Introduction: Managing PTSD and CPTSD by Understanding Emotional and Physical Reactions

Emotions profoundly impact how we react to the world around us. For veterans and victims of domestic violence, trauma often disrupts emotional regulation, leading to conditions like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Complex PTSD (CPTSD). While PTSD is typically triggered by a single traumatic event, CPTSD develops from prolonged, repeated trauma, often in childhood. These conditions result in hyperarousal, hypervigilance, and other physiological responses that make daily functioning difficult.

This blog post will explore the physiological responses to emotions in PTSD and CPTSD, focusing on how trauma triggers the body’s fight, flight, or freeze responses. We’ll also discuss how the PTSD Flight to Freedom program can help participants manage these intense physical reactions using a blend of martial arts, meditation, yoga, qigong, and pranayama.

Understanding how your body responds to emotions like fear, anger, and anxiety—and how trauma amplifies these responses—is crucial for trauma survivors who are working to regain control of their lives.

1. The Fight, Flight, or Freeze Response: The Body’s Reaction to Trauma

The “fight-or-flight” response is a survival mechanism that prepares the body to either defend itself or escape from danger. However, trauma survivors often experience a third reaction: freezing. This response occurs when the body feels overwhelmed and unable to react, resulting in a temporary state of paralysis or dissociation. Trauma survivors may cycle between these three responses as they face triggers in everyday life (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

For individuals with PTSD or CPTSD, triggers—whether a loud sound, a certain smell, or a stressful situation—can activate the body’s fight, flight, or freeze response, even when there’s no actual danger. This overactivation of the sympathetic nervous system releases stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, causing increased heart rate, sweating, and rapid breathing. While these physiological reactions can protect us from danger, in trauma survivors, they may occur frequently, leading to chronic stress, exhaustion, and difficulty regulating emotions.

PTSD Flight to Freedom is designed to help participants gain control over their fight, flight, or freeze responses by introducing controlled physical challenges through martial arts and focusing on calming the body through mindful practices like yoga and qigong. This balance helps individuals not only experience and understand their body’s reaction but also calm it afterward.

2. PTSD vs. CPTSD: Key Differences and Similarities

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) typically develops after a single traumatic event, such as combat, a car accident, or an assault. It is characterized by symptoms such as flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, and difficulty concentrating (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) arises from prolonged trauma, especially during childhood, such as ongoing abuse or neglect. In addition to PTSD symptoms, CPTSD includes disturbances in self-regulation, relationships, and a deep sense of shame or guilt (Herman, 1992). People with CPTSD may also experience dissociation, emotional numbness, and trouble forming secure relationships.

According to the DSM-5, both PTSD and CPTSD share core symptoms like:

• Intrusive memories and flashbacks
• Avoidance of reminders of the trauma
• Negative changes in mood or thinking
• Heightened arousal and reactivity

However, CPTSD also includes symptoms such as:

• Difficulty regulating emotions
• A distorted sense of self-worth
• Chronic feelings of emptiness or hopelessness
• Difficulty maintaining relationships due to mistrust

Understanding these differences helps trauma survivors tailor their healing process. In PTSD Flight to Freedom, these distinctions are acknowledged through specialized activities designed to address both the emotional and physical manifestations of trauma, helping individuals gain control over their responses to triggers.

3. Physiological Responses to Fear, Anxiety, and Anger in PTSD and CPTSD

Fear and the Sympathetic Nervous System

Fear triggers the fight-or-flight response, which activates the sympathetic nervous system. The brain signals the release of stress hormones, causing physiological changes such as increased heart rate, rapid breathing, and muscle tension (LeDoux, 2000). For those with PTSD or CPTSD, the fear response may be triggered by seemingly harmless stimuli, leading to chronic anxiety and hypervigilance.

People experiencing this response might struggle with:

• Sweating and trembling
• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
• Chest tightness and racing thoughts
• Heightened startle response

In a program like PTSD Flight to Freedom, participants are exposed to controlled challenges through martial arts to engage their sympathetic nervous system. This helps them face these physical reactions in a safe environment, building their resilience over time.

Freeze Response: Feeling Stuck or Paralyzed

In addition to fight and flight, trauma survivors often experience a freeze response when they feel overwhelmed by a threat. The freeze response is characterized by:

• Inability to move or speak
• Feeling numb or disconnected from the body
• Slowed heart rate and shallow breathing

This is the body’s attempt to play dead, reducing energy expenditure and minimizing detection by the perceived threat (Schauer & Elbert, 2010). The freeze response is common in CPTSD and can contribute to feelings of helplessness and dissociation.

PTSD Flight to Freedom includes grounding exercises and body awareness techniques such as yoga and qigong, which help individuals reconnect with their bodies and move out of the freeze state. Pranayama, or deep breathing, also plays a key role in calming the nervous system and restoring a sense of control.

