Neurogenic Tremors

Purpose Healing: Expert care and lasting relief for neurogenic tremors

TRE and Initiating Neurogenic Tremors

TRE is the name for a series of movements designed to purposefully initiate neurogenic tremors. There are a total of seven exercises used in TRE. These exercises are performed in a strict order. Some TRE movements focus on stretching out your lower body, including your:

• Hips
• Thighs
• Feet
• The bottom part of your torso

Other movements are intended to create a low level of fatigue in the muscles of your:

• Lower torso
• Hips
• Buttocks
• Legs

Completion of trauma release movements causes the muscles in these parts of your body to tremble. This trembling can help the body release deep stress.

Understanding the Effectiveness of TRE

Does TRE work? Yes, they can have real benefits. Since TREs can be conducted on your own, they can be accessible and powerful tools for stress reduction. However, it’s important to understand the limitations of TREs.

TRE is not designed to be a main treatment for trauma symptoms or mental disorders. Instead, it is a complementary or adjunct (add-on) treatment. This means that it helps support the benefits of main treatments, such as talk therapy.

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Tremors, PTSD, and Trauma Triggers

People with PTSD do not typically experience the same type or level of symptoms at all times. Instead, symptoms tend to get worse when they are triggered or activated in specific situations. Trauma triggers can:

• Make you recall a traumatic event
• Vividly remind you of particular things that happened during that event
• Give you an actual sense of reliving a traumatic event

All kinds of things can be trauma triggers. For you, these might include:

• Sights, sounds, tastes or odors
• Specific locations or situations
• Stressful situations in general
• Articles of clothing
• Other physical objects
• The use of particular phrases or words

Any of your PTSD symptoms can be heightened or reactivated by a real or perceived threat known as a trigger. That includes involuntary, neurogenic tremors. The same applies to other mental health conditions that involve neurogenic tremors.

How the Body Stores Trauma: Emotional and Physical Symptoms

Trauma occurs when you are exposed to situations that overload your body’s ability to handle stress. Situations capable of doing this include:

• Experiencing acts of violence
• Being sexually assaulted or abused
• Witnessing others experience violence or sexual assault
• Living through a natural disaster
• Being exposed to war or combat

Traumatic experiences trigger a chain reaction of stress within your body, as when an isometric tremor occurs (or other forms of neurogenic tremors as well).

This reaction includes things such as:

• Changes in your normal brain function
• Alteration of your brain’s chemical balance
• The spread of stress hormones that trigger your “fight-or-flight” response
• Trouble sleeping

Trauma can also come with a range of physical symptoms. It can lead to additional changes that affect systems throughout your body, including your:

• Muscles
• Nervous system
• Cardiovascular system
• Respiratory system
• Gastrointestinal system

In most cases, when a traumatic event ends, your system begins to readjust and your stress reactions ease. However, this does not always happen. Some people continue to experience the changes triggered by a traumatic event.

The end result can be the onset of significant emotional and physical symptoms that impede daily life functioning. This may lead to a diagnosis of PTSD.

Medical Supervision and Neurogenic Tremors

Whether or not you receive TRE, treatment for conditions linked to tremors involve professional support. A supervisory role may also be played by psychologists, counselors or other members of your treatment team.

Addressing the Root Cause of Neurogenic Tremors

Ultimately, the root cause of neurogenic tremors is stress, which is often caused by trauma. Effective treatment must ease this trauma reaction and help you regain mental equilibrium. When that happens, the underlying source of a traumatic reaction (overwhelming stress) can be addressed.

Psychotherapy, which can pair with medication in some cases, is the main option for PTSD treatment. Most of the effective therapy options are variations of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). One common CBT-based option is prolonged exposure therapy.

This therapy exposes you to your trauma triggers in a well-controlled setting. With guidance from your therapist, you learn to face the reactions brought up by those triggers. Gradually, this process helps ease the overall impact of trauma.

Other forms of therapy may also play a role in your treatment, too. For example, cognitive processing therapy (CPT).