By Eric Maisel, The Good Men Project, January 7, 2021
We live in an age of physical complaints whose exact biological, organic, or “disease” causes are often hard to pin down. To say that many of them may have to do with prior or current trauma isn’t to say that they are psychosomatic or psychological in nature. Rather, that’s to say that trauma, stress, and psychological wounding naturally, logically—and often severely—play themselves out in the body.
No one doubts that there is a mind/body connection. People find it a little harder to accept that past unresolved trauma and ongoing present traumas can produce illness. We hate to think that we’ve opened ourselves up to respiratory problems, digestive problems, other physical ailments and medical conditions, and even chronically poor health because of the way our mind works and the way our personality has formed as a result of trauma. But that’s exactly what a mind/body connection implies. Our mental, emotional and psychological states affect our physical health.
The British National Health Service puts it this way: “Trauma is a term used to describe single or multiple distressing events that may have long-lasting and harmful effects on a person’s physical and/or emotional well-being. There is a direct correlation between trauma and physical health conditions such as diabetes, COPD, heart disease, cancer, and high blood pressure.”
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