What Determines Susceptibility to Trauma?
A Clear Frame for the Body, the Mind, and the World
I. Trauma Is Not About What Happens — It’s About What Happens Inside
Trauma is not defined by the event.
It is defined by the overwhelming of the system — the loss of internal coherence, relational safety, or narrative continuity.
Susceptibility is not weakness. It is a convergence of body, history, relationship, culture, and meaning.
II. The Core Determinants
1. Nervous System Architecture
Some bodies are simply more reactive. More porous. Less buffered.
Factors:
-
Low vagal tone (poor recovery)
-
Narrow window of tolerance
-
High baseline activation (chronic vigilance)
The more sensitive the system, the less force it takes to overwhelm it.
2. Developmental History
Your early environment determines your baseline vulnerability.
Risk factors:
-
Inconsistent caregiving
-
Emotional neglect or misattunement
-
Chronic stress or instability
The nervous system learns early whether the world will catch it when it falls.
3. Relational Availability at the Time of the Event
Trauma is amplified or mitigated depending on whether you were alone.
-
Witness = containment
-
Absence = shattering
The single greatest amplifier of trauma is isolation.
4. Meaning-Making and Narrative Capacity
The ability to make sense of what happened is a protective factor.
Protection factors:
-
Coherent story
-
Moral clarity (not blame)
-
Symbolic framing (ritual, myth, cosmology)
If an event breaks your world and you can’t rebuild it, it embeds deeper.
5. Cultural + Social Container
Culture matters. Language matters.
Questions:
-
Was there space to name what happened?
-
Did anyone believe you?
-
Did the system protect you or punish you?
Without collective mirrors, pain calcifies.
6. Cumulative Load
Most trauma is not from one overwhelming event.
It’s from the last straw after thousands of small unreleased stressors.
Trauma isn’t always the explosion. Sometimes it’s the crack after years of pressure.
7. Personal Sensitivity / Temperament
Some people are simply born more sensitive to signal.
They feel deeper, notice sooner, suffer earlier.
These are often artists, prophets, and healers.
And they are more susceptible — not because they are fragile, but because they are tuned in.
Sensitivity is not pathology. It is perceptual density.
III. In Summary
Your trauma susceptibility is not a defect.
It is a function of:
-
How your body processes experience
-
How your story was shaped
-
How your pain was (or wasn’t) received
You are not broken for being hurt.
You are intact enough to register that something was wrong.
That recognition — and that compassion — is where healing begins.
Prepared for open sharing. May it be of service.
No comments:
Post a Comment