How childhood attachment & trauma issues are more biological and not psychological
We have always been told our attachment style and early childhood trauma is psychological. However this is simply not true. We just haven’t known better until now. In this article by Dr Aimie Apigian, she shares why these are more biological than psychological and how we can harness the power of our biology to heal faster!
Attachment style and early trauma has not only has become our biology, but it may have been as a result of our biology as well.
There are many aspects of one’s biology to look at which I will share in this article. The definition of trauma is an event that is overwhelming to a person’s ability to cope. Trauma overwhelms one’s survival machine, one’s biology, in its ability to respond to the threat and the experience of overwhelming one’s survival machine leaves lasting effects on the biology, especially the nervous system. The nervous system is inter-connected with every other system in your body - hormones, metabolism, cardiovascular, digestive system etc - and this is how traumatic events leave lasting changes in one’s biology, whether one is aware of those changes or not.
This is especially true in the case of early childhood and attachment trauma.
“The nervous system is inter-connected with every other system in your body - hormones, metabolism, cardiovascular, digestive system etc - and this is how traumatic events leave lasting changes in one’s biology, whether one is aware of those changes or not.”
Because of this, recovery needs to include biological approaches just as much as or even more than psychological approaches. The effects of trauma have mostly been thought of as being psychological. Therefore, counseling and cognitive-based therapies tend to be the usual approach. The idea is to just fix the way they think about the past and present. These approaches have very limited long-term success because trauma and recovery from trauma are more biological than psychological!
As Dr. Bessel Van der Kolk says, “Traditional Therapy is useless for traumatized people, but especially children because it does not reach the parts of the brain that were most impacted by trauma.”
What we’re finding now is how much trauma changes the biology of one’s brain and body. It changes chemical, communication, and activation patterns within the brain. It also changes the chemical and communication pathways within the nervous system. After a trauma, it’s not just the psychology that struggles, it’s the altered biology of the brain and body that keeps the psychology stuck in faulty thinking and reactive patterns. Addressing the biological components is essential to achieve the psychological recovery.
“After a trauma, it’s not just the psychology that struggles, it’s the altered biology of the brain and body that keeps the psychology stuck in faulty thinking and reactive patterns. Addressing the biological components is essential to achieve the psychological recovery.”
Trauma Creates Biological Imbalances
Regardless of one’s biology and genetics going into what will be a traumatic situation, by itself, trauma is going to create lasting biological imbalances. These imbalances persist and reside in the brain and body, resulting in ongoing effects long after the situation is resolved.
While many focus on the chronic psychological changes after a trauma, the underlying biological imbalances are what prevent the brain and psychology from healing after a trauma. Correcting biological imbalances makes a huge difference in one’s mood and psychology affected by trauma. I look to the decades of work of Dr. William Walsh and his observations of biological factors in mood and behavioral problems, even many who were incarcerated.
Of the patients who were compliant with the targeted nutritional treatment to correct the biological imbalances found after testing, 92% of them reported a reduction of anger-induced assaults, and 58% reported they had complete elimination of their symptoms! You can find his published paper here.
I have now been incorporating this testing and targeted nutritional treatment in my work with mood, trauma, and attachment for 5 years and I have been surprised to see consistent patterns showing up in both children and adults with insecure attachment patterns.
READ MORE of Dr Aimie Apigian’s article HERE
Learn more about harnessing the power of biology and functional medicine to make the nervous system more available for therapy and accelerate the trauma healing journey rather than making it harder than it needs to be?
Join Dr Aimie Apigian in her 8-hour workshop, “BIOLOGY OF TRAUMA & HEALING: APPLICATIONS OF FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE”.
