What Does Trauma Do to Your Brain?

Trauma and the Brain

Throughout our lives, we regularly encounter difficult events, and our brains are constantly processing and learning from our experiences. They have an in-built system that enables us to navigate challenging experiences, learn from them, and synthesise this learning into our existing framework of knowledge.

What Happens When This System Fails?

When something traumatic happens, some people develop psychological difficulties such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). When this happens, it’s usually because the system in their brain that processes difficult events is impaired and unable to function properly. This can lead to memories being stored in a raw, unprocessed format. Essentially, a blockage in the memory processing system causes these traumatic memories to get stuck.

To understand why memories get stuck, and what this means for your mental health, it’s helpful to look at the different parts of the brain involved in this process.

How Much Do We Really Know About the Brain?

The brain is incredibly complex. At any given time, there are multiple components working in tandem, sending messages to the rest of our body through the central nervous system.

We have a good understanding of how the brain works. The more advanced technology becomes, the more we’ll learn. But there’s still so much about the brain we don’t know. It’s important to bear this in mind as you read through the information below. We’re dealing with an ever-expanding field of research and knowledge.

What Does Trauma Do to Your Brain?

There are three main areas of the brain that influence how we process trauma – the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the pre-frontal cortex. These are also the areas that tend to be impacted when trauma memories get stuck.

The Amygdala

This area of the brain is responsible for emotion processing, particularly things like fear and threat. The amygdala also creates our fight or flight response. When it kicks in, it can override every other part of the brain. Primarily wired for survival, it’s a bit like an internal alarm system alerting us to danger.

The amygdala is always alert and on the lookout. It’s the part of our brain that makes us tense and a little jumpy. It’s also a very important part of our brain. If, for example, I was about to cross the road and suddenly realised a lorry was hurtling towards me, it’s my amygdala that would override all other parts of my brain and act immediately to keep me safe.

However, when there’s a trauma blockage, the amygdala can set off false alarms and become too easily triggered, telling us there’s a threat or danger when there isn’t. And because the amygdala shuts down other important parts of the brain, we don’t always have access to the rational information that would tell us there’s no current threat to our safety. This overactivity is exhausting. It literally drains all our energy and impairs our ability to make rational decisions.

The Hippocampus

The hippocampus is responsible for memory and learning. It’s a bit like a filing system for organising memories and things we’ve learned. Through this, it helps us recognise and understand how to respond to things physically and emotionally in the future, a bit like a reference book that tells us how to deal with things.

The hippocampus is a highly sophisticated part of our brain that decides what to do with the different pieces of information we encounter. It gives us context, balancing out new information with what we already know.

When a traumatic event occurs, the functioning of the hippocampus is affected, impacting its ability to process memories. Often, this disruption means memories aren’t organised and stored correctly. They lack context, a reference point in time, and they can’t be integrated with other information held within the hippocampus. It’s as if your memories are sitting at the check-in desk at the library but not being absorbed into the bigger bank of knowledge within.

The Pre-Frontal Cortex

The pre-frontal cortex is the rational part of our brain. It’s a bit like a control centre, supporting lots of our behaviour and functioning. It plays a key role in things like emotional regulation, executive functioning, decision-making and reasoning. Interestingly, it doesn’t fully develop until we are in our mid-to-late 20s. I think this explains a lot of my questionable decision-making in early adulthood!

Trauma impacts the pre-frontal cortex in a couple of different ways. In the short term, it affects our ability to think rationally and regulate how we feel. If a traumatic memory is triggered, we can struggle to regulate our emotions and think rationally about that memory.

In the long-term, if we are chronically, consistently exposed to trauma, the actual capacity and structure of the pre-frontal cortex changes. The volume of that area of the brain is reduced, leaving us with less capacity to manage emotions.

What Does This Mean for Your Healing Journey?

The neurological component of trauma and memory processing is what makes therapy for trauma so different. We’re not just dealing with emotional states and behavioural responses we’re also dealing with the neurobiological makeup of the brain.

It’s not your fault if your brain is wired to respond a particular way. Sometimes, no matter how resilient we are, or how well we take care of ourselves, the trauma we’ve experienced is going to override everything else and cause the brain to respond the way it’s been wired to. This is why trauma therapy often has a core component that involves reprocessing and reintegrating stuck memories into the brain’s network.

One of the most amazing things about our brain is its neuroplasticity. The pathways and neural networks that make up our brain and communicate with our nervous system can be changed. New ones can be made, and old ones can be rewritten. This means, despite the impact of trauma on the brain’s structure, we still have the power to heal and change things.

Find Out More

If you’re struggling with any of the things described in this article and you’d like an expert to help you heal and recover, please get in touch. Alternatively, subscribe to The Trauma Toolbox to receive my insights and tips straight to your inbox every month. I also share lots of mental health education via Instagram.