Your Body Is Keeping the Score— The Body Remembers Trauma our Mind Try’s to Forget
You can understand your story logically and still feel it physically. You can say, “That was a long time ago,” and your body can respond like it’s happening right now.
Our bodies are incredibly loyal. They remember patterns, threats, and moments where we had to hold it together. Sometimes the body keeps carrying those memories long after we’ve moved on mentally.
That’s why trauma doesn’t always show up as flashbacks or panic attacks. Sometimes it shows up as:
Chronic pain with no clear explanation
Digestive issues that come and go
Tightness in the chest or jaw
Fatigue that doesn’t improve with rest
Feeling disconnected from your body entirely
It’s not all in your head. It’s in your nervous system, your muscles, your gut, your breath. The body keeps the score—even when no test can measure it.
Why This Can Actually Be a Starting Place
I won’t pretend it’s comforting at first. Realizing that trauma may be linked to physical symptoms can feel discouraging, especially when you’ve already tried everything. But for me, it became something else too:
A starting place.
Because if my body learned these patterns, that means it can also learn new ones. If my symptoms are connected to protection, that means healing doesn’t require forcing my body to behave—it requires listening to it.
This understanding shifted the question from
“What’s wrong with me?”
to
“What has my body been carrying for so long?”
And that change alone brought a sense of compassion that no diagnosis ever had.
Healing Isn’t About Blaming Trauma—It’s About Making Sense of Your Story
Not every ache or symptom is caused by trauma. And trauma doesn’t mean something dramatic or obvious had to happen. What matters isn’t comparing experiences—it’s honoring how your body responded to what you went through.
Healing, in this context, isn’t about digging up the past for the sake of it. It’s about understanding how your story lives in your body today. It’s about gently reconnecting, noticing patterns, and slowly building a sense of safety again—on your body’s terms.
There is nothing weak or imagined about physical symptoms linked to emotional experiences. They are real. They are valid. And they deserve care.
If This Resonates With You
If you’ve been told you’re fine but don’t feel fine, you’re not alone. If your body feels like it’s speaking a language no one else understands, that doesn’t mean it’s wrong—it means it’s trying to be heard.
Your symptoms are not a personal failure.
Your body is not betraying you.
And you’re not making this up.
Sometimes the most important healing begins not with answers, but with understanding—and with someone finally saying, “I believe you.”
At Abbey Rose Therapy, that belief is the starting point.
Warmly,
Abbey Vince, AMFT
