Neurobiological

An overproduction of stress hormones that when activated do not return to normal but can endure for hours or days as identified below:

• Jittery, trembling
• Exaggerated startle response
• Alarm system in the brain remains “on”; creating difficulty in reading faces and social cues; misinterpreting other people’s behaviour or events as threatening, sleep difficulty and the need to avoid situations that are perceived to be frightening
• part of the brain systems change by becoming smaller or bigger than they are supposed to be
• Fight, flight, freeze response (which may look different from person to person)
• Responses are involuntary

Click here to view the Trauma and the Brain Flow Chart.