A trauma such as this is not easily forgotten. The vast majority of human beings would respond in exactly the same way: We pass through the defense responses, which include hyper-arousal to danger – which includes a massive release of adrenaline and cortisol within the nervous system to sustain attention to the stimulus. The body tenses up in a defensive posture: how should I act? Imagine a massive build up of energy within the body and consciousness – preparing for action. This is the sympathetic arousal that precedes all traumas.
But when these defensive “fight-flight” responses prove futile, when they are no longer doing anything to help you, the body shifts into another mode: “freeze mode”. Freeze mode is a combination of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity within the nervous system. The muscles are still tensed, heart rate is still high, breathing is short and rapid; this is like realizing “oh my God, what am I going to do” in a very scary and traumatic situation. The freeze mode differs from the earlier sympathetic arousal mode in that the freeze mode involves dorsal vagal activity: you both want to attack, but you can’t; the body feels “frozen”, unable to act. It is slowly recognizing that it is helpless.
When Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped and brought to her dungeon of 9 months, she would have been in this mode. However, this is still a metabolically costly state to be in. Following this step, the body rests in a state of quiet passivity, which is the prime indicator of severe neurobiological trauma. In this state, called the “feigned death” state, the individual is truly helpless. Their nervous system has been taken over by the dorsal vagal tract, an extremely intense state of dissociation follows; the individual is “there” but they have completely resigned to their fate. They are in an extremely conservative, and very dangerous physiological state. Physiologically, muscles are completely flaccid; RSA (respiratory sinus arrhythmia) index is very low; the brain is being swathed in endogenous opiates, making life seem like a trance. You barely feel awake. This is the hypoarousal of severe trauma.
Now, Elizabeth Smart endured 9 months of this. 3-4 rapes a day. Helpless, lonely, horrified. She would have been in this parasympathetic state night and day so as not to address these exhausting emotions. She would become submissive towards her abusers. She would have no energy to “put up a fight”. Being in this state for such a long time would have strengthened states of psychological dissociation.
Following an ordeal like this, the body is simply no longer the same. Cortical and limbic networks along with autonomic networks are traumatized. Following the trauma, although the mind can “understand” what has happened, the body often does not respond to the minds comprehension of the event. It’s as if 3 different brain networks contain the memory of the event; the cortical areas hold a representation of the “memory” itself – most of which has been dissociated from i.e. cannot be recalled. The limbic networks are easily aroused by any slight reminder, even a seemingly vague reminder, like seeing a shirt that looks similar to the one the attacker wore; but worse of all, and as trauma research has shown, the autonomic brain networks are the ones which most strongly “hold in” the trauma.
Trauma severely interrupts metabolic functions happening within the body. Unbeknownst to most of us, but the mind-body is exquisitely interconnected. There are networks within the brain stem which handle “metabolic allocation” of energy. The body generates “this much energy” to support basic social engagement functions, which tend to be fairly hefty, and keeps the rest for maintenance of the body. When trauma occurs, the autonomic brain networks highly restrict metabolic demands to the conscious mind. The minds “energy reserves” are severely restricted. Remaining energy is reserved for carrying out bodily functions.
Following the trauma, the body stays in this hypoarousal state. The memory of the trauma has strengthened dorsal vagal (parasympathetic) connections with the limbic system and areas in the cortex which recall the experience. In the case of early childhood traumas, cortical areas completely “forget” i.e. dissociate from, the cause of the trauma. But the autonomic system doesn’t. Because of early trauma, the body will maintain very low reserves for conscious i.e. emotional arousal.
Elizabeth Smarts response to the trauma she went through is truly astonishing. Initially, I was skeptical. I watched a few videos of her and found her behavior to be unlike someone who experiences trauma. But then I caught this video of Anderson Cooper, and in it, my reservations have been resolved. Elizabeth in this video exhibits tell-tale signs of someone who has experienced a major trauma.
Notice:
- how she paces herself in the video. People who experience trauma face hyper-and hypo arousal states. In this video, although Elizabeth maintains a good comportment, she is make a great effort to “slow down” i.e. to calm herself, to keep herself within an optimal state of arousal
- At times, her voices flares up. At other times, her voice “falls”. This is the general dynamic of people with PTSD. They fly between the poles of hypo-hyper arousal. She either becomes “overly” anxious, and her voice and prosody suffers, or she becomes hypoaroused, disconnected and removed from her body, and you hear a deepening in her voice.
- She seems to know a few things about PTSD. For example, she mentions how her room was the archetype of safety. This is something trauma survivors learn in therapy: why they responded the way they did. It’s important to recognize the connection between environment cues and emotional-autonomic responses.
Anyways, I made this thread because there are a few sites online that try to “prove” that the whole Elizabeth Smart kidnapping was a hoax. So I investigated further. Analyzed Elizabeth Smarts body language in relation to what we know about what happens to the mind and body following trauma, and my verdict is: she seems to be exhibiting those tell-tale signs you expect to see in people who’ve survived a major trauma.
Although trauma can be overcome and peace can be made with the past, it’ll probably always be a little difficult to discuss the trauma. I think Elizabeth spent the last few years, before she went on this recent PR tour, in rigorous psychotherapy. She does exhibit impressive regulation skills – which only goes to show the power of the human mind to integrate horrible experiences into its continuing life narrative.
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Analyzing Elizabeth Smart
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