When the Past Still Feels Present: Is It Unprocessed Trauma?
Not Everyone Who Experiences Trauma Becomes “Traumatized”
Many people wonder whether their emotional struggles or physical symptoms could be related to trauma, even when they haven’t been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or don’t identify their past experiences as “traumatic.”
Research using large-scale survey data found that approximately 76% of Canadians will experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime. However, only about 9.2% will develop symptoms that meet the full criteria for PTSD at some point in their lifetime.
This tells us something important: while most people will experience trauma at some point in their lifetime, not everyone will meet the criteria for a trauma-related diagnosis. Still, many people struggle with the lingering effects of unprocessed trauma. Past experiences can make it harder to regulate emotions, avoid feeling overwhelmed, and feel present and safe in relationships.
Trauma is best understood not just as an event, but as how our nervous system experiences and responds to that event. Two people can go through the same situation and walk away with very different impacts. That’s because our nervous systems are unique, and so is our capacity to process what happened.
Some people are able to process and integrate traumatic experiences over time—especially if they grew up in an environment that felt safe and supported enough to develop skills to effectively deal with distress, and they have good support immediately following a traumatic event. For others, the effects of trauma may linger for years, whether or not they meet the criteria for PTSD.
Common Signs of Unprocessed Trauma
You might not immediately link your current symptoms to something in the past, especially if that past event happened a long time ago or doesn’t seem “bad enough” to count as trauma. But trauma can show up in many different ways that impacts our overall health and wellness.
Cognitive and Emotional Impacts
Trauma can disrupt our ability to regulate emotions leading to big emotional ups and downs.
Intrusive thoughts or rumination
Difficulty concentrating or feeling foggy
Self-judgment or minimizing your experience
Difficulty regulating emotions or calming down when emotions feel intense
Intense emotions that feel out of proportion to the current situation
Panic attacks or persistent anxiety
Generalized anxiety
Hypervigilence or constant alertness
Apathy, low motivation, or loss of interest in things you used to enjoy
Depression or chronic low mood
Feeling emotionally numb or flat
Dissociation or feeling disconnected from reality
Feelings of shame, low self-esteem, self-hatred, or hopelessness
Relational impacts
Difficulty trusting others or opening up to people
Difficulty setting boundaries
Feeling overly vulnerable or raw in relationships
Having intense emotional reactions during conflict
Reactions to trauma show up in our bodies leading to a variety of physical symptoms
Physical impacts
Chronic muscle tension
Chronic digestive issues
Sleep disturbances: restless sleep, early awakening, or difficulty falling asleep
Nightmares
Physical symptoms without a clear medical explanation
Chronic pain
Sexual impacts
Difficulty maintaining arousal (eg. erections)
Difficulty reaching orgasm
Difficulty staying present during sex
Behavioural impacts
Self-harming or risky behaviours
Using substances or food as coping tools
Avoiding things that remind you of past events
A more complete list of possible reactions to trauma is available here. These signs are your body’s way of telling you that something might be unresolved, and that support could help.
The Science Behind Triggers and Trauma Responses
Even if our minds forget the details, our bodies are wired to remember danger—and for good reason. This memory is adaptive, helping us stay alert and ready in case the danger ever returns. When we’ve been through something overwhelming, our nervous system learns to recognize and respond to anything that feels similar to the original threat. This is why unprocessed trauma can continue to shape our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors long after the event is over. These reactions aren’t signs of weakness or flaws in your personality, they’re your nervous system’s way of doing its best to protect you.
How our nervous system deals with threat: the stress response
When we face a perceived threat, our nervous system kicks into action. This is the stress response, and it happens automatically. You’ve probably heard of some of the common survival responses:
Immobilizing Responses
Freeze
Fawn
Collapse
Mobilizing Responses
Fight
Flight
Attachment cry/Cry for help
These responses are hardwired into our nervous systems. They’re not chosen consciously. Instead, the brain assesses the situation and responds quickly. The fastest way to do this is by drawing on what has worked best in the past.
The stress response is an adaptive system that works to detect threat and prepare us for danger. For trauma survivors, the stress response can go on high alert—triggering defenses even when no real danger is present.
When the brain detects danger the amygdala is activated. The amygdala serves as an alarm system which communicates to the hypothalamus to activate our autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS governs our survival responses and is divided into two branches: the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). When the SNS is activated, our bodies mobilize to protect us—responses like fight, flight, or calling out for help. When the PNS is activated, our bodies instead shift toward immobilizing defenses such as freeze, fawn, and collapse.
Which system (or both) becomes active often depends on our previous experiences. In general, the nervous system tends to prioritize sympathetic, mobilizing responses first. But if someone has lived through repeated situations where fighting back or fleeing wasn’t possible or safe, the nervous system may adapt by relying more on the parasympathetic system—defaulting to freezing, shutting down, or going numb.
For example, if a child wanted to fight back against a violent adult but couldn’t because the adult was bigger and stronger, or because fighting back might have made things worse—their nervous system may have learned that going still or shutting down was the safest, most effective way to survive. When triggered in the present, their nervous system may move quickly to a parasympathetic or immobilizing response.
Over time, especially after trauma, these survival strategies can become deeply ingrained. Many trauma survivors find their nervous systems continue to default to these responses, even when the original threat is long gone.
What does it mean to be triggered?
When someone has unprocessed trauma, their nervous system can remain in a state of readiness, primed to carry out the actions that were once necessary for survival during the traumatic event. For example, imagine a child growing up with a parent who frequently got angry, raised their voice, and sometimes became violent. That child’s nervous system may have learned to quickly orient to a change in mood in their parent, and activate to prepare the body to run away.
Now, as an adult, when someone around them becomes angry, they might notice a similar response in their body: their heart rate increases, breathing quickens, attention locks onto the person who is angry, they feel anxious and afraid, and there’s a strong urge to move away and end the argument. Even though they are far from the original environment in which the trauma occurred, their body is responding as if the danger is happening again.
Being triggered means that something in the present has reminded the nervous system of a past threat, and it responds accordingly—even if the current situation is safe. So this adult might look at their upset partner and know, cognitively, that their partner would never physically hurt them, but their body reacts as though they’re still that little kid trying to stay safe in an unpredictable environment.
Getting triggered now essentially means the nervous system is ringing a false alarm trying to prepare the person to defend themselves like they needed to in the past. It's like your brain is saying danger danger watch out, but it's a false alarm and a survival response like running away is not actually necessary in the present moment.
The Impacts of Trauma Aren’t Always Obvious
Unprocessed trauma can quietly shape how you experience the world, your emotions, and your relationships. If you relate to some of the symptoms above, or if you’ve felt like your body is reacting in ways that don’t quite make sense in the present, trauma may play a role in your struggles.
A skilled therapist can help you to feel more in control of your emotions and body, develop a greater sense of safety in relationships, make sense of painful experiences, and learn new ways to respond instead of react.
If you’ve been wondering what’s going on beneath the surface, therapy might help.
