It’s too late to rewrite the past, but I wish I’d known sooner: trauma changes how the brain works. After trauma, the mind overgeneralizes toward danger. It isn’t a character flaw—it’s the brain trying to keep us alive from events too painful to reconcile.
Because of neuroplasticity, trauma can reshape structure and function—how circuits fire, how we store memory, and how we react to stress. That’s why memories can feel fragmented or incomplete—the brain encodes threat differently, often as sensations and flashes rather than a tidy timeline.
In intense moments, the amygdala (the alarm system) can overrule the prefrontal cortex (the decision-making center). The result: powerful emotions and automatic reactions that seem to hijack your life—sometimes years after the event.
None of this means you’re broken. It means your brain adapted to survive. And because of that same neuroplasticity, healing and rewiring are possible.
The following pages explore the struggle of trauma, the battle of depression, and the journey of healing through the various phases a traumatized person experiences.
