[Trigger warning: Trauma]
‘Trauma results in a fundamental reorganization of the way mind and brain manage perceptions. It changes not only how we think and what we think about, but also our very capacity to think. We have discovered that helping victims of trauma find the words to describe what has happened to them is profoundly meaningful, but usually it is not enough. The act of telling the story doesn’t necessarily alter the automatic physical and hormonal response of bodies that remain hypervigilant, prepared to be assaulted or violated any time. For real change to take place, the body needs to learn that the danger has passed and to live in the reality of the present. […]’
[From Chapter 1 of the book “The body keeps the score” by Bessel a. van der Kolk, M.D.]
But what if the danger never really passes completely?
The Little Prince and the Fox 