The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

by Bessel van der Kolk

Trauma causes people to remain stuck in interpreting the present in light...

Secrets like these become inner toxins—realities that you are not allowed to acknowledge to yourself or to others but that nevertheless become the template of your life.

There is a circular relationship between PTSD and substance abuse: While drugs and alcohol may provide temporary relief from trauma symptoms, withdrawing from them increases hyperarousal, thereby intensifying nightmares, flashbacks, and irritability.

I can use my feelings; I’m not running away from them. I’m not held hostage by them. I can’t turn them off and on, but I can put them away. I may be sad about the abuse I went through, but I can put it away. I can call a friend and not talk about it if I don’t want to talk about it, or I can do homework or clean my apartment. Emotions mean something now.

Our sense of agency, how much we feel in control, is defined by our relationship with our bodies and its rhythms:

In order to find our voice, we have to be in our bodies—able to breathe fully and able to access our inner sensations.

Since time immemorial human beings have used communal rituals to cope with their most powerful and terrifying feelings.

Collective movement and music create a larger context for our lives, a meaning beyond our individual fate.

Traumatized people are terrified to feel deeply. They are afraid to experience their emotions, because emotions lead to loss of control. In contrast, theater is about embodying emotions, giving voice to them, becoming rhythmically engaged, taking on and embodying different roles.

the essence of trauma is feeling godforsaken, cut off from the human race. Theater involves a collective confrontation with the realities of the human condition.

Traumatized people are afraid of conflict. They fear losing control and ending up on the losing side once again.

Trauma is about trying to forget, hiding how scared, enraged, or helpless you are.

music, theater, art, and sports—timeless ways of fostering competence and collective bonding—continue

I wish I could separate trauma from politics, but as long as we continue to live in denial and treat only trauma while ignoring its origins, we are bound to fail. In today’s world your ZIP code, even more than your genetic code, determines whether you will lead a safe and healthy life.

Trauma breeds further trauma; hurt people hurt other people.

For adults and children alike, being in control of ourselves requires becoming familiar with our inner world and accurately identifying what scares, upsets, or delights us.