Trauma Related Symptoms Hyperactivity and Restlessness

Hey there everybody, and welcome to this video on trauma related symptoms. Today we're talking about restlessness and hyperactivity. You know, it's not just something that you see with adhd and unfortunately a lot of people with ADHD may be misdiagnosed because their restlessness and hyperactivity and difficulty concentrating may actually be trauma symptoms. Why would you develop those symptoms as a result of trauma? When I was a young girl, I played tennis. And when you play tennis, if you watch a tennis match, the tennis players are never standing still, flat footed, just holding their racket. They're always bouncing on their toes, whether they're at the back or at the front, at the net, they are always bouncing on their toes. They're always primed with, waiting for, waiting to respond to wherever that ball is going to go. And restlessness or physical irritability. We're not talking as much about emotional irritability, but just kind of being fidgety and unsettled or restless or hyper, even hyperactive can be symptoms or ways that, that the body manifests its desire you, if you will, the nervous system manifests its desire to stay prime, to stay bouncing on the balls of its feet so it can more effectively respond to threats when they come. It got caught what we call flat footed before when they experienced trauma. So now the body says, no, that's not going to happen again. I'm going to make sure I stay on alert so it can be more difficult to sit still still. Another reason it people may have difficulty with concentration, attention and hyperactivity is because when they slow down, they think, when they slow down, they feel. And it can be so overwhelming and so overpowering when those thoughts and those memories start to come back that it feels safer to stay active, to stay moving all the time, because then they don't have to think. So there can be various reasons for the hyperactivity. And I've said in many videos it's important to step back and look at behaviors on an individualized basis and say, what is that behavior communicating? What is the goal of that behavior in this person at this time? Is it helping them avoid thinking or feeling? Is it helping them stay primed and ready to defend themselves from attacks? Is it something else? If it is one of the first two, then it's likely the result of a trauma and we can look back and say when did these symptoms start? Did, did they start after a trauma? Did they start during childhood in which the person was experiencing one or more adverse childhood experiences? And that can be kind of insidious Those adverse childhood experiences, like having someone in the household that has an addiction or a mental illness, or caregivers getting a divorce. There's a lot of stuff. And there can be good days and there can be bad days, and there's no one day. There's no one situation that you can kind of point to and go, that's when it all started. It's that gradual buildup of distress, that gradual buildup of feeling hopeless and powerless and trapped that makes a lot of adverse childhood childhood experiences end up causing complex PTSD and trauma related symptoms. So the main takeaway is, if you're experiencing hyperactivity or restlessness, don't automatically assume it's ADHD or mania or something else. It could be a lot of different things. But I encourage people to step back and say, what is this behavior accomplishing for me at this time and what might have caused it?