You can't think yourself out of PTSD. Try calming down your limbic system instead.“Time is a great healer” – how many times have you heard this reassuring phrase meaning that any painful and difficult situation won’t seem as bad as time passes?

In most cases, that’s exactly what will happen. As the years pass, painful memories fade, and we end up wondering why it all felt so overwhelming at the time.

However, for some people, the passage of time can have the opposite effect. The pain and trauma grow, get worse, and can even develop into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Why is that?  What’s going on?

It may have to do with how the memories of the events get stored.

Research has shown that during traumatic events, the amygdala, the brain’s fear center, contributes to the formation of denser-than-normal memories and the perception of time slowing down. This causes the memories to be imprinted in greater detail in our memory, emotions, consciousness, and subconscious.

A Traumatic Memory is Stored Differently

According to neuroscience, the brain stores traumatic memories not just in one place but in multiple locations, both in the thinking areas of prefrontal cortex and in the emotional regions of the amygdala and the hippocampus. This makes traumatic memories multidimensional, more destructive, and more difficult to process and resolve.

Furthermore, due to a phenomenon called traumatic memory distortion, people tend to remember experiencing even more trauma than they actually did. As the result, their over-remembered trauma can “grow” and, with time, they may experience increasing severity of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. 

Getting back to the “time heals all wounds” saying – the findings of the World Mental Health Surveys show that, in reality,  only a minority of PTSD cases go into remission within months after onset. Unfortunately, the majority of PTSD sufferers experience symptoms for many years.

The Devastating Impact of  PTSD

Whether the trauma causing PTSD was a one-time event such as witnessing or surviving a horrific car crash, or a series of continuing events, such as experiencing abuse or taking part in a war, people can end up with a variety of symptoms that affect their mental and physical health and their ability to function in everyday life.

According to research, 60 percent of men and 51 percent of women experience at least one potentially traumatic event in their lifetime. However, the lifetime prevalence of PTSD is significantly higher in women than in men. Some 84 percent of those suffering from PTSD may also exhibit various co-occurring diseases or disorders. Feelings of shame, despair, or hopeless; employment and relationships problems; and violence are common.

The economic and social impact of PTSD is enormous. Repercussions are felt not only by those who experience the condition but also by their families, co-workers, employers, and society as a whole.

Traditional PTSD Treatments

Traditional methods of treatment for PTSD include a variety of psychotherapies, such as Prolonged Exposure and Cognitive Processing Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing  (EMDR), and medication.

For people who prefer non-medication options, cognitive-behavioural therapies (CBT) are usually recommended by health professionals as evidence-based treatments for PTSD. Unfortunately, it is well documented that nonresponse and dropout rates in these treatments can be as high as 50 percent. Incidentally, all of the clients I’ve seen with PTSD had experienced several unsuccessful rounds of counselling and CBT before they considered alternative options such as mindfulness-based therapies, cognitive hypnotherapy, time-based therapy and recovery coaching.

A study published in Nature Neuroscience in February 2018 by researchers from the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) in Australia uncovered a new type of bridging neuron and a new pathway in the brain that regulates the return of traumatic memories and fear. This discovery, along with new information about the size and connectivity of amygdala (brain region linked to fear, stress and anxiety) in both adults and children, indicates that traumatic experiences actually rewire and physically change the brain.

It may also offer some explanation for the high nonresponse and dropout rates of CBT, and has potential implications for treating trauma-related disorders, including PTSD, by shifting the primary focus of intervention from engaging the “thinking” part of the brain – through talking therapies – to calming the arousal system in the deeper parts of the brain, specifically, the limbic system. In such cases, the limbic system becomes stuck in the “fight or flight” response mode.

Treating PTSD by Calming the Limbic System

An alternative approach to treatment based on holistic mind-body view is outlined in the book The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma. Drawing on over 30 years of experience, van der Kolk describes many empowering self-regulatory healing practices. These therapeutic options primarily focus on calming the limbic system.

Your limbic system is an ancient collection of brain structures located deep within the brain. The limbic system is the emotional part of your brain that processes the sense of smell, stores highly charged emotional memories, and affects all sleep and appetite cycles, moods, sexuality, and bonding. Van der Kolk’s suggested practises complement traditional methods of treatment for trauma-related disorders and help people regain control of their bodies by rewiring their brains – so that they can rebuild their lives.

Key activities he suggests that have been proven to have a calming effect on the limbic system and help to reduce the symptoms of PTSD and other trauma-related disorders are:

Spending just 30 to 60 minutes a day on any of these activities has been shown to significantly improve well-being and quality of life in people with PTSD, particularly those who are nonresponsive to traditional treatment methods. Practising these behaviours regularly from two to eight months can help them become ingrained habits, according to a study conducted by Phillippa Lally, a health psychology researcher at University College London. Reassuringly, the researchers also established that messing up now and again “did not materially affect the habit formation process.”

