Reflexes 3: Buried Trauma, Buried Treasure

When we work with primitive reflexes, we skate on the edges of trauma. That’s because the reflexes are there to save our lives.

When the bus pulls up to the curb, and we jump backwards before we even realize that anything is happening – that’s a reflex. When we gag to quickly regurgitate that thing that might get stuck in our windpipe – that’s a reflex. Everything we do reflexively, before there is time to think or feel, is an act of survival.

We might not think of a bus coming too close to the curb as a trauma. After all, nothing happened. We just got on and went to work. It’s nothing we would even necessarily remember.

But the back part of the brain correctly read that moment as potentially life-threatening, and reacted accordingly. And forgetting the trauma figures into our survival plan - because in those stressful moments, we are flooded with cortisol, a hormone that inhibits memory.

It would not be useful for us to remember traumatic incidents. If we did, we would be panicking over the smallest things. We would have trouble sleeping at night. We would find it difficult to focus on what was immediately at hand. Our distraction might make it more difficult to learn and remember new information. It might be hard for us to be spontaneous and playful, because in some part of our minds, we would be waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Do you know anyone like this?

Buried Treasure. Sometimes, we are all like this. We are not wired for the amount of stress that “normal” modern life involves. Every day can be full of small traumas. And sometimes, they are not so small.

When traumas are too intense – or prolonged – or recurring – or unacknowledged - or unmentionable – or minor, but overwhelming in number  – they go underground. Our (extremely practical) survival systems bury these traumatic episodes under blankets of compensation. Behaviors and illnesses and allergies, learning and coordination difficulties can be some of the compensatory symptoms we treat, often without knowing (and sometimes mistaking) the origin. Sleeping, eating, anxiety, aggression, academic, motor or social problems can all stem from buried trauma. 

These buried traumas can be activated by “triggers” - small or large, clearly on topic or seemingly unrelated. We are “triggered” when we see, hear, smell, taste, touch, or otherwise experience something that re-activates buried traumatic content. An electric current zaps through all of our intricately wired compensations. It pierces the insulating material our survival systems have carefully wrapped around it. Suddenly, it as if the trauma were all happening all over again right now.

The good news is that, when old traumas are triggered, their origins become more possible to locate. We can find the movement patterns that have been frozen in our neurology since the trauma occurred. And since the primitive reflexes are the same for every human being, that movement pattern is always created from the same kit of standard components. We have some of the parts necessary to fix the problem. These are the primitive reflexes.

Next post, we’ll open the toolbox. Meanwhile, readers can read back into the Movement Matters archives for some practical reflex integration techniques! Here’s a short list:

Too Wiggly To Sit Still: Moving Into Calm (June 24, 2012) 

Too Scared To Come In: Moving Into Presence (May 25, 2012)

Two Kinds of Automatic (March 16, 2012) 

Wriggle, Creep, Crawl, Walk: Playlist Series III (March 9, 2012) 

So I Left the Playlist: Playlist Series II (March 3, 2012) 

Under the Volcano (August 26, 2011) 

If You’re Happy and You Know It, Integrate a Reflex (July 17, 2011)