Link between trauma and chronic pain

It was while watching a TED talk about the rise in auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, CFS and FM that the specialist in the field, a rheumatologist, mentioned that 90% of her patients had a childhood or youth trauma. The fight & flight mechanism would have been triggered to such an extent that too much adrenaline was produced in the body for too long, which would cause acidification. And acidification causes pain.

I talked about it with my rheumatologist and she was not familiar with the research but agreed that she also thought there was a link between autoimmune diseases, pain and trauma. 'But unfortunately people come here to have their body treated, which means; for medication. People do not appreciate it when I advise them to visit a psychologist. They would rather take a pill.' I am now putting this very bluntly, the rheumatologist was much more careful in her wording.

Some people immediately know which childhood trauma triggered their fight, flight & freeze mechanism.

And then there's another, larger group of people who can start digging into their past but find nothing significant. "I haven’t really experienced anything, I actually had a great childhood," might be their response.

The speaker in the TED Talk gave a few examples of trauma:

• Your mother gave birth to your sibling, and you had to stay with an uncle and aunt for a few days, missing your mother immensely.
• A teacher embarrassed you in front of the class in elementary school.
• You went to summer camp and felt homesick for ten days straight.
• You had to stay in the hospital overnight for an appendix removal, all alone without a parent.

Seemingly ordinary situations where you had to fend for yourself without a parent.

But I am convinced that not only these types of traumas activate our fight mechanism.

Did you grow up in a family with high expectations and performance pressure? Where emotions had no place? Or where you were unnoticable?  

'Be strong, behave, don’t be silly, come on, do your best!'

Were you allowed to show anger? "Hey, calm down!"

Or pride? "Stay humble, don’t get ahead of yourself."

Were you allowed to dream? "Oh, that’s only for the lucky few."

I clearly remember that laughing too loudly wasn’t allowed—it was shut down immediately.

I believe many people grew up (and still grow up) surrounded by people who might not say these things out loud but made you feel them. Ugh. Through a deep sigh, an eye roll, being ignored, or other passive-aggressive behavior that made you feel unsafe—but as a child, you couldn't quite put your finger on it. So you adapted, wanting to be seen, trying even harder to please.

Parents… they were just figuring things out, and honestly, our generation is doing the same.

Do you also notice this around you? A child calling from the playground: "Look, Mom and Dad! Look!" while Mom and Dad are glued to their smartphones. If they’re lucky, they eventually glance up and say, "That’s great!" before going right back to their screens… Ouch. That breaks my heart. Or a family of four at a restaurant, where Mom, Dad, and the older child are all staring at their phones, while the youngest is told, "Sit still!"

In those moments, something stirs inside me, and in my mind, I see a ninja version of myself delivering powerful blows to those parents. And then… I get lower back pain. Or maybe tension in my pelvis. Anger. It does something to a person. But I digress.

Back to the link between trauma and pain:
You don’t have to have experienced trauma to suffer from chronic pain. But if you have experienced trauma, the risk of developing a chronic condition is much higher.

It frustrates me that I can’t find that TED Talk anymore. If anyone knows which one I’m talking about, please send me the link!

Love,
Els

P.S. The video below is a similar TED Talk—definitely worth watching!