What is a Dis-Order? Through a trauma-informed lens.

I have been considering the word ‘dis-order’ when referring to anxiety. Anxiety makes sense when our nervous system has gone into fight or flight (sympathetic activation) when we have to do something scary or have just had a fright. It prepares us to mobilize and take action. 

Sometimes we find ourselves stuck in fight or flight, in constant anxiety. When this happens, there is an element of dis-order in the mind. The body and mind struggle to find a place of safety and peace. The mind worries, and the body feels anxious. 

We know that trauma creates fragmented memory, a kind of dis-order in the mind.

I wonder how much ongoing anxiety has its roots in past trauma. 

This makes the words ‘dis-order’ after anxiety make much more sense to me.

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