I think the abuse trauma gets imprinted on our inner brain, the
amygdala. Once it is there it keeps giving us signals that we
are traumatized and that we should expect trauma. But since the
trauma has ceased, these signals are no longer appropriate. But
we don't have conscious access to these deep areas of our brain,
so we can't control those types of signals. It may be that EMDR
helps. EMDR certainly helped me.   pufferfish whistle