What Does The Brain Do During Child Abuse?

If you are a survivor of child abuse, you can get help!

You probably already realize that regardless of your self-will or determination you can not always control your mental, emotional and physical responses. Being or feeling out of control can be very overwhelming and painful.

When people say trite things like 'let go and let God,'  'Have faith,' 'think positively,' 'get over it, move on' or 'leave it in the past, live in the present' it can be so condemning and frustrating.  Honestly most people mean to be helpful, but they simply don't understand recovering from child abuse is a process that often involves brain therapy.

Brain Therapy? 

Yes! Our brains are malleable. Until the latest testing and research - especially with MRIs - doctors didn't know how much the brain can actually be changed - it is called the plasticity of the brain. 

When a person is raised from a very young age in a continually neglectful, abuse or trauma situation, the brain wires itself to adapt for survival needs. Normal pathways that young children through teens develop are simply not created. Instead the brain protects the soul of the child by using a variety of coping mechanisms: denial, conscious memory loss, splitting, disassociation, avoidance, projection, and many others. 

The brain is amazing! 

Therapist have discovered that the brain has a natural tendency to be able to heal itself. When a person is given the right support and environment, he/she instinctively know what he/she needs. One of the support processes is scanning the body and being receptive to what the body and mind is saying. 

My therapist would say to me in times of crisis, "What Do You Need?"

No matter what mindset I was in - even if I had regressed to a young state/age/alter/self - if I paused and listened within I could give voice to what I needed at that moment. What came to mind did not always make cognitive sense; I could not have reasoned to the point of figuring out what I needed and certainly another person could not decide what I needed in order to heal. I had to trust the voices within.

Neuron Cell Columns

In reading Daniel Siegel, M.D. book Mindsight I was taught that our memories are stored in a column of six neuron cells. Think of a neuron column as a stack of six cookies.

When we are young many columns are formed in various areas of our brain uniquely designed for specific input. We have all heard that distinct parts of the brain store language, numbers/logic, motor control, emotions, etc. In our brain, similar columns are grouped closely together, building fuller knowledge and a reliable learned experience in specific sections of the brain. 

Throughout our life new input enters, our brain locates the appropriate area and transmits the input up the first two neuron cells of a column (the bottom two cookies). At the same time our previous stored memory of the fifth and six cell moves down (the top two cookies) and meets the new input in cell three and four (the middle two cookies). It is at the point of data meeting that the brain decides how to blend the information, and determines a response.

Think of six cookies stacked up top of each other:

• the top two cookies represent the stored info, 
• the bottom two are ready for new info and 
• the middle two is where this all meets.

Now when a child has horrific memories stored in columns because of incidences of abuse that occurred in many areas of life, the top two cells in the neuron column hold this information. When new input enters a neuron column and meets with traumatic memory in the middle, you can just imagine the neurons activity is all mixed up. It is understandable how panicked, anxious and confused a survivor becomes. When this happens doctors say a mirror reaction occurs in the brain.

The new, present day input is brought in by our senses and meets with trauma facts or emotions stored, but never properly processed, in the brain. Therefore a trigger trauma is when person experiences feels and thinks the present situation is somehow connected to the abuse. It is not a cognitive conscious decision. It happens in micro seconds within the neurons of the brain. In a trigger response an abuse survivor reacts in the  the present to what happen in the past - it is automatic and very somatic (chemically driven and bodily felt).

If this is all new to you, I am sure it can sound confusing because very complex data and research has been simplified so we can understand our brains better. Still, for me, knowing this information helps. I guess I like to picture what is happening and don't feel so out of control knowing what actually takes place. I am vindicated being able to show people I was not 'crazy' or making up the times of anxiety/fear, anger, persuasion, excitement, insistence, and similar reactions to seemingly neutral smells, tastes, objects and actions.

My brain's wiring was messed up to the point that I need careful 'brain' therapy to facilitate the development of new brain patterns/columns and to process what had stuck in fact or feeling. And this is what I am so excited about telling other survivors of abuse.

It Works!

I went to a therapist trained in helping trauma patients using EMDR, Brainspotting and Natural Flow methods of therapy for 7 years. The basic similar component to these types of therapies (and many others having different names) is they all trust the client to do brain exercises in the safety of a therapist who helps the client stay grounded in the present and without having to relive all the details of the past. 

If you were a victim of child abuse you can be helped. Don't loose hope. Healing is not easy, but it is possible with persistence - just keep focused on the fact that you are helping to create a better you for yourself and your loved ones. 

If you have any questions or some of your own brain therapy experience that you want to share please comment.