Healing Beyond Words: Understanding Trauma

Trauma is not a memory problem. It is a body-brain state that traps you in the past.

Van der Kolk studied Vietnam veterans and found that traumatic events reorganize your entire nervous

system and personality. Decades later, survivors were still reliving the same emotional reality

through nightmares, flashbacks, and bodily reactions. Talking alone did not fix anything

because trauma is not just psychological, it is physiological. Your nervous system gets stuck in survival

mode. This is why you might emotionally shut down, overreact to triggers,

feel numb inside, or crave intensity just to feel alive. These are not character flaws.

These are trauma imprints. Your body has not felt safe enough to stop surviving.