When I think of medical trauma, I think of my friend. This friend has two young children and started having back pain. So, she went to her doctor and told him about this pain, and he diagnosed it as a simple strain from picking up her kids and carrying them as they grew heavier.
But she felt this wasn’t accurate, as she only occasionally carried her children. Even though she expressed this to the doctor and reported her hunch that it was more than a sprain, her inner experience was dismissed and she was sent home without further exploration. Over the next few weeks, her back pain grew worse, so she went to get a second opinion. This time, the second doctor was more curious and sent her for X-rays, which showed a tumor (benign, thankfully!) on one of her ovaries.
When I think of medical trauma, I think of this story, and countless others. There can often be a breakdown in communication between what a patient is experiencing, what the medical professionals can see, and how they both navigate the healthcare process together. Patients, just like my friend, can have their reports of bodily symptoms (interoception!) dismissed, invalidated and not taken seriously.
Medical trauma is complex. It can create body mistrust–like a patient believing they have a significant issue based on the way their body feels (my friend) and a medical expert essentially dismissing this inner experience, sending a message that what they are feeling is not serious or real. This can happen over and over for some patients, navigating a medical system that can continue to dampen body listening and body trust.
Occupational therapy for medical trauma survivors, especially with an interoception focus, can be helpful in nurturing a (re)connection to the body in safe and controlled ways.
I have seen improvements through interoception-focused practices including gentle co-regulation and loads of inner validation. My interoception courses are tools to help us bridge the gap between provider and patient by honing our skills in communicating and analyzing our inner sensations.
What Is Medical Trauma?
Medical trauma will look different depending on the cause and the individual who has experienced it. Still, this form of trauma is a set of psychological and physiological responses to medical treatment (or lack thereof). As an occupational therapist, when I think of medical trauma, I think of:
- Gaslighting – Being told the pain or sensation is simply in your head or being refused relevant tests because ‘it is nothing to worry about.’ By developing our interoception, we can better advocate for ourselves and describe our sensations when faced with a medical system that either doesn’t spare the time or demands more of us before considering treatment.
- Ongoing Uncertainty – When diagnosing an illness is difficult, or your concerns aren’t taken seriously, you might find yourself in a stressful situation of fear and worry with no easy release.
- Unwanted Bodily Changes – Medical treatment can sometimes alter the body, which can heighten the feeling in clients that their body isn’t safe or ‘theirs.’
- Overwhelming Medical Environment – Hospital settings are harsh, from the lights to the noise to the sterile smells – it can be a difficult experience, particularly for neurodivergent people.
- Pain Assessment– The classic ‘how is your pain’ scale of 1-10 can be incredibly frustrating because we all have our own experiences and understanding of pain.
- Cookie-cutter treatment – Few medical professionals take the time to acknowledge that every person is unique, often opting for fast and generic treatment plans that can be unhelpful and stress-inducing.
Medical trauma can itself cause Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and the two are closely related. Many signs of PTSD from medical trauma can be challenging to separate from the originating trauma, but dealing with both can be aided by interoception-guided practices that aim to bring a person closer and more ‘in-tune’ with their body’s signals.
How Is Medical Trauma Different From Other Traumas?
Medical trauma is often complex to address for many reasons. The need and necessity of medical intervention, the close relation to the body and self, and the difficulty of maintaining identity and ‘control’ over the body after injury or illness. These are all significant factors to consider when approaching medical trauma from an interoceptive perspective.
Uncertainty Around the Body
We all have heard that classic question: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how much pain are you in right now?” This question is important to diagnose, but for people seeking medical aid, it can be a source of uncertainty. If you have dealt with a painful condition, you might have a higher tolerance for pain and rate something at a 2, while I might say the same sensation is an 8.
How does a person even begin to label their sensations like that? Whether it’s a child who is already dealing with a changing body or an adult suddenly finding their body unfamiliar, the sense of self is a major factor in medical trauma. Regaining control and familiarity with the body is a major focus of interoceptive work, which makes it a perfect tool for managing medical trauma and the dysmorphia that often follows.
Medicine is Good For You
I want to be very clear that I do love, respect, and believe in the expertise of medical experts. Medicine and medical treatment are often necessary and needed for us to get better, but that doesn’t change the fact that treatment requires effective communication and listening skills from both parties.
Our medical system today often feels like a conveyor belt that just shuffles us along with certain default treatments and diagnoses – but there’s no such thing as a ‘default’ person, and interoception is one of the best tools for self-advocacy and effective communication about the state of your body!
Medical Trauma is Body Trauma
Medical trauma can be uniquely challenging to manage due to the typically ongoing nature of medical interventions. As treatments begin to take effect, we might find that our understanding of the sensations the condition causes also changes. Many people with long-term conditions simply grow used to a new state of being – the ‘new baseline.’
Coping with these changes and learning how to assess physical feelings accurately can be very difficult. Still, with my interoceptive practices, we learn to approach these ‘new normals’ from a place of no assumptions, which can be so, so helpful as we approach our medical trauma.
How Can You Use Interoception for Medical Trauma Therapy?
The way that I see medical trauma is that so much of it originates from struggles in communication between provider and patient, lack of confidence in our knowledge and sensations, and the medical system’s reliance on ‘normal’ ranges that simply can’t be useful across all people.
I advocate for interoception as a tool for medical trauma because I have seen people of all kinds develop completely renewed relationships with their bodies, which allows them to be far more confident and when going to their doctor with concerns.
When I provide therapy for my clients, my first efforts are always to help them feel as safe as possible. Once we have a good relationship, we will try interoception exercises together that work on awareness of body signals, beginning with outside body parts like noticing how our hands feel, or feet or eyes. We then move towards noticing body signals in inside parts like lungs or muscles. Eventually we begin to use the body signals noticed as clues to emotions like hunger, thirst, anxiety and pain.
As we move thru this work, curiosity and validation are the key factors. Having someone believe your inner experience can go far when trying to get body trust back online after medical trauma.
Learn More About the Link Between Interoception and Medical Trauma
We all have unique life experiences and even unique reactions to similar experiences. Interoception is a way to connect with the uniqueness of our body and better understand and regulate ourselves for long-term mental and physical health success! To learn more about my interoception-focused practices and exercises, check out my resources or register for a class!
