Physical Symptoms as External Signs of Inner Stress
Tremors, Body Memories, and Healing
This is part of a series of articles co-written with my friend, colleague, and therapist,
of , who is the lead author on them. Lilian is a Danish coach and trouble shooter good at seeing patterns, with a masters in biology. She has studied how to help people with chronic symptoms, from a practical perspective, for five years. These articles result from extensive conversations and Q+A’s I have had with Lilian.Previous articles in this series:
Foreword by Gary
Tremors (uncontrollable shaking) are commonly seen in many named chronic conditions, from Parkinson’s Disease, restless leg syndrome, chronic stress and anxiety, essential tremors, shell shock/PTSD, MS, panic attacks, etc.
During an episode of acute stress, tremors are an adaptive response. They are seen in animals and people, when their Nervous Systems are gearing up for fight-or-flight action, and also as a mechanism to discharge the energy/adrenaline after the danger or excitement has passed. Tremors are also seen when animals shake themselves out of a deeper “freeze” stress response.
In humans, tremors are also often seen in comatose people, also as people come out of general anaesthesia, and during electrical shock treatment for depression.
Humans, however, have a tendency to get stuck with tremors, usually when one or more body memories or trauma of stressful events are not processed properly at the time, and hence get installed.
Tremors are often the number one symptom that people with chronic issues would like to wish away. This is because they are so visible, and many find them embarrassing, which increases the stress of being in public, and can lead to isolation, which further increases stress, which can make the tremors worse. For a similar reason, people often say that their tremors are their most bothersome and stressful symptom, precisely because they are not able to hide it, and hence the fact they have health issues, e.g. from the boss or the family. This is unfortunate, because, as anyone with tremors can relate, acute or chronic stress tends to make the tremors noticeably much worse, so trying to hide them can backfire.
Fortunately, from the perspective that tremors are a manifestation of a stuck stress response, this type of symptom can be progressively alleviated through stress reduction techniques and therapy, by learning how to calm the nervous system, and by spending more time in totally relaxed states. Indeed, this is demonstrated by reports of people’s tremors disappearing while they under hypnosis and by common anecdotal reports that when meditating, the tremors are not present.
In this article, Lilian’s relates her therapeutic experiences of working with people with tremors and Parkinson’s Disease.
My Experience of Working with Clients with Tremors
Tremors come in many amplitudes and frequencies. They can even be only felt inside (internal tremors), When I started my studies, I picked four people, each with a chronic disease diagnosis, and one of them, Michael, had Parkinson's Disease with a very noticeable tremor. The tremor could move his hand as much as ten centimetres from side to side.
I soon discovered that I could always get Michael’s tremor down to nothing for several minutes via my calming techniques. Then the tremor would start again. After I had seen this pattern quite a few times, I started to get curious about this phenomenon.
I found that I could simply help him calm down his mind, which had an immediate effect on his tremor. To calm him down could take up to an hour, but we always ended a session with him having no tremor. Typically, we found a traumatic event in his life and resolved that memory to the extent he could talk about it without getting fearful feelings.
Example of a Body Memory as Root Cause
An an example, he recalled that when he was a four-year-old boy, he once overheard the grownups talking, and his grandma getting so upset that she left the house, saying the words “I am going to kill myself in the lake”. Even if it seems like a small thing in a grownup’s ear, it meant hours of anxiety for his boyhood self, waiting to see if his grandmother ever came back from her walk. These fearful feelings were lingering in my client’s body for years until we tapped into this, and I facilitated a new understanding of this situation, so this trapped feeling could be felt safely, and then dissipate.
We can say, in brief, that a memory with a feeling, which was not processed properly at the time, is a potential source for any symptom because the body somehow stores these together until it is safe to be felt. If it is a dramatic event, we call it a trauma, but, as in the above example, it can also be seemingly relatively small things to an adult’s sensibilities, so we more generally call it a body memory.
In the above example, this body memory gave the child, and now the man, a feeling that the world is dangerous and loved ones and protectors can disappear and die. Having several similar episodes causes tension in the body build up.
However, it is indeed possible to reduce these triggers, and hence the tremors. Here is Michael, my guinea pig, in an old video, where you can see him, after the 148s timestamp slowly is learning to find a peaceful place in his mind and reduce the tremors. When people with tremor have experienced this several time they surrender to the biological fact that stress and tremor is connected. and we all know that stress is treatable.
To What Extent is Possible to Reduce Tremors?
If you do not have a lot of traumas in your past and have an open mind toward this alternative, it is possible to get free of your symptom, like my client Bjarne.
He was lucky that he got a new neurologist, that thought it was strange that his tremor had gone, and sent him to a new datscan, then declared him free of PD. If you have lots of traumas it just takes a longer time, but in the process, the days with fewer symptoms are also worth it.
Tremors are Natural
While damage to your body or seizures can produce tremors, in my perspective, most cases of a tremor are not pathological, but due to a natural response, induced by anxiety, excitement, fears, and being overwhelmed by other strong feelings.
Indeed, anyone can get a natural tremor in the following situations:
when you are cold or need a fever to naturally stop a germ/virus, your muscles start to tremor to produce heat;
if you witness something terrible, e.g. a horror movie - your body wants to flee and a tremor is preparing you for this;
if you witness or participate in a very exciting game (watching your favourite team in an important game) – this puts your body is in fight preparing you for a battle or competition;
when you are so filled with worries or regret that tension builds-up, you want to fight or flight from a situation you are just thinking about – e.g. you suddenly remember that you have forgotten to prepare a crucial task for your job tomorrow;
when you have been in the freeze survival instinct for several minutes, tremor is important in the process of returning to normal body function;
if your body has been shut down due to an operation - general anaesthesia mimics the chemical response to being in a full freeze, or playing dead as we call it – e.g. as in the video of the polar bear experiencing both stress and anaesthesia;
after or during a workout when you are starting up an exercise habit.
I think it is fair to say that tremor is a signature symptom of survival instincts, fight, flight, and freeze. I found that tremor being so visible is actually a help in my therapeutic practice because I can enquire what is on the person's mind when the tremor starts again after a break. The answer is an indication to the next body memory to deal with.
When healthy people get a tremor, they do not think or believe that they are diseased, they know they are stressed.
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I too have worked with a number of people with Parkinson's and tremors that settle during the course of a therapy session - one who eventually got to the point where as soon as he got into his car to make the drive to his session, his tremor became less - unless he was particularly stressed - from there we could find ways to access that state without associating it with the therapy through the felt sense of his internal state and learning to 'change gear' of his nervous system state.
This makes so much sense - I never connected the tremors you see with diseases like Parkinson - as a symptom of stress (I know someone I will forward this to, who deals with them).
I am familiar with the process of releasing trauma in the body though (was in an earthquake that did a lot of damage when my kids were young). My therapist Aunt had given me some techniques. Basically revisited the scene of the crime in my mind, night after night, until I could go through the whole thing without my body in panic. It took about a year - plus phone sessions with her that included other body work. At the end I could discuss it without feeling emotional or stressed at all. Became really neutral. Was a pivotal experience that way.
Thank you both.