
Why Yoga helps in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
The restorative yoga poses bring back the homeostatic balance caused by trauma. This can be very helpful to a person suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Under a sustained experience of trauma, the stress hormone called ‘Cortisol’ is consistently overproduced. It eventually causes the desensitization of the HPA axis. Because of this the nervous system no longer responds to the normal homeostatic feedback loop that otherwise in a normal course causes it to “calm down”. This means the HPA axis doesn’t get time to reset itself back to a state of equilibrium. As a result, the individual who experiences the trauma stays in sympathetic nervous system overdrive mode – causing PTSD.
Yoga is known to calm down the agitated nervous system and bring the right balance in the autonomic nervous system. This eventually reduces the stress and anxiety, improves cognitive functions, improves sleep and brings back the self-confidence in people suffering from PTSD.
See this video to know what causes PTSD.