The body not only keeps the score but it also keeps a calendar. My entire body knew an anniversary of a terrifying event was coming up and this anniversary was approaching at a time when there were several stressors happening in my life. My internal protectors knew before I did that I did not have the strength or capacity to be with all I was holding and, thankfully, dropped my nervous system in a dorsal vagal state so I could get by on the bare minimum until I had more capacity on board to deal with all the things that were happening in the here and now.

Once the body has encoded an experience as a threat to survival it is remembered and stored within the limbic system, which allows it to be recalled easily and quickly as opposed to long-term memory.

If the experience stays in the limbic system, for a variety of reasons, then this past experience can be triggered, or ‘lit up’, months or years later with something as small as a sound or a smell, and the victim can feel like the trauma is happening all over again, even though it is not.