Post trauma hypersensitivity is a generalised term for a state of chronic (mild to severe) increased level of sensitivity to stimulus.
This can sometimes present as chronic pain, it could be sleep, digestion or changes in mood like low tolerance to emotional stress. All of these symptoms can be brought on by trauma. Trauma can be physical e.g. an accident or injury or it can be emotional in nature or very commonly, the trauma the body experiences following a bout of illness.
So why does the body get stuck in a state of high stress that further down the line presents as pain or other chronic symptoms?
When resources are low, the subconscious has a difficult time accurately processing the millions of pieces of proprioceptive, emotional, chemical, viral or environmental stimulus or data. Some of this information will be wrongly processed as dangerous or potentially harmful which will set off a chain reaction of subconscious events or responses within the body. Unfortunately, these now hypersensitive reactions to stimuli feedback and increase even more stress into an already overburdened system. This negative feedback loop can sometimes be stuck in place, long after the initial trauma has healed or “quietened” down.
This is how chronic pain can present itself. You may have pain in your shoulder or neck, have had scans or examinations that tell you there is no physical damage or injury, yet the pain remains. This is a classic example of what is now classed as neuropathic pain. It is pain that exists because the brain perceives there to be a problem, NOT because there is one.
Hypersensitivity can also affect the function of sleep or digestion via changes to hormones due to unconscious, high levels of sympathetic (fight of flight) type stress.
Recognising that this exists is a key part of the treatment process here. Sometimes chronic conditions can be explained with tests, actual injury or physical trauma. Sometimes chronic conditions are a result of the state the body was left in after a traumatic episode has occurred.
So how do we treat these sorts of symptoms?
Our Four Step - Treatment Process was designed to tackle these types of conditions head on. Reducing the sensitivity of the nervous system to these stimuli that are now seen as dangerous, is the key component of the treatment process. We aim to work with your nervous system, to down regulate stress responses and to nurture a state of healing, both physically and emotionally so that the chronic conditions you may be experiencing are no longer seen as something that needs to be addressed.
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