.
Pay special attention to self-care. When I am dealing with any PTSD symptom, I have to remember to take care of myself. This means eating when Im hungry, sleeping when Im tired, and doing things that make me feel better. Sometimes just allowing myself to relax and do nothing is what is best for me — the laundry can wait.
Talk to someone about it. While my tendency is to isolate, I know that if I express how I am feeling to someone else, it lessens the power that the negative feelings have over me.
Tell myself the truth. Telling myself the truth is vital. Whether I am having a flashback, body memory, or just thinking about my traumas, I have to remind myself that I have survived and Im no longer in that situation. It sounds simple, but it is profound in healing from PTSD to remember that no matter how devastating the trauma was, its over, and I survived.
Body memories, like every other PTSD symptom, can be healed. It takes a lot of self-awareness, a little bit of willingness and being honest with yourself, but it can be done.
@blitheSun94
I wasn't aware of such trauma. Thank you for sharing that with us.
@spicedlife
You're welcome. Thank you for reading. :)
@blitheSun94
This sounds a little like emotional flashbacks, though I'm not sure they are the same. I find that these are the kinds I deal with the most and are the most confusing because they're so pervasive in everything I do and cant set me off for days at a time.
@blitheSun94
Yes. If I fight it, I go into shock and my nerves freak for hours. It does help to learn triggers, slow down/stop/remove myself from the situation when I feel my body change, and (like you mentioned) going through it without fighting it.
Thanks for sharing this!
Thank you for your thoughts. Can anyone describe what a body memory feels like?
**Please, indicate trigger warning if necessary
@blitheSun94
This may trigger someone.....
For me, it can feel like I'm safely and easily moving along until something I hear, feel, touch, taste causes my whole body to freeze/tense. I'll get palpitations and sometimes start crying.
It feels like my body was strolling around whistling to a happy tune and suddenly it was faced by something/someone scary. Someone/something that made my body remember/see/become shocked by something I didn't see coming my way or even remember.
For some reason, when I did go into shock, if someone touched me during that time I'd scream and cry hysterically until they let me go. Then, all of a sudden the reaction would be gone. If I was touched again, even one finger on my shoulder or close to touching me, I'd scream and cry hysterically repeating "no no no no no no." But, I don't know/remember why.
Never knew that's what it was, though, until recently. I hope I didn't say "too much."
@BradyChay2310
Thank you for sharing! I can completely relate. Even during times I think I might want affection- I can't always bring myself to tolerate it or follow through. Breaks my heart. Also, if someone sneaks up on me they are more than likely going to get hurt due to my reflexes.
@blitheSun94
Oh man, yes! I've accidentally given someone a black eye for scarring me. I felt horrible! Glad I'm not the only one.
@BradyChay2310
Not even close.❤️
(TW)
I was raped, more than once, by some one I had previous consensual sexual experiences with. When he got angry at me one day, he went off on me and cut me completely out of his life. It hurt. I had been in denial for months about the rape, and when I finally accepted the truth, my whole world turned upside down. I realized that him cutting me off was probably the best thing that ever happened to me, because it potentially saved my life, considering he almost killed me during one of the attacks.
My mind had done a good job of blocking out the memories, but my body still relived them every second of the day. I had a very intense panic attack one day at work, for the majority of my work day, because one of my co-workers was wearing a cologne similar to the one he wore. So I suffered in silence for 8 hours, while my heart raced, I fought back tears, the urge to scream and run as fast as I could as far away as I could. I could barely breathe, my hands shook, I chewed the inside of my lips until they bled because I was terrified. Terrified for my life because of a scent.
I was terrified of people walking behind me, and if someone went to hug me or toucih me, I would freeze, or sometimes even start shaking.
My body remembers what he did to me.
@zerodae
I am so sorry to hear of the things you've lived through. I can't imagine how this has changed you and your quality of life forever. I hope you are surrounding by support and safety. Thank you for sharing. 💞
@blitheSun94 Thank you. It's definitely messed me up a lot, but I'm working on overcoming it. Some days are harder than others, but I don't want to live in fear or mistrust, ya know
❤
@zerodae
Absolutely! I personally refuse to let pain run my life. I admire your strength!
@blitheSun94 Thank you!
@zerodae
*hugs*
That's an extremely hard thing to speak about for many, and for many reasons, but you did it gracefully. Thank you for sharing, as some don't think that someone can be sexually assaulted while being in a relationship, so they remain quiet.
💜 I'm amazed by how you are choosing to continue on healing, coping, and spreading awareness. 💜
@Chayil
What a beautiful supportive message.
Thank you.
@blitheSun94
Awe... Thanks, Sun :) Ditto!
I could write a novel about this... Will come back to this.
@LovelyChantel
I appreciate all of your insight. <3
TRIGGER WARNING.... Explains what they feel like...
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I get bad jaw pain (but I think that is from teeth grinding), but I do get severe vaginal pain (both externally - like my pubic bone feels like it is being slammed/crushed or something and it hurts so bad... and also internally - like inside my vagina and up inside my ovaries and uterus area)
Also I have severe anal pain. The intensity sometimes causes me to scream out or double over.
I get severe headaches and tendon/ligament pain... I know for a fact I had a lot of trauma involving my tendons and ligaments and muscles... they were manipulated to cause severe pain torture "games"...
But I do know I am having severe pelvic pain. It's worse than I let on. It sometimes hurts pretty badly. Also sometimes it feels like (and I've never really admitted this but maybe have supposed it) it's ripping something inside and I feel pressure. Most of it is internal (as in my uterus/ovaries). But today I distinctly felt something in my vagina and the outside of my genitals hurt also as did my rectum. This is so messed up. It's so painful. The internal pain very well could be an ovarian cyst, but the external/genital pain? That's never happened before when I've had ovarian cysts. And when I say genital pain, I don't mean like a burning pain. It feels like my pubic bone is aching severely and like it hurts as if something is pushing really hard against it.
I also feel like I have this knowing feeling inside when I'm getting these pains - but I cannot say that out loud, at least not without causing extensive turmoil in the System. I grab the part of my body and whimper and gasp and I get really bad "feelings" inside my head like bad feelings and bad thoughts and like "emotional and visual messages" (that I forget as soon as I get them) from someone inside maybe but I don't know who. Does that make sense?
@LovelyChantel
Thank you so much for your blind and heartfelt honesty. I hope this helps others feel less alone. I can't fathom how awful that must be. My heart goes out to you.
@blitheSun94
You're welcome. I also get body memories of "shocks" that were performed on me as a child and also feels like a heaviness on my body making it hard to breathe. Then there are the tendon and ligament pain I often get associated with the shocks... And then also feels like I'm being strangled or unable to breathe.
Just come across this thread and I have to say, it's a relief to read it. Like others, I thought I was the only one to experience this, and it's helpful to know I'm not. It can be incredibly difficult to deal with but the article you shared is insightful. Thanks for sharing it. <3
@TheWanderer27
That's exactly why we are all here. You are not alone.
Bump.