Key insights

• 💔 Abuse survivors' feelings are valid and not their fault.
• 🧠 Trauma deeply affects the brain, altering thoughts, feelings, and relationships.
• 😓 Prolonged trauma leads to hyperactive amygdala and constant stress.
• 😰 Chronic stress from abuse leads to high alert anxiety and fear.
• 🛑 Abuse impairs the ability to control emotions due to damage to the prefrontal cortex.
• 🎓 Abuse leads to poor academic performance, fights, and skipping classes.
• 🌱 The brain is adaptable and can heal with the right support.
• 🤝 Understanding the impacts of trauma is the first step to reclaiming mental health.

Q&A

• How can trauma survivors be better supported?

  Understanding trauma's biological impact on the brain is crucial for better supporting survivors. Emotional blunting as a defense mechanism during abuse can persist after, making it challenging to re-engage emotions. Nevertheless, healing is possible. Victims should seek help and support from loved ones and professionals. It's important for individuals to understand the hidden impacts of trauma and support those who are struggling.

• What behavioral and mental health issues can result from abuse?

  Abuse can lead to poor academic performance, risky behaviors, and mental health issues such as depression, PTSD, and eating disorders. Victims are more likely to engage in drug use, heavy drinking, self-harm, risky sexual behavior, as well as experience symptoms of depression and anxiety. The overstimulation of the amygdala and damage to the prefrontal cortex play a significant role in affecting decision-making, self-control, and coping with emotional pain, leading to coping through aggressive, reckless, and harmful behaviors.

• How does abuse impact emotional regulation?

  Abuse can result in emotional disregulation, impacting the brain's ability to control emotions and make decisions. This impairment is caused by damage to the prefrontal cortex and can lead to impulsive decision-making and difficulty in controlling emotions. It's likened to driving a car with malfunctioning brakes and a sticking gas pedal. Children who experience abuse often struggle with impulsive decision-making.

• What are the long-term effects of trauma on the brain?

  Chronic stress from abuse can lead to anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and memory problems, affecting the brain's ability to regulate emotions and store memories. Additionally, abuse can shrink the hippocampus, leading to memory and learning difficulties. Trauma can also lead to blurry or fragmented memories and may block out parts of the trauma.

• 00:00 Abuse survivors' feelings are valid and not their fault. Trauma affects the brain deeply, altering thoughts, feelings, and relationships. Prolonged trauma makes the amygdala hyperactive, causing constant stress.
• 00:52 Chronic stress from abuse can lead to anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and memory problems, affecting the brain's ability to regulate emotions and store memories.
• 01:51 Understanding trauma's biological impact can help us support survivors better. Emotional blunting is a defense mechanism for numbing emotions during abuse, but can persist after. Healing is possible.
• 02:46 Emotional disregulation can be a result of abuse, impacting the brain's ability to control emotions and make decisions.
• 03:44 Abuse leads to poor academic performance, risky behaviors, and mental health issues due to the overstimulation of amygdala and damage to the prefrontal cortex. Victims struggle with decision-making, self-control, and coping with emotional pain.
• 04:49 Abuse can lead to long-term mental health disorders, but the brain is adaptable and with support, it can heal. Victims should seek help and support from loved ones and professionals. It's important to understand the hidden impacts of trauma and support those who are struggling.