Similarly, the body reacts profoundly in trauma. It tenses in readiness, braces in fear, and freezes and collapses in helpless terror. When the mind’s protective reaction to overwhelm returns to normal, the body’s response is also meant to normalize after the event. When this restorative process is thwarted, the effects of trauma become fixated and the person becomes traumatized.
—
Waking the Tiger, Peter Levine
Honestly, one of the bigger things I find myself stumbling over when reading survivor characters is the disconnect between mind and body. Someone will take something like hypervigilance and write it as a thought process- unaware or unsure how to write it as something that is body driven as well. Writing that treats trauma reactions as only happening in the mind is writing that lacks depth.