Why it is so difficult to be a human.
I have a vivid memory from early childhood, one of the few that has stayed with me, though I’m not certain it actually happened. My mother once mentioned that I was very ill with pneumonia, receiving penicillin injections, and I was probably only 2 or 3 years old. They say memories don’t form that young, but I remember. I remember the texture of the couch I lay on, the sharp chill, and the overwhelming fear. Every time I revisit this memory, it feels like sinking into icy water.
A friend of mine was bullied by his boss at work. In their open-plan office, she would publicly criticize him, shaming his work in front of colleagues. She would call across the room with comments like, "How many times do I have to tell you the same thing?" He shared that whenever she came near, he wanted to disappear; he’d lower his head, his eyes, and feel a numbness spread through his limbs.
According to Dr. Peter Levine*, most people experience trauma at some point in their lives. Trauma doesn’t have to come from extreme events like war, tsunami, or domestic violence. Trauma is less about the external force and more about our internal response to it—the intense suffering it brings.
The source of trauma lies in our "reptilian" brain, primitive and beyond our conscious control, not in the part of our brain responsible for thought. When trauma strikes, a powerful surge of adrenaline and terror floods the body. In that split-second survival moment, the thinking mind shuts down, and we are left with just the body’s raw response to threat. Animals act in such moments.
Dr. Levine offers an illustrative example. When a polar bear, chased and tranquilized by researchers, began to wake up, it shook violently, its legs twitching as if still running. This was the bear’s body instinctively discharging the terror, completing the flight response that the threat had triggered. Animals release trauma physically, allowing them to reset.
Humans, however, often struggle to do the same. Our thinking ability has distanced us from our natural way of discharging fear and regaining balance. For most of us, trauma becomes frozen in time and resurfaces later, manifesting as depression, anxiety, or other forms of suffering.
The good news is that trauma can be healed, but it requires reconnecting with our body’s natural responses.
Dr. Levine developed Somatic Experiencing after observing how animals recover from life-threatening situations. Prey animals, after escaping predators, instinctively shake and tremble, releasing the remnants of their fight-or-flight response. Through this process, they return to normal functioning, free from lingering trauma.
Here’s a fascinating demonstration of Dr. Levine working with a client on this process.
* - Dr. Peter Levine. Waking the Tiger.