SYMPTOMS OF A NERVOUS SYSTEM DYSREGULATED BY RACIAL TRAUMA.
A NERVOUS SYSTEM THAT CAN NEVER REST.
What does race-based trauma look like in the bodies of those who have been oppressed, violated, bullied, harmed and traumatized?
It looks like a nervous system that can never rest.
What does living in a Black or Indigenous or brown body feel like, every.single.time another Black man is innocently murdered at the hands of police?
Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King shared the following words after the murder of Dante Wright:
Black, Indigenous and other racialized people are moving through deep trauma right now.
How does that show up?
As nervous systems that can’t find their way back to centre.
Racial and oppression-based trauma, harm and violence is pervasive and persistent. It is not “post-traumatic” PTSD. Assaults to the body and the nervous system can occur through direct experiences of racism or discrimination or through witnessing racial violence first-hand or through the media.
The Fight or Flight Response:
The unpredictability of when the next occurrence of harm will occur can lead to bodies and nervous systems that are forced to remain on “high-alert”, in states of hyper-arousal and hyper-vigilance. This may be likened to being in perpetual states of “fight, flight or flee” — Responding to the world as if danger is an ever-present reality (for many Black, Indigenous and racialized bodies, danger is an ever-present reality). Not all bodies and people have the privilege to “let down their guard” or to assume safety in any workplace, healthcare establishment, educational space or community environment. Even being in perpetual “fight or flight” or survival mode is not enough, however, to guarantee safety, and this inner knowing further contributes to states of chaotic hyper-arousal.
CHRONIC HYPER-AROUSAL CAN PRESENT AS:
Behavioural: Hyper-vigilance. Constantly scanning the environment for safety.
Somatic: Erratic movements, fast movement, eye-darting
Emotional: Rage, anger, despair, anxiety, fear and panic
Cognitive: Brain fog, difficulty concentrating, word finding problems, feeling trapped, feeling tense
Physical: Tight jaw, clenched fists, contracted abdomen, heart racing, eye-blinking, eye-darting, throat clearing, restless limbs, dry mouth
Physiological: Hormonal dysregulation, menstrual pain, fibroids, reproductive health issues, digestive issues
Spiritual: Loss of faith in God, Allah, Buddha or other spiritual figures. Mistrust, questioning worth and value.
The Freeze Response:
What happens to a person who cannot flee in the face of danger? In the social hierarchy of Western society, what happens to the energy that accumulates in the body when one feels unsafe, but CANNOT ACT on a desire to fight or to flee? What happens to bodies who cannot run in the face of violence? What happens to Black bodies, Brown bodies, Indigenous bodies, racialized bodies, Transgender bodies + disabled bodies who either cannot physically run, or face the potential of harm, threat, or suspicion during attempts to flee dangerous situations?
What happens when Black and racialized men try to fight or run from the police? What happens to the energy in racialized bodies with a desire to flee or to fight in self-protection - in a society that rewards racialized bodies who “stay calm”?
The freeze response is another manifestion of a nervous system in hyper-arousal. During freeze responses, our bodies can shut-down, dissociate and disconnect in an effort to self-protect during experiences of harm. Freeze responses, however, can also appear after a harmful event, in recalling experiences of trauma or when trauma triggers present themselves, and can manifest as phobias, panic, distraction and disconnection.
The Fawning Response:
The fawning/please + appease response is a result of suppressing a desire to flight, fight, or flee, in order to preserve our safety, to keep our job, to not appear “dangerous” or “unruly”. Like flooring the gas and then slamming on the breaks, the appease response is learned abandoning of ourself, an over-riding of our needs, an over-riding of our self-protection mechanism, a learned duality in our bodies. It is a flood of cortisol with nowhere to go.
And, there is a cost. There is a cost to the body of over-riding our desire to leave a situation that doesn’t feel safe to us - in order to impress others, to appear professional, to appear “safe” in a white-cis-hetero-able-bodied society. There is a cost that we endure, a burdening of ourselves, to freeze, fawn and appease when we’d rather fight or run. While fight, flight, and freeze may be innate — NOT all bodies have the freedom to express and act on these impulses. This, too, is a privilege.
Fawning is a response characterized by conflict avoidance, people-pleasing, collapsed boundaries, an inability to stand up for oneself or to speak one’s needs, to the detriment to one’s own wellbeing.
FAWNING (PLEASE + APPEASE), AND COLLAPSE/SUBMIT) RESPONSES CAN PRESENT AS:
Behavioural: Seemingly tuned-out of environment, numbing behaviours, dissociation
Somatic: Shoulders slumped forward, sense of being “immobile” or “paralyzed”, head + eyes turned down, eyes motionless, locked gaze, clenched jaw
Emotional: depression, disconnect, despair, sense of dread, feeling stuck or trapped
Cognitive: Brain fog, difficulty recalling information and words. Slow language processing
Physical: Feeling stuck in the body, heaviness in the limbs, coldness, numbness, shallow breathing, lump in the throat,
Physiological: Decreased heart rate, hormonal dysregulation, reproductive health issues, digestive issues.
Spiritual: Feeling disconnected from spiritual guides or ancestors. Questioning purpose in life.
impacts of white supremacy on the body
As social workers, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health workers and educators, understanding the manifestations of racial and oppression-based trauma is essential to creating transformative education and wellness spaces. Developing a lens that encompasses the understanding that the system of oppression disrupts healthy nervous system functioning (and healthy emotional coping responses) is essential to working with racialized clients.