EMOTIONAL SUMMAT RELEASE SESSIONS PRESENCIAL

The body keeps track of even what we think only the mind records. Traumatic events that we cannot even remember are there in the body, and their impact is manifested through frozen gestures, tics, irrational fears, low vital energy, depression, shame, anxiety or distress. The body keeps track of even what we have unconsciously erased from our memory to avoid greater suffering.

Today we know that, although depression can have different causes, a significant percentage of cases originate in unresolved traumas. When we experience a traumatic event, the body reorganizes itself to achieve a single goal: survival. From that moment on, life becomes a jungle, an impossible labyrinth so full of predators and dangers that all energy is concentrated on the task of survival. Obviously, this state leaves almost no room for pleasure, surprise, enthusiasm or creativity. After the traumatic episode, the amygdala of the brain, whose function is to detect the presence of dangers that may pose a threat to life, tends to interpret many external stimuli as danger signals. It “learns” to see threats even to the smallest stimulus, and reacts by sending powerful alarm signals that trigger the release of cortisol and adrenaline, which accelerates the heart and respiratory rates, and raises blood pressure. Through brain scans, it has been observed that, in these cases, the frontal lobes, responsible for discerning whether the danger is real or imaginary, reduce their activity to a minimum, so that the delicate balance between the amygdala (responsible for sounding the alarm) and the frontal lobes is not in charge of checking.

To illustrate this mechanism, we can resort to the famous example of the rope that looks like a snake. We are walking through the woods and suddenly we see something that looks like a snake. The amygdala of the brain sends an alarm signal to release cortisol and adrenaline in order to prepare us to face the snake or escape it completely. Heart and breathing rates accelerate, blood pressure increases, but when we pay a little more attention, the frontal lobes, provided they are in balance, reinterpret the information until they reach the conclusion that it is not a snake, but a rope. Then, little by little, the body recovers its initial calm and balance. Unfortunately, when the frontal lobes are silenced, we do not see that it is a rope. In these circumstances, the susceptible amygdala can interpret even the most innocent comment from a friend, family member or co-worker as a threat. Since the voice of reason, the voice of the frontal lobes, remains inactive, nothing will stop the amygdala from spreading the state of panic, fear, rage or anger throughout the body. What the amygdala does is something like mobilizing an entire fire department every time we see a match. This process can be repeated several times throughout the day, which ends up depleting the vital energy of the person experiencing it.

Where does this process take place and who records it?

We are all convinced, from ordinary citizens to health professionals and pharmaceutical laboratories, that traumatic events are only processed and recorded in the brain. After all, we have always heard the expression “it’s all in the head”. Therefore, it is logical that all efforts to address trauma, and depression and other psychological problems originating from them, focus on changing brain biochemistry through the use of drugs. It is undeniable that many of these drugs successfully reduce the intensity of suffering in the face of painful stimuli and, in this sense, are a valuable tool in the short term. Unfortunately, they also reduce the intensity of our reactions to pleasant stimuli, putting us at risk of falling into a state of apathy and anhedonia, which is why they are not a recommended long-term solution. We stop feeling what is bad, but also what is good. This solution could be compared to turning off the water tap in an entire house, simply because we do not want hot water in the kitchen sink.

The role of the body

It has long been observed that the body also registers trauma, and in a very reliable way. This is precisely Bessel Van der Kolk’s great contribution to the field of psychiatry. In this pioneering work, the author tells us how he discovered that activities such as theater, eye movement desensitization techniques, yoga and the increasingly less common talk therapy focused on the use of language allowed some of his patients to recover forgotten memories and, more importantly, to work on them in a safe way and without major emotional catharsis. In these pages, we discovered with surprise cases such as that of Annie, a girl who was suffering from serious trauma after suffering a series of violent actions in her childhood, who through the practice of some yoga asanas recovers the memory of these episodes at the same time or who acquires a new vision of her resources and strengths as an adult. The experience of this strength allows her to definitively leave a past that she saw that she was condemned to repeat and in which her own body had become an enemy.

Recently, I read in a scientific publication that some North American psychiatrists are refusing to prescribe antidepressants if there is no clear commitment on the part of the patient to attend a gym or practice some type of physical activity with a certain regularity. Although this represents a great advance, there is no doubt that, when it comes to mental health, our society is overmedicated. We know that psychotropic drugs, used with caution, save lives every day. However, we must not forget that many antidepressants, anxiolytics and, lately, antipsychotics are prescribed as if they were permanent solutions when in many cases they only work as temporary patches. Meanwhile, the suffering, injustice and pain suffered are still there, silenced and hidden in the body waiting to surface so that they can be experienced again, albeit with a different vision. This vision, which comes from a somatic recognition of the wisdom, resources and strategies that we have acquired over the years, is precisely what helps us understand that now we can do with what was unbearable to us then. This new vision that shows us the extent of our strength, and that arises from the experience of the body, is what takes us out of the past and resituates us in the present moment, fills us with compassion for ourselves and, finally, brings us back to life.

Text by Llum Monteagudo

By Editorial Eleftheria|