Amanda Roe: Acupuncture and Clinical Hypnotherapist.
Call 087 6331898
Email: amanda@marketstclinic.com
Traumatic experiences in childhood can have a profound and long-lasting effect on your health and habits through life. Causes of childhood trauma may include; neglect, abuse, divorce, illness, bullying, being forced to speak in public, witnessing an accident, death of a loved one, a dear friend moving away, misunderstanding something that has been seen or said, or even watching a horror movie.
The stress response activates the bodies sympathetic nervous system reducing cognitive function and depending on which fight-flight-freeze response is strongest may cause mood swings, irritability, aggression, anxiety, feelings of fear or being trapped, a desire to get away, panic or even procrastination. This can be overwhelming and the strange intensity of emotions difficult to deal with. Many people who experience this feel alone and have difficulty understanding or dealing with these emotions. Some choose to withdraw into themselves or suppress emotions deep inside.
We hope, as children, to find someone we can talk to. As learning how to manage stress and healing our emotions will help us to access the resilience and strength within ourselves. When that happens we can bring our focus back into the present feeling more confident about ourselves and our future and gives us the opportunity to enjoy life more.
Unfortunately if that does not happen in childhood the stress of childhood trauma can affect our health and the ability to care for ourselves and others. The reason is because all forms of stress including past, present, work-related and nutritional stress have an accumulative effect on the body, exhausting the adrenal glands and depleting nutritional reserves and causing hormonal imbalance.
It is common for long term emotional stress to cause heart palpitations, raised blood pressure, chest oppression, asthma, dizziness, tinnitus, confusion, blurred vision, anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, insomnia, bad dreams, irritable bowel, loss of appetite, frequent urination, skin conditions, thyroid problems, absent menstruation, excessive menstrual bleeding, reduced fertility, panic attacks, headaches, unexplained aches and pains and other stress-related illnesses like fibromyalgia.
Unhealthy ways of coping with stress are smoking, drinking too much, comfort eating, using pills or drugs to relax, sleeping too much, avoiding or withdrawing from friends or taking out your stress on others i.e. angry outbursts or physical violence, which ultimately cause more problems.
To improve your health it is important to remove or learn to manage all stress in your life whether it is from the past or present. Working on the conscious, subconscious, emotional and nutritional levels at the same time will help you to take back control of your health more quickly and then introducing daily or weekly stress management activities like belly breathing, eating a healthy, taking supplements, practicing yoga, self-hypnosis, meditation, walking outdoors or meeting up with friends will help you to stay well.
It is possible to heal trauma, overcome life’s challenges and build a happier, healthier and more successful life. If you are curious about how you can take back control of your health and transform chronic mental, emotional or nutritional stress into health and vitality, then get in touch, I am looking forward to hearing from you.
