5 Signs Your Body is Releasing Trauma

By Claire Moacdieh

No matter if you are experiencing pain from one traumatic event or years of ongoing emotional trauma, all of it can make lasting changes in your body and your daily life. This means that healing from trauma can be a difficult process. It can be challenging to find ways to reclaim your power when it feels like your body’s working against you. 

Trauma does not just happen in the brain; it can affect your entire body. When you open up to acknowledge what happened to you, you may start to experience headaches, nausea, digestive issues, trouble sleeping, cold or flu symptoms and sensitivity to allergens, light or sound, among other symptoms. As you integrate your experiences and find a new sense of security, these usually subside.

This means that the most effective forms of treatment address both the psychological and the physical aspects of trauma. Once you start your healing process, it’s common to feel a bit more sensitive or notice new aches, pains, and health problems. In the long run, however, healing your trauma can lead to a longer life and better overall health.

There is hope that you can start to feel safe and secure in your own body after trauma. This article explores how trauma can impact the body, and how you can recognize signs of healing. 

Signs of Trauma in the Body

Trauma can impact different parts of the body, even long after the traumatic incident has passed, leaving you with many uncomfortable symptoms. Specifically, you might experience tension in your neck or shoulders, problems with your gut or digestive system, chest or heart pain, or pain in your abdominal area. Sometimes, you might have unexplained pain or fatigue. You might also experience memory problems, difficulty relaxing, sleeping problems, feeling disconnected from your body, and anxiety or depression. These symptoms can lead to chronic pain, emotional numbness, and long-term effects such as heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and immune dysregulation. 

These bodily problems can leave lasting impacts on your life. Maybe you do not have the time or resources to be constantly going to the doctor’s office. Or maybe you have experienced these symptoms and not known where they come from. No matter how trauma affects you, you deserve healing and a good life. 

5 Signs Your Body is Releasing Trauma

When your body is healing from trauma, you can experience some significant changes in both your brain and your body. You might start shaking, feeling lighter in your movements, and more open to positive emotions and relationships. 

It's common for physical symptoms to get a little worse before they get better. When you start healing, you start connecting with pain from memories and emotions your nervous system has been numbing. Survivors protect themselves in many different ways, including dissociation, denial, substance use, deflecting onto others, tapping into more acceptable emotions such as anger, and more. On the most basic level, this is what your fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses are for. As you start your healing journey, you might experience increased sensitivity and other negative symptoms. 

This list focuses specifically on some positive changes in your body that you might experience: 

1. Healing Gut Health

One sign that you are healing from trauma is by having a healthier gut. Research shows that there is a strong connection between what happens in your gut and in your brain. Having trauma stored in the gut can mean that you experience uncomfortable feelings like cramping, digestion issues, and increased sensitivity to food issues. Also, your gut bacteria might be impacted, and they play an important role in balancing your mental health. 

When you heal from trauma, your digestive system can also improve. You might unclench your gut muscles, leading to feeling more relaxed in your body. 

2. Relaxed Muscles

When experiencing trauma, our muscles can tighten and strain as a form of protection. Often muscle stiffness can come with feelings of pent up anxiety and depression as well as the stored memories of the traumatic incident. Specifically, trauma can impact muscle feeling in the neck, the lower back, and the shoulders. When you release trauma, the stiffness and tension in these areas can also be released. Instead of hunching or straining your neck, you can stand tall. 

3. Deeper Breathing

Holding trauma in your body can mean that you experience shallow breathing or an inability to take deep breaths. This is related to your fight, flight, or freeze response. When you stop breathing, you are in “freeze” mode. Mindfulness and somatic practices can help you reconnect to your breathing. One sign of releasing trauma is the ability to breathe deeply. By breathing deeply, you are telling your body that you are safe. 

4. Better Sleep

Experiencing a traumatic incident can mean that your sleep is impacted. This means that your nightly sleep cycles might be interrupted, that you might be experiencing strange dreams and nightmares, or that you might have developed a sleep disorder. Sleep disorders can include insomnia (the inability to fall asleep), nightmare disorder, or sleep terrors. Other sleep problems can come from body stiffness, anxiety, restlessness, and an inability to relax. These can severely impact your waking life by causing exhaustion and fatigue. 

One way to tell that you are recovering from trauma is by having a good night’s rest. When your body relaxes and moves past the trauma that is stored in your memory, you are able to rest without worry. 

5. A Stronger Immune System

Trauma can lead to immune dysregulation, which means that the body fails to respond to its internal stability. This can lead to having autoimmune diseases, which are diseases that cause the body to attack itself. Dysregulation can happen after a traumatic incident by activating the body’s fight, flight, or freeze responses. The body’s constant stress can lead to inflammation, which can also lead to an overactive immune system that attacks healthy tissues. 

After engaging in somatic therapy and other methods of healing, your nervous system might be better regulated. This means that you might be able to reduce inflammation. When you heal your emotions, you might be better able to heal your physical body as well. 

Ways to Heal From Trauma

One method to help you on your healing journey is somatic therapy. Somatic therapy is a special type of therapy that specifically links problems in the mind and body. These therapists help people become more connected to their bodies through exercises in body awareness, mindfulness practices, and gentle movements designed to release stored tension. These techniques can help people feel more connected to their bodies, moving past the physical blocks caused by trauma. 

Another way to heal and process trauma is through talk therapy. Trauma-informed therapists are there to help you feel safe and supported in your journey. By speaking with a therapist who you trust, you can build back your confidence and improve your mental health. Because your brain and body work together, it is equally important to focus on healing your mental health. 

Outlook For Healing Trauma In the Mind, Body and Spirit

The impact of everyday stress on physical health is well-known. Links between traumatic experiences and physical health issues are apparent in the lives of survivors. However, they’re not as well studied in Western medicine. Some studies have connected trauma healing with reductions in specific symptoms such as inflammation and a lower cancer risk due to healthier DNA. Indigenous practices like Traditional Chinese Medicine have detailed theories on the mind-body connection. 

Stress management is a critical life skill for anyone. For survivors, it stands to reason that healing and coping with traumatic stress can help improve your physical health in the short- and long-term. Each survivor needs a different combination of healing methods. For most people, finding effective treatments and experiences leads to a greater feeling of safety and comfort in their own skin.

&Rise is here to help you navigate the ins and outs of your journey. We offer free therapy sessions and peer support groups to women and girls in the Chicago area that focus on trauma healing. Led by trained counselors who focus on holistic and somatic therapy, these are safe and confidential spaces that can let you process your trauma. 

If you are looking for more ways to work on your healing journey, you can subscribe to our newsletter for a weekly dose of empowerment, news about our support groups, and notifications for upcoming events. You can also check out our support groups and upcoming events to stay connected. Remember that you are not alone, and that there is hope for your future.