How Exercise CAN calm Trauma Symptoms
After trauma, people often say their memory is bad. They experience brain fog, feel like they’re not in reality, and zoned out. This is what we therapists like to call disassociation. Disassociation is the phenomena of realizing you don’t know how you got from Point A to Point B while driving or listening to someone talk and realizing you don’t know what they said. The aforementioned examples of disassociation are usually mild and not constant states. However, after trauma, we can lose all sense of time, space, self, the world, and our life chronically. As you might imagine, being disassociated during a workout could be dangerous…but, it can also be beneficial (think runner’s high or being in a solid flow state). Movement is powerful - it releases “happy, motivating chemicals” in our brain that challenge negative symptoms. Exercise has been proven to lower anxiety, lift depression, increase supports and time spent in activities, improve sleep, and more. Challenging our trauma brain by making it feel safe and in control, is essential to not only resume your life, but to stop the symptoms from being so pervasive. But before we learn how to challenge them, let’s identify the symptoms of PTSD:
Above are 15 symptoms that can be felt, seen, and experienced by someone who has PTSD
As you can imagine, it may be mentally and physically challenging to show up for exercise with these symptoms, despite knowing the “positive boost” we get from it. However, if we can listen to our body and challenge negative beliefs and thoughts, we can use exercise to temporarily distract, and long-term, train the brain that you are safe and in control, even when symptoms are present.
When I say listen to your body, I mean taking a moment of pause to understand where you may be feeling certain emotions like anxiety, anger, sadness, excitement, joy, etc. or tension/stress in your body. Sometimes this looks like completing a body scan like progressive muscle relaxation (PMR). As I have discussed in other blogs, PMR is a tool that can guide you into awareness of your own body and decrease feelings of anxiety. Check out one of my favorites that I use before bed and exercise below:
For those with injuries, a “body scan” may be something you already do subconsciously (or consciously) based on where you are in your injury recovery. You may feel pains, strains, tightness, etc. and want to avoid certain activities or (with your physician’s approval, of course) focus on these areas to calm them down or care for them (ice, heat elevation, gentle stretching, foam rolling, Normatec, Theragun, etc.). See how that works? Sometimes focusing on your pain, worry, and concerns isn’t all bad - there are ways to calm them - you just need evidence and a plan.
Regardless of injury, by listening to our body and challenging thoughts, we become more in tune with our body and it’s readiness to perform the types of movement that will help calm symptoms. So now, we come up with a plan we feel good about (usually evidence based - see above) to obtain SAFETY and CONTROL. Two very important things we need post-trauma to feel comfortable and allow our brain to CALM DOWN!
For example, let’s say my ankle hurts and I’m feeling anxious about re-injury or being in more pain, but I also want to engage in movement, as movement helps decrease my anxiety and distract me from other life stressors or triggers. It is here we listen to our body, it’s needs, and come up with a plan of options.
Because my ankle is in pain, I am likely able to deduce it is not the best day to run, sprint, or train legs and put more pressure on my ankle. BUT there are still things I CAN do. What is in my control and what would be safe? Here are a few I thought of…can you think of any others?
I can follow my physical therapist’s/doctor’s approved movements for my ankle
I can train upper body as most movements will not put strain or extra weight on my ankle
I can tape my ankle for extra support
I can listen to my favorite music and see my gym friends/engage in a distraction to lower my anxiety symptoms
I can ensure I have a plan for recovery including ice, elevation, and rest post workout
I can be with friends/family while I do my recovery/refuel post workout for extra support
As you can see, we were able to listen to our body, understand it’s needs, and come up with a plan of action that made us feel in control, capable (regardless of injury), and decrease our symptoms. We could use this plan for ANY of the trauma symptoms we may be experiencing. For example, as we read in the last blog, some movement can be triggering (think yoga positions post-sexual trauma). However, we can still use this plan to regulate:
”Even though these yoga positions are familiar to my assault, I am safe and not in danger, I am in control of my body and how it moves in this moment, I can leave or change positions when I want to, I can do a body scan to see if this is right for me in this moment, and I can do other types of movement if I am not ready to do this right now - and that is ok! *Completes body scan noticing anxiety in throat*
Today, I think it is best I don’t do yoga and instead go on a walk with a friend or lift weights so I can feel strong and supported.”
Here we see how powerful challenging thoughts, listening to the body, creating a list of options, and forming a plan can be. We have to be kind to ourselves and understand some days we can perform, others we can’t. But that exercise, CAN boost our mood, CAN provide healthy evidence of safety and control to challenge our brain, and CAN calm down the symptoms associated with trauma.
