About Trauma and Recovery
Through years of research on the brain, we know that when we experience a disturbing or traumatic event, it is neurologically wired in our neurological system as an emotional experience with disorganized memories imprinted in the hippocampus. That traumatic moment in time causes our memories to become fragmented and clustered, setting us up to experience intense
emotional reactions even though we may be nowhere near danger.
When something happens that reminds us of that experience, that fragmented part of our brain lights up and we are immediately brought back to the painful memory. The brain experiences the trigger as if the traumatic event is happening right then and there. It happens within milliseconds, and it is our brain that hijacks us from a relatively peaceful day. Those who suffer PTSD find this so disruptive that often they cannot function normally and may even withdraw from daily living because the trigger could happen at any moment.