Trauma Response To Surgery: What Your Nervous System Remembers
Surgery is often thought of as a physical event—a medical procedure with a clear problem and solution. But for many people, it’s much more than that. It’s an emotional, psychological, and often spiritual experience that can stir up fear, uncertainty, grief, or even a sense of disconnection from the body.
People come to surgery for many different reasons. Some are met with the shock of a diagnosis and the rush of appointments, scans, and hard decisions. Others may be recovering from an accident or unexpected injury, trying to make sense of a life that changed in an instant. Some choose elective surgery, whether for relief, repair, or personal reasons. And many undergo joint replacements or other major procedures that are essential but still deeply disruptive.
No matter the path that brings someone to surgery, the moments before can be just as impactful as the procedure itself. You may find yourself:
Grieving the loss of what your body once did with ease
Feeling anxious about the unknown or fear of complications
Struggling with medical overwhelm—feeling like decisions are being made about your body without truly being seen, heard, or given space to ask questions.
Wanting to be strong for others but secretly feeling afraid
Questioning if your body will ever feel like home again
What you’re feeling isn’t weakness—it’s a wise response from a nervous system that’s been through a lot. Medical and surgical trauma is one of the more complex trauma categories, placing extreme stress on both the body and the nervous system. Even if you were unconscious during the procedure, your body still endured the experience. You might not have words for it, but you may sense deep down that something doesn’t feel quite right—and that may be why you are reading these words right now, searching for answers and understanding.
In this blog, we’ll explore why surgery can leave emotional and nervous system dysregulation, even long after the scars have healed. You’ll learn:
What the trauma response to surgery can look like
Why you may feel so emotional after surgery
How PTSD after surgery can manifest—and why it’s more common than you think
The body’s stress response to trauma and surgery
What healing can look like, even if it’s been months or years
You are not alone in this. And there is a way forward.
Why your state of mind before surgery matters
What many people don’t realize is that how you enter surgery—your emotional and nervous system state—can deeply influence and determine how the body responds during each step of the procedure, as well as how well you recover from it. When the body is in a heightened state of anxiety, fear, or overwhelm right before surgery, the nervous system gets thwarted and that state gets pushed deeper into the body as the anesthesia is administered. This unfortunately influences the body’s responses during the moment to moment nuances of the surgery.
Anesthesia can temporarily “turn off” conscious awareness, but it doesn’t override your body’s stress response. If you go into surgery feeling tense or afraid, your body may carry that unresolved charge into recovery. This can increase the likelihood of experiencing post surgery PTSD, lingering symptoms, or an overall sense that something just isn’t right.
Being able to enter surgery with as much calm, support, and surrender as possible isn’t just helpful—it’s protective. It allows your nervous system to feel safer, which can reduce the chances of PTSD following surgery and support a smoother, more graceful path to healing.
What are the symptoms of post surgery trauma?
Post-surgical trauma symptoms often go unnoticed because they don’t always look like what we traditionally associate with trauma and this is mainly because medical or surgical trauma is very complex and nuanced. But the nervous system speaks in subtle and powerful ways. You might be experiencing:
Difficulty sleeping or intrusive thoughts about the procedure
Having weird or strange issues with breathing or swallowing
Ongoing fatigue or a feeling of being “off” that you can’t explain
Heightened startle response or anxiety around medical settings
Avoidance of follow-up appointments or fear of touch near the surgical site
Digestive issues or nausea not directly related to medication
Unexplained or strange sensations in your body
A feeling of disconnection from your body or emotions
For some, these symptoms develop into PTSD after surgery, also known as post surgery PTSD or PTSD following surgery. You may not associate these experiences with the surgery itself—but your body may still be processing what happened, even months or years later.
One lesser-known symptom of post-surgical trauma is nausea or vomiting after surgery, particularly when it extends beyond the typical post-anesthesia phase. This can sometimes be a dorsal vagal response—a state of nervous system shutdown that often follows overwhelming or life-threatening stress.
is Medical Trauma holding you back?
