Trauma and Mental Health Issues Are Not 'Just in Your Head'
- Jason N. Linder, PsyD
- 8 hours ago
- 4 min read
Psychological issues have been found to live in our bones, brain, and cells.
Trauma impacts the whole body, not just the mind, altering cells and causing physical symptoms.
Trauma isn't about the event size; it's about the nervous system's response and its physiological impact.
Trauma is a biological injury needing holistic and somatic care.
How many times have you heard someone say “it’s all in your head” in response to a mental health issue? Being a mental health provider myself since 2011, I've probably heard it over thousands of times from friends, family, physicians, and countless, misinformed, but well-meaning mental health providers as well. While well-intentioned, this response can often feel quite dismissive or minimizing to emotional pain, especially trauma. It can also further discourage the mental health sufferer from sharing their experiences and can imply it's their fault for not thinking their way out of their suffering. But science—and lived experience—tell us something very different: trauma isn’t just psychological (van der Kolk, 2014). It’s deeply physiological as well. It resides in the body, bones, cells, brain, and your nervous system. This isn’t just poetic language; it’s biological reality.
Trauma Is a Full-Body Experience
When we go through a traumatic event, our nervous system kicks into overdrive instantaneously before we can even cognitively process what happened. The brain’s fear center, the amygdala, activates the fight-or-flight response, flooding the body with stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. In a healthy recovery process, this activation would settle down. But with unresolved trauma, the body can become "stuck on activation," and subsequently struggle to its healthy baseline. It can stay hypervigilant—looping in a mode of "always scanning for danger," even when we’re physically safe.
This is why trauma survivors often report physical symptoms like muscle tension, headaches, digestive issues, chronic fatigue, and sleep disturbances frequently. According to research cited in van der Kolk's (2014) The Body Keeps the Score, the body literally “keeps the score” from traumatic events. The experiences are encoded not only in the brain, but in the entire nervous system spanning across every nook and cranny of the body and its emotional programming.
It’s Not Just in Your Head—It’s in Your Cells
Research in the field of epigenetics strongly supports this mind-body link. Studies show that trauma can lead to changes in gene expression—essentially changing how your body responds to stress in the future. One study (Yehuda et al., 2016) found that children of Holocaust survivors had epigenetic markers associated with trauma, suggesting that the biological imprint of trauma can even be passed down through generations.
Similarly, researchers have found higher levels of inflammation and stress-related biomarkers in individuals with PTSD. These physical imprints are not the result of being “dramatic” or “too sensitive”—they’re evidence of a system that’s been overloaded and hasn’t been given the chance to reset.
Mind-Body Therapies Are Key
Because trauma lives in the body, effective healing must involve the body too. While traditional talk therapy can be helpful, many people find that somatic (body-oriented) modalities like EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), Emotionally Focused Therapy, Somatic Experiencing, yoga, or even body and breathwork can be essential parts of recovery. These therapies help release trauma from the nervous system—not just analyze it cognitively.
Dr. Peter Levine, creator of Somatic Experiencing, emphasizes that healing requires a “bottom-up” approach—starting with the body, not the intellect. His research and clinical work show that trauma recovery involves gently guiding the nervous system out of its frozen or hyper-aroused state, allowing the body to complete the defensive responses it couldn’t during the original trauma (Levine, 1997).
Common Misconceptions That Harm
One of the most harmful myths about trauma is that it’s only serious if something “big” happened—like combat, assault, or natural disasters. But trauma isn’t defined by the event; it’s defined by the nervous system’s response to the event. A child who felt chronically unseen, criticized, or emotionally neglected may carry the same trauma imprint as someone who experienced a major external catastrophe.
I repeat, it's a widespread, pernicious myth is that trauma is purely psychological or "in your head." This can lead people to seek help only through medication or talk therapy, without addressing the physical dimensions of their symptoms. Trauma is not a mental weakness—it’s a biological injury to the nervous system that needs holistic care.
Conclusion
Understanding that trauma resides in the body can be incredibly relieving and validating. If you’ve ever wondered why you can’t just “move on” or “think positively,” it’s not because you’re broken or weak—it’s because your body is still trying to protect you from a threat it had determined is still very much present (even if it's not). That’s its job; prioritizes protecting us, and sometimes it gets so entrenched in this role that it can continually misperceive threat. And healing isn’t about pushing through or toughing it out. It’s about listening deeply to what your body is trying to tell you and working gently with it, not against it, so it can move through us and reprogram over time.
The good news is the body can also be a powerful vehicle for healing. Neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to rewire itself—combined with somatic healing practices means that recovery is not only possible, it’s deeply embodied. Trauma is not only treatable but curable.
It was never “just in your head.” Trauma becomes programmed into your body—and with the right support, it can be unprogrammed (and reprogrammed) as well.
References
Felitti, V. J., et al. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Levine, P. A. (1997). Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma. North Atlantic Books.
Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory. Norton.
Shapiro, F. (2017). Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy. Guilford Publications.
van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score. Penguin Books.
Yehuda, R., Daskalakis, N. P., Bierer, L. M., Bader, H. N., Klengel, T., Holsboer, F., & Binder, E. B. (2016). Holocaust exposure induced intergenerational effects on FKBP5 methylation. Biological Psychiatry, 80(5), 372–380.
