At the office, I often talk about trauma because the inability to adapt to trauma is what brings people to the office for a chiropractic adjustment. The goal of this post is to help define trauma. In my opinion, to be healthy, we have to do the best we can to decrease the amount of trauma we subject our bodies to and increase our ability to adapt to the trauma we cannot avoid. Let's talk about trauma, and how it relates to chiropractic.
What is trauma?
In this post, we are going to walk through the different types of traumas that we may experience, in chiropractic we group them into three categories: Physical trauma, Emotional trauma, and Toxic trauma. The main reason I want to talk about these three types of trauma is because when an individual fails to overcome trauma, the body stores that experience and the individual falls in need of chiropractic care.
Physical trauma
Physical trauma can be something major like a car accident or a slip on ice, or it can be something minor like a repetitive use injury or poor posture. Major accidents that result in trauma are referred to as macro-traumas, and seemingly minor incidents are referred to as micro-traumas. The body has to adapt to all the physically traumatic events it experiences no matter how large or small they may seem. It is easy to recognize the source of an injury when you experience something severe like falling off a roof. However, many people visit the office and they say "I have no idea what happened, I just woke up and it hurt." There is always a reason it hurts, pain is just a signal that something is wrong.
Emotional trauma
When I hear the words emotional trauma the first thing that comes to mind is emotional abuse. Emotional abuse can come in many forms, including but not limited to childhood abuse, emotional abuse from a partner, or the emotional effects of sexual abuse. Dealing with these kinds of trauma can be incredibly difficult and I always recommend seeking professional help to heal from them. Aside from emotional trauma inflicted on another person, we can also experience emotional trauma from our thoughts. Have you ever stressed out about something so hard you got sick? Stress is a simple thought about something that you are unsure of. Stress in small doses helps us further our potential but chronic stress can be dangerous. Our thoughts are powerful. When left unchecked our thoughts can be harsh and can eventually become traumatic.
Toxic trauma
When I say toxic trauma I am referring to something that has been ingested. For example, a fast-food burger and fries could probably be considered a toxin that can be traumatic to the digestive system. Some things are toxic to the body, like household cleaners or anything that has a warning label on it. Other things are not obvious and different people react differently to them. For example, some people are allergic to shellfish, for those individuals consuming shellfish could be considered consuming a toxin. Excessive amounts of just about anything can also be considered toxins.
How do we overcome these traumas?
Every day we experience traumas. When we experience those traumas the body can either adapt and overcome them or store them to process later. One of the forefront examples of adaptation in my opinion is how calluses grow when an individual starts something new that puts stress on the skin like lifting weights. The body responds to the new trauma by adding layers of skin in the areas that get the most stress. This is an example of a successful adaptation. When we meet the limits of our ability to adapt, we fall in need of some help. Come and see us, make us your chiropractor in Juneau. You may not know how healthy you can be.
