Complex Trauma: The Role of Stress

Complex post-traumatic stress can develop from pain and stress that began at an early age. The ACE study demonstrated how trauma in childhood is correlated to mental and physical health problems in adulthood.

Stress Takes Many Forms.

Unresolved trauma takes a toll on your health. It is insidious, silent, and can be gradual or cumulative. Below any trauma is underlying stress.  

Positive stress:

A healthy response is one that is short lived and resolves with a positive connection to a caretaker

Tolerable stress:

A single significant trauma, that if the child has a supportive environment with a loving caregiver, the evet has the potential to create resiliency in adulthood

Toxic stress:

Profound and ongoing trauma that occurs without the intervention of a loving supportive caretaker. This is correlated with negative health consequences as adults 

Traumatic Stress:

The result after an event that has life threatening implications and sends the person into immobility without a way to escape. The flight/fight response was unsuccessful 

Stress was never supposed to be ongoing. The stress response system was designed to be temporary.

When stress hormones are activated, they are intended for an instantaneous reaction to danger, and then for the person to quickly return to equilibrium. When stress is constant without any reprieve, the body stays in a place of high alert without any rest. 

During stress the body produces cortisol, which are chemical messengers that activate the sympathetic nervous system and the flight or fight response. When stress is constant, the body continues to produce high levels of cortisol. This elevated level becomes the new normal.

Complex Trauma and the Stress Connection

Unresolved complex post-traumatic stress has an opposite relationship with cortisol, the stress chemical, as there is actually a lower level of cortisol in the bloodstream. This isn’t to say that the body is producing less cortisol, it is just expressed differently. 

In fact, the body is still producing extremely high amounts of cortisol, but the body also has created a change or adaption with how the cortisol is processed and utilized.  

The cortisol is expressed in frequent bursts, mirrored by massive drops of cortisol in the bloodstream. 

Doesn’t this help to explain why you alternate between feeling extremely overwhelmed, followed by periods of being shut down? 

Physiology supports this. It also supports why you feel you have the accelerator and brake slammed down simultaneously. It supports the imbalance that is occurring within the nervous system. 

Remember, the nervous system is made up of the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches. 

The sympathetic is associated with the release of cortisol and the parasympathetic is associated with the inhibition of cortisol so that you can shift into relaxation. 

These two branches are meant to work in collaboration and operate in a rhythmic cycle. When they don’t, trauma exists and creates an interference with your mood and physical health. 

Stress, Trauma and Health

There exists a relationship between cortisol (stress) and the immune system functioning. When cortisol is high, the immune system is suppressed. When cortisol is low, the immune system is enhanced. 

The immune system is directly correlated to inflammation in the body. Inflammation is necessary when we are fighting off an infection, but when there is no identifiable target of why the body is inflamed, the stage is set for long term health problems. 

Some red flags that are indicative of high stress are:

• High blood pressure

• Blood sugar imbalance (high blood sugar to maintain fight/ flight response)

• Food cravings

• Addiction (temporary stress relief)

• Slow digestion (chronic stress says digestion is nonessential when in danger)

• Suppressed immunity 

Some red flags for unresolved post-traumatic stress:

• Digestive dis-ease (overproduction of stomach acid) 

• Chronic fatigue & Insomnia (the circadian rhythm mirrors the cortisol rhythm) 

• Autoimmune problems (cannot determine target of inflammation)

The body is talking to you at all times and you just need to understand her language. Once you learn this, you can change your entire LIFE. 

The ACE Study

The adverse childhood experiences or ACE study conducted through Kaiser Permanente, assessed 17,000 patients’ experiences of childhood trauma. The study began in 1995 and has included long term client follow up to assess the connection between childhood trauma (stress) and health outcomes as adults.

The study looked at seven specific factors:

• Physical abuse

• Verbal abuse

• Sexual abuse

• Physical or emotional neglect

• Exposure to domestic violence

• Exposure to substance abuse within the household

• Exposure to mental illness, suicide, or imprisonment in the household  

 The study demonstrated that just checking the box for one ACE factor was a predictor for experiencing multiple ACE factors.

Experiencing any of these ACE factors places that child at risk for mental and physical health complications as they reach adulthood. 

Children who had been exposed to FOUR ACE factors were FOUR times as likely to experience depression and SEVEN times as likely to abuse substances than those with zero ACE factors. 

Have you ever looked at your ACE factors? I can check the box for three ACE factors that I experienced in childhood. You are not alone.