In light of the recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida, I feel compelled to share information regarding how traumatic stress can impact a person’s life. Also, how one can overcome the life threatening event(s) when all hope is lost. There’s a moment when you watch an interview with one of the survivors from the school shooting soon after the event took place, and see that their hands are trembling, their thoughts are scattered, and muscles are tense. In this moment, you are seeing someone experience a dominant sympathetic nervous system. Not only do the above symptoms occur, but a person will also experience accelerated heart rate, constricted blood vessels, rise in blood pressure, and overall physical sensation amplification. Mentally, their language ability reduces, logic and reasoning shifts, and executive functioning skills shut down. Our instincts kick in when we are under threat and we choose one of three instinctual responses: fight, flight, or freeze.
Our bodies know when we are under threat and prepare us for action. Our heart rate increases in order to push blood to our limbs faster so we can be ready to fight or flight. Not only does this happen with a real life-threatening event, but also perceived threats. Think of perceived threats like this: All of our stress is the result of experiencing a perceived threat. In other words, stress does not exist without perceived threat. And guess what happens when we are stressed? Sympathetic nervous system dominance.
There is a good chance that students and survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida will experience posttraumatic stress and some may develop the disorder itself (PTSD). The job many trauma therapists and other mental health professionals have to do now is help those who experienced the above symptoms and work to achieve parasympathetic dominance. The way to do this is to teach survivors how to engage in reciprocal inhibition (Wolpe, 1968). Survivors must learn how to desensitize the present day effects of trauma with a regulated autonomic nervous system and relaxed muscle body. “By maintaining relaxed muscle bodies in the context of perceived threats, normally functioning adults can quickly find physiological and psychological comfort, maximize neocortical (thinking) functions, and regain intentional, principal based behavior even while we are confronting these threats (Gentry, 2016).” In order to self-regulate and relax, one must become intentional with releasing muscle tension they hold throughout their bodies. Allow yourself to let go of the muscle constriction and feel heavy in your chair. So, here's the take home message: You cannot be stressed in a relaxed muscle body. Give it a try and feel the difference.