How Trauma Hijacks our Body
Our story begins with two friends chatting.
Nothing dramatic, nothing threatening. One casually mentions her new partner - when suddenly, the other feels a heavy drape of numbness.
Her body goes limp, her head spins, and it feels like she might faint.
***What just happened?***
This wasn’t “overreacting” or “being dramatic.” This was her body reacting to a trigger, and trying to protect her.
The Trigger
That simple comment," I have a partner”, landed like a stone in water.
Beneath the surface, her nervous system linked it to an old, painful memory of abandonment.
This is called implicit memory: present-day moments can activate emotional templates from the past, without conscious choice.
The sudden numbness was a dorsal vagal response - our freeze/collapse mode.
It’s the body’s way of saying: “This is too much. Let’s shut down so you don’t feel it all at once.”
Then came the dizziness, that almost-fainting sensation - this happens when the vagus nerve drops heart rate and blood pressure (like pulling an emergency brake).
Why It Feels So Strange
Here’s the confusing part: the brain and the body told two different stories.
Conscious mind: “It’s just my friend talking.”
Subconscious body: “This means rejection. This means abandonment.”
That mismatch ~ feeling unsafe when you know you’re safe ~ is what makes these responses so disorienting.
A Flow Chart Depiction
Trigger: Friend mentions partner → activates memory of abandonment.
↓
Safety scan: Body says, “Not safe.”
↓
Fight or flight: Not possible.
↓
Fallback: Shutdown mode.
↓
Physical effects: Numbness, wooziness, detachment.
↓
Short-term outcome: Protection from emotional overwhelm.
What happened wasn’t random OR a failure to cope.
It was her nervous system protecting her the best way it knew how: by dimming the lights and creating distance from the pain.
Your nervous system is never broken, quite the opposite. It is always (in its own way) trying to keep you safe.
Regards, Brittany x
