Trauma and the Nervous System: Why You Feel Stuck

trauma and the nervous system woman regulating her breathing

Written by:

Janel Coleman, LMSW

Trauma leaves an imprint on us. It changes the way our nervous system functions, and these changes aren’t always noticeable. Maybe it’s the feeling of constantly being on edge despite nothing particularly stressful going on. Or a small disagreement making your heart pound, or freezing up when something feels off.

My name is Janel Coleman, LMSW and as a therapist with Madison Square Psychotherapy, I’ve seen how trauma affects more than just memories. I’ve seen how it changes the way people react to situations that, on the surface, don’t seem dangerous at all. And I’ve also had the privilege of using trauma therapy to help people feel safe in their bodies again.

In this article, we’ll help you understand how trauma and the nervous system can make some reactions feel automatic, even when they don’t match what’s happening. We’ll also explore how therapy can support trauma recovery, so you can feel less like you’re constantly bracing for something to go wrong.

How the Nervous System Responds to Stress

How we respond to stress is part of our natural survival mechanism. When we sense danger, multiple systems in the body work together to get us ready to fight or run away. The nervous system is responsible for coordinating how these systems react, and many of these processes happen automatically, without our conscious decision.

When our brain interprets a situation as stressful or dangerous, it triggers the release of hormones that cause the sympathetic nervous system to stimulate the release of cortisol and adrenaline. [1] These stress hormones trigger a cascade of other reactions in the body, including:

An increased heart rate and breathing
Changes in blood pressure
Redirecting blood to major organs and larger muscles, like the heart, which can cause your hands or feet to feel numb or tingly, or your skin to feel flushed [2]
Tension in the muscles

These reactions are part of the fight-or-flight response. The body redirects energy away from processes not considered vital for survival, like the digestive system, and into the muscles and organs necessary to fight or flee. [3]

Once the danger passes, the body should gradually settle. A well-regulated nervous system isn’t one that stays calm all the time. Instead, it’s one that can respond to stress and then return to calm and rest when the situation is over.

How Trauma Affects The Nervous System

The connection between trauma and the nervous system may continue even after the immediate threat is gone because traumatic experiences can overwhelm our ability to cope. They disrupt our sense of safety, control, and connection.

With trauma, the brain’s alarm system can become overactive. The part of the brain that’s responsible for detecting threats (the amygdala) starts treating everything as potential danger, even when things feel relatively safe. [4]

These reactions just mean our bodies learned to prioritize survival as a result of an environment or experience where danger was intense, unpredictable, or ongoing. As a result of this overactive amygdala and dysregulated nervous system, we might experience:

Difficulty sleeping or relaxing
Feelings of being easily startled or constantly alert
Muscle tension and physical pain
Digestive discomfort
Trouble concentrating
Irritability or emotional numbness
Feelings of being detached from ourselves or our surroundings
Strong reactions to criticism or conflict
A persistent need for control or predictability

Not everyone who experiences trauma will have continued nervous system dysregulation or meet criteria for a PTSD or C-PTSD diagnosis. But knowing how trauma and the nervous system interact can provide useful information about how your body has learned to manage chronic stress.

What Are Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn Responses?

Most of us are familiar with the fight-or-flight response. But these are not the only ways our bodies can respond to threats. A trauma response may involve fighting, fleeing, freezing, appeasing, or a combination of reactions. Here is a full breakdown of the responses a trauma nervous system can create:

Fight: A fight response prepares you to confront danger. It may appear as anger, irritability, defensiveness, or a strong need to regain control. You might become especially reactive when you feel criticized, ignored, cornered, or misunderstood.
Flight: A flight response creates an urge to escape. Sometimes this means physically leaving a situation. At other times, it may look like staying constantly busy, overworking, striving for perfection, or avoiding difficult emotions. During a flight response, your body might surge with hormones, like adrenaline, to prepare for escape.
Freeze: A freeze response might happen when fighting or escaping doesn’t feel possible. Instead, you might go blank during conflict, become emotionally numb, or find it hard to make simple decisions. Essentially, freeze is like a “play dead” survival response, where it can feel as though your body has taken away your ability to react. [5]
Fawn: The fawn response, also called “please-and-appease,” is a somewhat newly recognized trauma response. It involves trying to reduce danger by pleasing, appeasing, or caring for someone else. The fawn response is often related to childhood trauma or complex PTSD (CPTSD) because the nervous system has learned to appease to stay safe. [6]

It’s good to note that trauma nervous system responses aren’t fixed. You might fight in one situation, freeze in another, and fawn in certain relationships.

Ways to Support Nervous System Regulation

Working with trauma and the nervous system doesn’t mean forcing your body to calm down. In fact, putting pressure on yourself to relax may create more frustration when your system is already overwhelmed.

