Windows to the Soul: How Trauma Negatively Impacts Your Eyes
Our bodies have a clench and withdraw response if we can't fight or flight, such as when we are children. This entails tensing up, clenching fists, curling inward, raising knees to chest, essentially curling up in the fetal position. Physically, this posture is an attempt to protect the vital organs from anticipated harm and is associated with feeling helpless. Muscle tension is one of the most common symptoms of stress and anxiety, caused by muscle contractions from going into the fight/flight response. This includes the blood vessels and viscera constricting as well and when this muscle tension goes on for a long time, as in chronic stress, and can result in headaches, pain behind the eyes, TMJ, limited range of movement, joint discomfort, chronic pain, and difficulty concentrating. It can lead to migraines when the tension releases and blood flow into the brain suddenly increases.
"Energy flow in the body is managed by contractions of the diaphragms (there are many diaphragms in the body). For children with Complex Trauma, the high arousal of stress is managed through powerful, chronic contractions in all the diaphragms of the body, most promisingly in the respiratory diaphragm (affects breathing) but also in the diaphragms at the base of the skull and in the eyes (Tentorium cerebella), feet and joints. This changes the depth of their breathing and affects their breathing, but it also creates pain in their face, head, and eyes." All eight of the bodies diaphragms constrict when they sense stress or danger.
"Fetuses and infants are primarily visceral systems and central nervous systems without a developed musculature. The only protective responses to them are to shut down and freeze (clench and withdrawal) the central nervous system and the visceral system" - Larry Heller
Trauma also affects the eyes by making them hypersensitive and affecting pupil dilation. Trauma in young children activates a part of the brain stem called the Reticular Activating System (RAS) whose job it is to filter out the sensory input that the individual doesn't need to be consciously aware of all the time, such as textures of clothing or hum of lights. In children who have experienced trauma, the RAS will allow through more or even all of the sensory input into the brain which can overwhelm the brain and lead to sensory processing problems and sensitivities.
At 11:09 there is a slide that outlines the four kinds of eye movements. When a person perceives danger and their sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight system) is activated, it causes certain changes in the eyes and how they focus that leads to tunnel vision. This is so that the person can focus on the threat, which is the only important thing in the moment. The pupils in the eye normally got larger or smaller depending on light, but when a person looks at things with certain emotional charge, such as fear or surprise, their eyes widen even more. This response is especially strong in children who have experienced trauma. For people with PTSD, their pupils have been found to stay the same when shown novel images and to dilate more than normal in response to scary images. This can cause older people to have difficulty driving at night because their pupils don't constrict when they see bright lights, including headlights or streetlights.
The parasympathetic nervous system, also called the rest and digest or rest and repair system, has the opposite effect. It allows your pupils to contract in bright light, it improves up-close vision, and it increases tear production, which keeps the eyes more comfortable and less irritated.
In infants, the eyes play a key role in their ability to do the basic things they need to do to survive- they need to communicate, to connect with safe caregivers, and to regulate. "Scientists have discovered that signals pass back and forth between a mother and child as fast as 1/300th of a second." The eyes contain a massive amount of information about the state of our nervous system, and looking into a caregiver's eyes gives a baby the information it needs to read the emotional state of the caregiver, which is what regulates the nervous system of the baby. The baby is looking to see if the caregiver is attuned to them, accepting of them, present, open, loving, nurturing, regulating, and safe to connect to. In general we use what we see in people's eyes to read their emotional state.
In a family with generational or complex trauma, the baby may not see those things in the eyes of their parents. Instead the parents may be distracted, fearful, distant, uncaring or cold, not accepting of the baby, basically dysregulated not safe to connect to. This creates fear, panic, and rejection in the baby. At first the baby will try to get the parent's attention to connect by crying, reaching out, or other means. If that doesn't work the baby will either shut down and dissociate or become dysregulated and cry. This can lead to emotions of anger and fear building up in the child that will affect them later.
In complex trauma this is happening over and over every day, which causes the child to go into the clench and withdraw response. This can affect the eyes in a number of way.- It can make it hard for the child to make and maintain eye contact- the child might be afraid to look into eyes and see rejection, disgust, anger, disinterest, or the child may be afraid that other people will see the dysregulation in their eyes, they may have internalized shame, and they may want to hide their inner world. Another effect is that the child's eyes may take on a "glassy stare" as if they are looking past people, not paying attention, not focusing on who is in front of them. They might even look catatonic. They may make intense eye contact that is unnerving because they aren't trying to connect, they're studying the person they're looking at to see if that person is safe or about to change moods or harm them. This is a kind of hyper vigilance. This video also claims that people who were in the clench and withdrawal response often as children may have a more sallow complexion around their eyes. Some people, in high stress, may even develop eye tics.
So, what can people who experience the negative effects on their eyes from trauma do about it? One thing is to pay attention to muscle tension in your body, pay attention to pain that indicates clenching, and take steps to relax and release the tension. You can have someone you trust look into your eyes and tell you what emotions they see there. Practice eye contact with someone you trust to become more comfortable with it. intentionally unfocusing your eyes can help you "turn on" your parasympathetic nervous system and help you relax. Somatic therapies that include things like music therapy, pet therapy, yoga and breathing exercises, walking in nature, all can help by putting you into the parasympathetic system.
