Trauma can be held in the body, leading to physical symptoms years later — such as headaches, jumpiness, chronic pain, and dissociation.

When you have an overwhelming experience, your logical mind might feel “over it” before your body does.

In his 2014 book “The Body Keeps the Score,” trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk, MD, talks about how trauma affects not just our minds but our bodies, too. The body can remember trauma even if we’re unaware of it.

With the right support, healing is possible. Therapies that connect the body and mind — like cognitive processing therapy (CPT), prolonged exposure (PE) therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy — can help you process trauma held in your body.

How trauma is stored in the body

Experts believe that trauma impacts your brain and body causing your nervous system to stay on “high alert,” always ready to face the next threat.

Trauma is not physically held in the muscles or bones — instead, the need to protect oneself from perceived threats is stored in the memory and emotional centers of the brain, such as the hippocampus and amygdala. This activates the body whenever a situation reminds the person of the traumatic event(s).

Many people continue to feel the effects of trauma — known as post-traumatic stress — for years after the traumatic event. Trauma may show up in the body as:

• feeling easily overwhelmed
• feeling “on edge”
• muscle tension
• chest tightness
• trouble sleeping
• nightmares
• memory issues
• brain fog or trouble focusing
• anxiety and avoidance
• depression
• dissociation

Trauma can also exacerbate medical conditions like chronic pain and headaches.

Experiencing trauma can shrink your window of tolerance, which is the sweet spot where you feel like you can handle stressful situations without them becoming too much. This is known as your distress tolerance. Trauma is one factor that can shrink your window of tolerance.

“If you have an experience that you keep reliving from the past or feel that you have the experience of being ‘triggered,’ that might be a sign that you have trauma that needs to be addressed,” says Blessing Uchendu, a body-centered psychotherapist based in NYC who uses EMDR and Somatic Experiencing to educate and treat clients with trauma.

“While in the Western world we might be inclined to first visit a physician with our physical ailments, it is worth considering getting trauma treatment from a therapist if your physical symptoms aren’t resolved,” she says.