Instead, the goal is to help your body feel a little less overwhelmed than it did a few moments before. You could try:

Looking around the room and noticing where you are
Pressing your feet gently into the floor
Lengthening your exhale without forcing a deep breath
Releasing your jaw or lowering your shoulders
Taking a brief walk or stretching
Naming the emotion or sensation you notice
Reducing noise, light, or other stimulation
Eating and sleeping at consistent times when possible
Spending time with people who help you feel accepted and grounded

Not every strategy will work for you. For some trauma survivors, closing their eyes, focusing on their breath, or becoming highly aware of bodily sensations can feel uncomfortable. Find the tools that work best for you and continue to practice them, especially during times when you’re not highly activated. When you practice these tools regularly, they start to become easier to access when you’re struggling.

Move Toward Greater Safety

At Madison Square Psychotherapy, we help you understand trauma and the nervous system and move toward nervous system healing. Trauma therapy with us can help you understand what activates your trauma response, how to notice signs of stress earlier, and find ways to respond before becoming completely overwhelmed.

We know that a dysregulated nervous system may have developed when your mind and body were doing the best they could to help you survive, but that it now may no longer be serving you. We’ll help you explore trauma and nervous system regulation without pressuring you to move faster than feels right.

If you’re looking for increased emotional regulation and trauma recovery, book a consultation with myself or one of our therapists. And if you’re not sure who to work with, fill out a quick questionnaire, and we’ll match you with the person who best fits your needs. Together, we’ll help you understand why your nervous system reacts the way it does and find ways for you to feel more in control of those reactions.

FAQs About Trauma and the Nervous System

The body’s responses to trauma can feel confusing, especially when they appear suddenly or at what seem to be calm moments. Here, we’ll address some questions we often hear from clients about the trauma response and nervous system connection.

What Nervous System Holds Trauma?

Trauma is not literally stored in the body. But the trauma response typically happens in the autonomic nervous system, specifically the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches. The sympathetic nervous system is the area that activates the body’s fight-or-flight response, while the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for calming down, also called the “rest and digest” system.

After trauma, this system becomes more attuned to perceived danger. Your sympathetic nervous system might stay on alert, while your parasympathetic nervous system might have a harder time returning to a state of calm.

What Does a Trauma Response in the Nervous System Feel Like?

A nervous system and trauma response may feel like a racing heart, tightness in your chest, tension in your muscles, restlessness, emotional numbness, or an urgent need to escape. You might also feel compelled to keep another person happy by being unusually agreeable or accommodating.

What’s the Best Therapy for Trauma and Nervous System Regulation?

There is no one-size-fits-all “best” therapy for nervous system healing. Some people benefit from trauma-focused cognitive behavioral approaches or EMDR, while others respond well to psychodynamic, relational, somatic, or mindfulness-based therapies. What makes these approaches effective is your relationship with the therapist and finding the one that best suits your needs.

What Is Polyvagal Theory?

Polyvagal theory provides a helpful explanation of how the autonomic nervous system responds to cues of safety, danger, and overwhelming threat. It describes how the body may shift between social connection, fight-or-flight activation, and shutdown or immobilization.7

Some therapists use polyvagal theory to help clients notice changes in their energy, emotions, and ability to connect with others. While it’s not a complete or universally accepted explanation of trauma, it gives us a way to describe how and why the body reacts automatically in certain situations.

References:

Harvard Health. (2024, April 3). Understanding the stress response. https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthy-aging-and-longevity/understanding-the-stress-response
American Psychological Association. (2018, November 1). Stress effects on the body. https://www.apa.org/topics/stress/body
Chu, B., Marwaha, K., Sanvictores, T., Awosika, A. O., & Ayers, D. (2024, May 7). Physiology, stress reaction. StatPearls – NCBI Bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK541120/
De Voogd, L. D., Hashemi, M. M., Zhang, W., Kaldewaij, R., Koch, S. B., Van Ast, V. A., Klumpers, F., & Roelofs, K. (2025). Amygdala hyperactivity in posttraumatic stress disorder: Disentangling predisposing from consequential factors using a prospective longitudinal design. Biological Psychiatry, 98(5), 427–435. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.02.894
Schmidt, N. B., Richey, J. A., Zvolensky, M. J., & Maner, J. K. (2007). Exploring human freeze responses to a threat stressor. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 39(3), 292–304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2007.08.002
Martin, M. (2025, June 5). Fawn response: the trauma survival pattern that’s mistaken for kindness. CPTSDfoundation.org. https://cptsdfoundation.org/2025/06/05/fawn-response-the-trauma-survival-pattern-thats-mistaken-for-kindness/
Porges, S. W. (2025). Polyvagal Theory: current status, clinical applications, and future directions. PubMed, 22(3), 169–184. https://doi.org/10.36131/cnfioritieditore20250301