Are you feeling different, disconnected, or stuck in life after your surgery or medical procedures? Or maybe you carry a sense of unease in your body, struggling with anxiety or a feeling that something isn’t quite right.
As a somatic experiencing practitioner I specialize in helping people process and release stored trauma through gentle yet effective methods.
Download my FREE guide “Get Unstuck! The Truth About Body Trauma and How to Break Free’ and learn how to create the future you deserve.
Why So Emotional After Surgery?
Many people are surprised by the emotional waves that come after surgery. You might feel tearful, anxious, shut down, or overwhelmed—and wonder, “Why am I reacting like this? Shouldn’t I feel better now that it’s over?”
The truth is, the nervous system often holds onto experiences that feel overwhelming, fast, or out of your control. Surgery—even if it was planned and successful—can activate a stress response to trauma and surgery, especially if there was fear, pain, or a sense of helplessness during the process. For some, this can develop into PTSD after surgery, especially if past traumas were reactivated by the experience.
How Somatic Experiencing Helps Resolve PTSD from Surgery
One of the most effective approaches for healing PTSD from surgery is Somatic Experiencing (SE), a body-based trauma therapy that works directly with the nervous system. Rather than focusing only on what happened cognitively or emotionally, SE addresses the incomplete stress responses that get stored in the body after overwhelming events—like surgery.
When you undergo a medical procedure, especially one involving general anesthesia, your body often doesn’t get the chance to complete its natural fight, flight, or freeze responses. That survival energy becomes stuck, contributing to symptoms of post-surgery trauma, anxiety, fatigue, and chronic dysregulation.
Somatic Experiencing supports the body in restoring balance and resolving trauma gently and safely. Here’s how:
Renegotiating and repairing boundaries: Many people feel a deep loss of agency and bodily sovereignty during surgery. SE helps reestablish a felt sense of ownership and safety within your body—reclaiming the boundaries that were crossed, even unintentionally.
Metabolizing trapped emotions: Fear, anger, grief, and helplessness often get “frozen” during surgery. SE creates space for those emotions to arise in manageable ways so they can move through rather than remain trapped.
Melting the freeze from anesthesia: Anesthesia shuts the body down in a deep freeze-like state. SE supports the slow, safe thawing of that freeze, helping the body return to vitality and presence.
Completing survival responses: Often during surgery, the body mobilizes to fight or flee, but those responses are interrupted. SE gently helps complete these movements at a nervous system level—bringing relief from inner tension, hypervigilance, and overwhelm.
Through this process, the nervous system learns that the danger has passed. With time and skilled support, the body can come back into present time and regulation, and the trauma response begins to resolve—not just intellectually, but physiologically.
A loving note to those in recovery
If reading these words connected some dots and resonated deeply inside of you, I want you to know that post-surgical trauma is often misunderstood and overlooked. But your pain is valid. Your confusion is understandable. Your healing is possible.
The body is resilient, especially when given the space and support to unwind from what it has endured. Whether you’re weeks or years out from your procedure, it’s never too late to tend to what was left unspoken, unfelt, or unseen.
With compassion, patience, and the right support, your nervous system can come back into balance and harmony again.
If you’re exploring the possibility of healing PTSD from surgery, I invite you to reach out for a free consultation. This is a chance for us to connect, talk about what you’re needing, and see if working together feels like the right fit. There’s no pressure—just a supportive space to take the next step, if and when you’re ready.
Brianna Anderson, SEP
I’m here to help you heal so you can begin to live the life of your dreams
My private practice specializes in helping people who have endured trauma, resolve the symptoms out of their body, mind & spirit so they can feel comfortable in their skin, find inner peace and live the desires of their heart.
I am based out of South Orange County, Ca and offer online therapy sessions. Whether you are just starting your healing journey or ready to try something new, I am here to help.