You Are Your Own: A Reckoning with the Religious Trauma of Evangelical Christianity

by Jamie Lee Finch

People with PTSD live in a chronic state of hyperarousal, or ANS activation, not just in their brains, but in their bodies as well. This state of hyperarousal leads to symptoms such as anxiety, panic, weakness, exhaustion, muscle stiffness, concentration problems, and sleep disturbances (Rothschild 47). Adaptive techniques that were first developed for survival can over time become the root of impairment. This is because, in cases of PTSD, neutral stimulus becomes dissociated from the present and attached to the incomplete, traumatic memory of the past, resulting in that chronic state of hyperarousal. People with PTSD live with a strange, simultaneous awareness and confusion when it comes to the state of their bodies—aware that their bodies are acting in certain extreme ways, but completely unaware as to the reason why. Practically, the symptoms of PTSD that can be developed and expressed in the body include both mental and behavioral disturbances, as well as a vast range of physical imbalances. Many people experience insomnia, nightmares, anxiety, depression, memory issues, and an overall feeling of numbness that negatively affect their daily functioning. In addition, they can begin to notice an increase in irritability, poor communication skills, a desire for social isolation, hypervigilance, and various compulsive tendencies to serve as coping mechanisms. Physical manifestations of trauma include extreme weight fluctuation, migraines, difficulty breathing, chronic muscl...