From Trauma Healing Accelerated (Dr Aimie Apigean)
The Little-Known Way to Stay Out of
The Overwhelm Collapse and Freeze

You’re doing the work.
You’re practising somatic exercises.

You’re following movement patterns to rewire attachment and neurodevelopment gaps.

You’re working hard to understand and regulate your nervous system.
With each step you are taking, you are working hard to heal and understand your trauma.
 

But… does it feel like it's not sticking? Is the relief only temporary? Have you ever felt that the benefit doesn’t seem to last? I'm sure you've seen this!
 

Why is that? Why is it so easy to keep falling back into old patterns?
 

Although the nervous system is shifting in the moment, sometimes it’s not actually rewiring on a cellular level. This is because it does not have the resources on a cellular level that it needs. It can’t stick, because the body doesn’t have the energy it needs to make it happen.
 

You won’t be able to do this work and make it last without more of one thing: Energy!
Let’s break this down a bit further by looking at the freeze response itself.
 
A Closer Look At The Freeze Response
When there is a threat or a trigger, our bodies jump into an active response to move to protect ourselves. So when we think about the freeze state, what would cause our bodies to shut down and go into overwhelm instead of moving to protect? 
 

What are some things you can think of? Why would we shut down instead of rising to action?
One answer is – We don’t have enough energy to stay present through that stress or shock.
We don’t have what we need. Not enough resources; not enough energy.
 

That doesn't take away from the other factors of how big the psychological threat actually was. But when we have more internal energy, those dangers will not be as out of proportion from the internal resources we have available. 
 

When we feel we are running out of internal resources, we have to shut down. 

"When we can improve the energy of the system, everything gets better. Energy is our leverage point."
 
What Energy and Resources Do You Have Available?
So let's look at the resources available. 

• How much energy do you have, how much actual ATP do you have in your cells?

• How much money do you have in your bank?

• How many people do you have in your life who can support and contain you, who you feel safe reaching out to?

All of these become important pieces to take into account, in your own life, and also in the lives of the people you serve.
 

At the core of trauma is an energy problem. Because if we had had energy, if we had had more resources, we never would have gone into shutdown. Our body would not have told ourselves that it was out of energy so we better shut down. This is why energy is so important in the topic of trauma, because energy is our leverage point. When we can improve the energy of the system, everything gets better.
If we increase the energy in the system, we also decrease inflammation. We also decrease oxidative stress. By having more energy we also improve the detoxification system. We improve our digestive system. We improve our neurotransmitters. So by improving energy, we're directly affecting all these other things. The system needs energy in order to effect a change. 
 
Trauma Is an Energy Problem
When we or our clients are stuck in trauma, the body does not have what it needs in terms of time, energy and resources. Even money can be a resource; people can be a resource. Our system will not have the available resources to break this cycle of trauma until we put all the pieces into place, or at least enough of the pieces that we can change and shift this cycle. Then we start to really gain momentum. Those of you who have started this work, especially in the 21 Day Journey, you noticed that you've been able to begin to pick up momentum, because you've been able to make some shifts and break some of the cycle. 
 

Trauma really does come down to an energy problem. Whether it was the initial trauma itself, or now chronically being stuck in those trauma patterns and not being able to pull out of that and recover. This is why energy becomes a really important topic in trauma recovery. 

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