Conclusion

Well, it looks like time can be a great healer after all. It depends on how you use it.

We can choose to spend at least some of it engaging in behaviours that help heal our bodies and brains from the negative mpact of trauma.

Guest Author

Zoryna O’Donnell, MBA, MSc, FinstLM is an international speaker, author, ICF coach and mentor of the Warwick Business School (WBS) Mentoring Programme, providing career mentoring and advice to individual students and graduates of the MBA Programme at WBS. She is also a registered hypnotherapist, and master practitioner of NLP (neuro linguistic programming)  Zoryna is also a trainer delivering evidence-based programmes and interventions to help people achieve positive changes in their personal and professional life, improve their mental health, build resilience, and increase wellbeing.

You can connect with Zoryna on Twitter @ZorynaO’Donnell

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19 Comments

  1. Excellent piece. There can be so much pressure on trauma victims to “think” there way out of it. I appreciate how you are educating people as to why that doesn’t work. I have found body-based therapies like somatic experiencing (SE), organic intelligence (OI), and the neuro-affective relational model (NARM) very effective.

  2. Zoryna O'Donnell Reply

    Hello, Sandra. Thank you for your comment. There are many effective therapies around and I believe that it is important to educate people about their existence and science behind them, so that trauma survivors could find the ones that work best for them.

  3. Thank you yes time and patience in my experience help heal trauma along with the activities you suggest. I have seen amazing release from PTSD also through the Journey process and timeline therapy

    • Zoryna O'Donnell Reply

      Hello, Suzie. Thank you for your comment. I am so pleased to hear about your positive experience of release from PTSD.

    • Zoryna O'Donnell Reply

      Thank you for your comment, Elle. I think it is wonderful that activities which are good for our mental and physical health are enjoyable too.

  4. Thanks for the great article. We do a lot of PTSD work with Neurofeedback and EMDR. I continue to be amazed that in our 21st neuroscience century that the hyper-arousal of the limbic system somehow gets the back seat in so many therapies.

    Dr. Keith Klassen

  5. Zoryna O'Donnell Reply

    Thank you for your feedback, Dr Klassen. Indeed, old views and habits in therapies die hard!

  6. Roger Godwin Reply

    As an Ex Services suffered of PTSD I read you article with much interest in a bid to find and seek help to alleviate the symptoms of ptsd.

    • Zoryna O'Donnell Reply

      Hello, Roger. Over the years, I worked with many Ex Service man and women and know that a lot can be done to help alleviate PTSD symptoms. I hope you will find good practitioners in the area where you live.

  7. Caroline Barber Reply

    Excellent article, thanks. I think diet would play a role as well, at least limiting any stimulants – sugar, caffeine etc. As a survivor of extreme childhood trauma, I’ve tried many different types of therapy over the years, some more effective than others, but I’ve finally come to the conclusion that “I” have to heal my brain. I was happy to discover while reading this article, that I already do most of the activities listed but maybe the awareness of the effect on the brain will increase the healing :).

    • Very good for you, Caroline. Sounds like you’re on the right track. Yes, awareness, focus, and intent do help encourage neuroplastic change.

  8. I’m just wondering if there are other options of treatment for mothers who have loss their adult child in a tragic freak accident and in return is closing herself and her family off to the things in this world that are dangerous, but weren’t dangerous before to our family. I’m lost. Nothing helps, it’s like I’m trapped in my own mind.

  9. Caragh King Reply

    Thanks for insightful article.
    I recently read a study on the effects of long-term stress on the Limbic system, and the shrunken Hippocampi and the hyperactivity of the Amygdala that has been documented by brain scans; in those suffering cPTSD or Battered Women Syndrome; for example. And the need to calm this region of the brain with a couple of hours of Non-stimulus enviroment, sitting in peace, silently; to help the Hippocampi recover it’a ability to control and regulate the Amygdala,

    Also, speaking from living with cPTSD, engaging the Polyvegal breathing technique, to calm the heart, and mind when triggered by panic attacks.

    I hope, as we develop a holistic approach, with better understanding of the neuroscience and neurophysiology, we will progress in helping those with PTSD/cPTSD with a better education and collective understanding. Thanks again.

    • Thank you for your comment, Caragh. You are right. I think the idea of hours of a non-stimulating environment every day to help calm the brain is a good one. Why not meditate too while you’re doing it. Win/win! 🙂

  10. Johan Strydom Reply

    The PTSD can increase with time because of the loading of the COEX system, as I understand it. Calming helps in resolving the trauma by facing and processing it. Problem solving skills can be of benefit. Bodywork is very effective and quicker, but the release still have to be processed. Bodywork modalities like Crainiosacral therapy and MNRI I found very effective.

    • Thank you for the additional info, Johan. I found Craniosacral therapy and other body work very effective as well. 🙂

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