Anger and Its Impact

Anger is another emotion often triggered by trauma, as it can be a reaction to perceived threats or feelings of helplessness. Anger activates the fight response, resulting in:

• Muscle tension (especially in the jaw and neck)
• Increased heart rate and blood pressure
• Shallow, rapid breathing

While anger can be protective, unchecked anger can lead to destructive behavior and physical health problems such as high blood pressure and headaches (Davidson, 2000). Martial arts training in PTSD Flight to Freedom helps participants channel anger in a productive way, promoting self-discipline and emotional regulation.

4. How PTSD and CPTSD Affect Sleep and Public Behavior

Both PTSD and CPTSD significantly impact a person’s daily life, particularly in areas like sleep and behavior in public settings.

Sleep Disturbances

Trauma survivors often struggle with insomnia, nightmares, or disrupted sleep. Their heightened arousal makes it difficult for them to relax enough to fall asleep, and the fear of re-experiencing trauma through nightmares may keep them awake (Germain, 2013). Specific sleep disturbances include:

• Nightmares and night terrors
• Difficulty falling or staying asleep
• Restlessness or frequent waking

Incorporating calming practices such as yoga and qigong can promote relaxation and improve sleep quality by reducing stress hormones and regulating breathing.

Behavioral Adaptations in Public Settings

Trauma survivors may also adapt their behaviors in public to cope with the constant feeling of threat. These adaptations might include:

• Hypervigilance: Constantly scanning the environment for potential danger, leading to difficulty focusing on conversations or tasks.
• Avoidance: Actively avoiding crowded places or unfamiliar situations that could trigger anxiety or flashbacks.
• Social isolation: Withdrawing from social situations to avoid potential triggers or confrontations.
• Startle response: Overreacting to sudden noises or movements, causing embarrassment or discomfort in social situations.

Understanding these adaptations is crucial for individuals with PTSD or CPTSD, as well as for the people around them. The PTSD Flight to Freedom program helps participants gradually reintroduce themselves to challenging situations through martial arts training and mindfulness practices. Over time, this enables them to navigate public settings with greater confidence and emotional control.

5. Calming the Nervous System: Meditation, Yoga, Qigong, and Pranayama

The calming practices in PTSD Flight to Freedom focus on activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for relaxation and recovery. Meditation, yoga, qigong, and pranayama all help regulate breathing, calm the mind, and reduce the physical symptoms of stress (Brown & Gerbarg, 2005).

• Pranayama (controlled breathing) improves heart rate variability and lowers blood pressure by engaging the parasympathetic system (Jerath et al., 2006).
• Qigong combines gentle movement and deep breathing to promote relaxation and balance (Liu et al., 2011).
• Yoga helps release muscle tension and encourages mental stillness through mindfulness (Woodyard, 2011).

These practices, when done consistently, build emotional resilience and reduce the likelihood of being overwhelmed by PTSD or CPTSD symptoms.

6. Conclusion: Integrating Body and Mind for Trauma Recovery

PTSD and CPTSD affect not only the mind but also the body’s physiological responses to emotions. Programs like PTSD Flight to Freedom offer a comprehensive way to address these effects by combining physical activities like martial arts with calming practices like meditation and yoga. Understanding the body’s fight, flight, or freeze responses and learning how to manage them is essential for trauma survivors seeking to reclaim their lives.

By participating in PTSD Flight to Freedom, trauma survivors can find balance between physical exertion and emotional regulation, ultimately gaining control over their trauma responses and improving their quality of life.

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.).

Brown, R. P., & Gerbarg, P. L. (2005). Sudarshan Kriya yogic breathing in the treatment of stress, anxiety, and depression: Part I—neurophysiologic model. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 11(1), 189-201.

Davidson, R. J. (2000). Affective style, psychopathology, and resilience: Brain mechanisms and plasticity. American Psychologist, 55(11), 1196.

Germain, A. (2013). Sleep disturbances as the hallmark of PTSD: Where are we now? American Journal of Psychiatry, 170(4), 372-382.

Jerath, R., Edry, J. W., Barnes, V. A., & Jerath, V. (2006). Physiology of long pranayamic breathing: Neural respiratory elements may provide a mechanism that explains how slow deep breathing shifts the autonomic nervous system. Medical Hypotheses, 67(3), 566-571.

LeDoux, J. E. (2000). The emotional brain: The mysterious underpinnings of emotional life. Simon and Schuster.

Liu, X., Clark, J., Siskind, D., Williams, G. M., & Byrne, G. J. (2011). The efficacy of qigong on the treatment of anxiety disorders: A meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 134(3), 384-389.

Schauer, M., & Elbert, T. (2010). Dissociation following traumatic stress. Zeitschrift für Psychologie/Journal of Psychology, 218(2), 109-127.

Woodyard, C. (2011). Exploring the therapeutic effects of yoga and its ability to increase quality of life. International Journal of Yoga, 4(2), 49.