Hello everyone, Its Dr Caroline Lloyd. Welcome back to the EMDR doctor podcast.
This weeks podcast is a bit of an extension on last weeks episode, where I talked a lot about the body’s response to trauma, the five F’s of flight, fight, freeze, fawn and flop and what that means in detail. I hope you found that helpful - this week I am going to be talking about the body in a bit of a different way - how we store memories and the role of body sensations in this.
When we store memories, we store the whole shebang. We store all the sensory components of the memory - and we certainly have more senses than just sight or pictures. We experience an event with our whole being - our body, mind and heart - so this includes emotions, thoughts and body sensations, and the memory that we then revisit or that comes back to us when we remember, is also composed of all of those facets.
What facets am I talking about here? So our senses are made up of sight, sound, smell, taste, sensation,
And let’s break sensation down a little bit - bodily sensation includes things like pain, tension, nausea, temperature, and even speed and balance.
So if I can give you a little bit of an example here - if I go to Luna Park, and go on the roller coaster this weekend, then one of the memories I will have of the weekend will be sitting in a metal car, travelling at speed down a roller coaster hill. This memory will have elements of body, mind and heart - I will remember the fear combined with excitement and thrill, that’s the emotion, the thoughts may be around ‘I love going fast, I’m brave, this is fun but I might die’, my body sensations might be the coldness of the railing, the firmness of the seatbelt, tension in my hands gripping the bar, nausea as we go down the dip, the cold air rushing over my face, the sound of screaming all around me, dizziness in my head, tension in my cheeks, the force of the speed pulling at my torso pressing me against the back of the seat. There will also be visual pictures, of the city lights maybe, or the height of the car above the ground, people far below. Smells might be the smell of popcorn or warm tar or the nearby beach. I might have the taste of the hotdog I just ate. So all of these elements are held in that memory.
And if I had a fun time, and I was safe, that memory will be a good one, and if I smell popcorn for example, or hold on to a cold railing, then that memory may be recalled back in to my conscious awareness and I might smile remembering the fun time I had.
Now I personally, am not a roller coater kind of gal. If I didn’t have a fun time, and I hated it, then any aspect of that memory might elicit negative emotions - for example if I feel a cold breeze on my face, the memory might come back in all its force - with all its different facets - I may feel fear, think ‘I am in danger’, the nausea might come back, my hands might get tight and tense, I may feel dizzy - even though its not happening to me right now, the memory comes back with all of the senses involved, and I feel those physical symptoms, which are actually a memory, but feel real and present right now.
So if we apply this same understanding to another situation - say for example I had a skiing accident and broke my leg. The memory of it may include the thoughts of I’m in danger, the emotions of fear and shock, and a range of bodily sensations. When I recall the memory, either voluntarily if I am talking about it, or involuntarily if I am triggered by something to recall the memory, then I may experience bodily sensations - I experience the shiver of cold, the pain in the leg, I might feel the pressure of my ski boots on my feet, or actually smell the smell of the snow I ended up lying on. They are all part of the re-experiencing of the event, as the memory comes to the fore and takes over my brain. And if that was a particularly traumatic experience, these memory sensations my come back to me in full blown flashbacks, re-experiencing the event as if it were happening right now.
And if we experience multiple episodes of a trauma, like repeated back pain, or endometriosis with severe pelvic pain every month, then our nervous system kind of adapts to those situations, and starts expecting them in a way - the nerves memorise the sensation of pain, and this amplifies the pain sensations to the brain, and the memories and the amplified sensation become held together. This can sometimes become what’s called Central Sensitisation syndrome, when even a small amount of stimuli, say leaning against the back of a chair, gets amplified and triggers the whole syndrome of memory recall - you may get the thoughts ‘I’m in danger’ the sensations of pain and other sensations, and the emotions of fear and overwhelm that might be held with a memory which was initially the cause of the pain. So the whole memory in all its aspects becomes re-ignited with only a small stimulus. Now it’s important to note here, that the pain is real. It is real, it is felt, the pain can be very severe, even in the absence of anything actually currently wrong - the broken leg may have healed, the back injury may have resolved, the endometriosis may have been treated, but a small stimulus reignites the memory, the pain, the fear, the belief of danger, the overwhelm. And the result is severe pain.
So why as an EMDR therapist am I talking about chronic pain? I am not a pain specialist, not a neurologist or anaesthetist. But it is very well recognised in the EMDR world that memories and physical sensations are tightly partnered. Every EMDR session we do includes the body - EMDR is in fact a somatic therapy. (Somatic means body). And we do have a pain protocol that can be very effective in disrupting the pain/memory pairing. Just like when we process a difficult memory, the emotion gets unstuck from the memory, when we process a pain memory, the pain gets unstuck from the memory. No chronic pain can be complex and we certainly would encourage people to work with their body in other ways - maybe a pain physio, or a pelvic floor physio, maybe some behavioural methods, maybe exercise might be super important, to get some alternative neural pathways set up for the body, to be able to experience movement in other more positive ways. Medications may be helpful, or reducing medications may be helpful, or working with education with a pain clinic might be a good idea, but all of these alternatives, alongside the EMDR give someone their best bet to resolve the memory at the centre of the pain, and then work on all those other factors too.
so I have given just a couple of examples of how memories can cause body symptoms and then be amplified in to chronic pain, but the same sort of process can happen with many other common symptoms - headaches, tummy aches, dizziness, tension in muscles, lots of things. And, of course, these and other ailments may have absolutely nothing to do with memories, they may just be stand alone physical issues. We are complex and amazing beings! and there are no one size fits all answers. As always, this podcast does not constitute individual medical advice and see you doctor for any physical issues, and if any of this resonates for you, talk to your EMDR therapist and see if EMDR can help
I will talk to you again next week. In the meantime, take good care. Bye for now.
