Trauma and PTSD

Trauma recovery is a difficult process, but a process that also becomes more manageable along the way. When people experience trauma, they are often left in a state of panic, depression, hopelessness, anxiety, or fear. These are natural responses to considerably stressful events that fragment a person’s world-view, security, and really leave a person feeling helpless and dis-empowered.

Post Traumatic Stress is a natural and expected response to trauma and can manifest itself in the form of anxiety or terror, depression, nightmares, sleep disturbances, flashbacks, poor eating habits,  affect your focus, and become a distraction to your daily living. It is possible to experience these symptoms from the time of the traumatic event until years after the trauma took place. On the other hand, some people may describe themselves as feeling disconnected and numb, not knowing how to feel and process their grief and pain of the past.

There are also times when people unconsciously live in a state of trauma and do not label it as trauma. Perhaps you cannot recall much of your childhood, or you have experienced domestic violence growing up, childhood physical, emotional, sexual, and psychological abuse, experienced loss of loved ones, grew up around addiction, neglect of parents, overly critical parents, and are currently experiencing difficulty connecting to yourself or others. This can be an indication that you are carrying around unresolved trauma.

Survivors of trauma typically feel shame, guilt, and anger from the trauma. Many trauma survivors feel there is no other way to live and feel separated from their Self.

If you are dealing with childhood sexual trauma, it can be difficult to feel connected to yourself and others.

It may also feel very difficult to feel peace or happiness as an adult victimized as a child.

People encode incest and sexual betrayal differently.

While there are people that respond in terror and immediately identify sexual abuse as traumatic; there are also victims unconsciously living in a state of trauma because they don’t identify what happened to them as abuse.