Emotions are an essential part of who we are, so essential that we are born with them. As we grow older, emotions can become complicated, confusing, and dysregulated. We can start to perceive them as good or bad. We can experience challenges identifying where they are coming from and managing them. Unresolved emotional dysregulation is often a symptom of psychological trauma or traumatic experiences. According to Matthew Tull, PhD, in his article “Secondary Emotions and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” published on Verywell Mind, individuals with PTSD are particularly vulnerable to secondary emotions such as guilt or shame that arise in response to primary emotions like fear or sadness. These secondary emotions often stem from deeply held beliefs about what emotions are acceptable or “weak.” Therapy and mindfulness practices can help individuals recognize and accept all emotions without judgment, reducing distress and promoting healing. Trauma systems therapy can support individuals in learning to identify emotions, especially secondary emotions, and talk about them. Using emotions as messengers can be healthy for our emotional well-being. Processing these emotions is also a critical component of healing from trauma, PTSD, or anxiety.
Primary vs. Secondary Emotions
Primary emotions are the emotions that humans experience universally. There are different theories as to what these specific emotions are, but they often include anger, fear, sadness, disgust, happiness, and surprise. Meanwhile, secondary emotions stem from, and are a variation of the primary emotions. They can also highlight a higher level of intensity in the emotion.
1. Anger
Secondary emotions of anger: humiliated, mad, frustrated, betrayed, resentful, disrespected, furious, jealous, infuriated, annoyed, numb, dismissive
Physiological Response: Increased heart rate, muscle tightness, rush of blood to the head, confusion/irrational thinking, sweating, loss of concentration. Anger can also affect your body causing vision difficulties (including tunnel vision, sensitivity to light or blurry vision) and increased pressure inside your eyes, feelings of dry mouth, decreased blood flow in the digestive system, slowed metabolism, increased likelihood of stroke or heart attack, more frequent headaches and nightmares, decreased thyroid function, lowered bone density, and other system difficulties including increased blood pressure, blood glucose levels, and blood fatty acid levels.
Behavioral Response: Shouting, cursing, throwing or breaking things, verbal abuse, physical abuse.
Everyone experiences anger sometimes. Individuals who have experienced trauma may notice that they are having anger outbursts or becoming easily irritated as their “fight” response is becoming activated. This can be a sign of secondary traumatic stress. Talking about anger can help alleviate some of the intense pressure that you may feel building up inside you. Anger is not an excuse for engaging in abusive behavior like hitting, shouting, or throwing things.
2. Fear
Secondary emotions of fear: scared, anxious, insecure, weak, rejected, frightened, overwhelmed, worried, inadequate, inferior, worthless, insignificant, nervous
Physiological Response: Increased blood pressure, heart and respiratory rate and increased tension and blood flow in the large muscle groups as your body prepares for “flight” mode. Pupils dilate, tear and salivary glands dry up, increased sweating, “goosebumps,” gut activity stops, and clotting factors and sugars are made more available in the blood.
Behavioral Response: When experiencing an actual or perceived threat, the brain and body will engage in a survival response. The fight response that comes with anger and its secondary emotions makes you want to attack and be aggressive to fight off the danger. In contrast, the flight response makes you want to flee the scene to get to safety. Some individuals may freeze when they experience fear, causing a highly activated state of immobility. Meanwhile, a fawn response includes trying to avoid or minimize distress or danger by pleasing and appeasing the threat.
Individuals with PTSD may notice that they are constantly in survival mode and engaging in a trauma response whether is flight, flight, freeze or fawn. This behavior can lead to other mental health difficulties including anxiety, panic attacks, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
3. Sadness
Secondary emotions of sadness: hurt, depressed, guilty, lonely, embarrassed, disappointed, inferior, remorseful, ashamed, powerless, grief, abandoned, isolated
Physiological Response: Increased heart rate, skin conductance level increases which means that the skin becomes a conductor of electricity whenever experiencing psychological arousal.
Behavioral Response: Withdrawing from social relationships (even from people you’re closest to), crying, sobbing, lower reward seeking, slow gait, feelings of hopelessness, guilt, worthlessness, helplessness, hopelessness, loss of interest or pleasure in activities, and changes in physical expressions (drooping eyelids, downcast eyes, lowered lip corners, slanting inner brows).
Experiencing sadness is not the same as having depression. If you notice that your sadness is intense and lasts for a long time, or if it begins to have a significant impact on your appetite, pleasure, energy levels, and makes it hard for you to do your work, go to school, or maintain relationships, it may be time to seek assistance from a mental health professional.
4. Disgust
Secondary emotions of disgust: disapproving, disappointed, repelled, judgmental, embarrassed, revolted, nauseated, detestable, horrified, hesitant
Physiological Response: lowered blood pressure, galvanic skin response, stomach discomfort, nausea, increased immune strength, and muscles in the face tighten up in a characteristic facial expression of disgust.
Behavioral Response: Avoidance, withdrawal, dropping the object or distancing from the object or person of disgust, shuddering. Individuals can also experience moral disgust when they learn that a moral violation has been committed.
Healing from trauma includes dealing with disgust. Initially, in the healing process, individuals may be unable to identify this emotion by name as disgust is buried by the brain’s defense to block it from conscious awareness. Instead, individuals might identify symptoms like anxiety, depression, and low self-confidence. Somatic experiencing and somatic therapy techniques are often used to release disgust stored in the body due to psychological trauma. Over time, disgust becomes present when remembering and confronting the trauma, whether in the context of betrayal, humiliation, abuse, or a strong dislike for the abuser or perpetrator.
5. Happiness
Secondary emotions of happiness: content, interested, proud, accepted, powerful, peaceful, trusting, optimistic, aroused, joyful, successful, confident, respected, valued, loving, thankful, sensitive, intimate, hopeful, inspired
Physiological Response: release of dopamine and serotonin (two neurotransmitters in the brain associated with pleasure), raising body temperature, cheeks flushing, feelings of “butterflies” in the stomach, increased or decreased heart rate
Behavioral Response: Happy people smile, act playfully, and behave cheerfully. They are warm, considerate, respectful, helpful, and pleasant to be around.
Trauma survivors face challenges experiencing happiness. Emotional numbing, trust difficulties, and isolation are common reactions to trauma. Healing from trauma while in a relationship may present additional challenges as emotional intimacy can trigger unresolved pain. PTSD will diminish positive affect or reduce the frequency and intensity of emotions such as happiness, joy, love, interest, and desire/capacity for interpersonal affiliation.
6. Surprise
Secondary emotions of surprise: startled, confused, amazed, excited, shocked, dismayed, disillusioned, perplexed, astonished, awed, eager, energetic
Physiological Response: lower heart rate, increased blood pressure, eyes wide open, eyebrows raised, jaw drops open
Behavioral Response: Reactions to surprise can vary in degree and intensity; they can be neutral/moderate, pleasant/unpleasant, or positive/negative. Surprise can activate the fight or flight response and turn into fear, amusement, relief, anger, or disgust depending on what caused the surprise. Surprise may also be followed by no emotions if the surprise is not a bad thing or does not have negative consequences.
Individuals who have experienced trauma often do not manage surprises well. Surprises can cause them to feel overwhelmed, powerless, or helpless. Surprises can also trigger learned behavior that a surprise means that you are in danger causing an increase in symptoms.
How Does Trauma Impact Emotions?
Experiencing trauma can lead to a range of emotional effects for survivors, including difficulties in sleeping, withdrawal, anxiety, depression, emotional detachment, fatigue, fear, mood swings, nightmares, and even physical symptoms like chest pain or heightened alertness. Unprompted and involuntary thoughts and memories related to the traumatic event can easily trigger emotional and behavioral reactions. This emotional dysregulation is common in those experiencing vicarious trauma or compassion fatigue.
To cope with the distress, trauma survivors often resort to avoidance or emotional numbness to find temporary relief. However, suppressing emotions only increases detachment and prolongs the symptoms. Maladaptive coping mechanisms like emotional suppression can also lead to burnout or chronic stress. Trauma systems therapy can play a key role in helping individuals recognize and regulate these emotional patterns. It is crucial in the healing process for individuals to distinguish between natural and manufactured emotions, especially when dealing with trauma, PTSD, or complex PTSD. Natural emotions are emotions we are all born with. They are hard-wired, common, and biologically driven. These emotions appear automatically, such as sadness when a relationship ends and happiness when spending time with someone you love. Natural emotions need to be felt and acknowledged for them to dissolve on their own.
Healing from Trauma: Understanding and Releasing Manufactured Emotions
On the other hand, manufactured emotions are created from our thoughts and worldview. They develop as we age and assimilate to societal norms. If avoidance persists and our thought patterns remain unchanged, these emotions also persist, thus prolonging symptoms associated with trauma. Examples of manufactured emotions include guilt and shame. For instance, you might feel guilty when holding yourself responsible for setting boundaries with a family member. Even if establishing boundaries is not inherently wrong, the perception that it is selfish and makes you a bad person can lead to thoughts like “I’m a terrible person,” further fostering feelings of shame.
Continuing to harbor self-blaming thoughts prolongs manufactured emotions. Coping strategies like dialectical behavior therapy or EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) can reduce these symptoms. Processing thoughts in therapy and reconnecting with natural emotions is key to healing. Trauma survivors often struggle to access natural emotions during or after the event, lacking time or space to fully process the experience. This delay can create misperceptions about their role in the trauma, leading to manufactured emotions like guilt or shame. Thoughts such as “I should have known better” or “I should have prevented it” are common. For trauma survivors, manufacturing emotions can come easily. Problem-focused coping and self-regulation ease tension and help reconnect with the body. Processing both natural and manufactured emotions in a safe, non-judgmental space is the first step in healing from PTSD.
How Therapy Can Help
Allowing yourself to experience the emotions and process traumatic events can be an incredibly confusing and scary experience. But you don’t have to go through it alone. At Reflection Psychology, we are highly qualified and experienced in providing trauma therapy. If you are considering taking the first step toward your healing process, click here to schedule a free 15-minute consultation with one of our providers to find a good fit for you!
