The memory of the event keeps invading your mind.
Initially, you did not know you were suffering from that experience. But then the nightmares started, and the intense feelings of fear and dread would come back again and again.
Something triggers that traumatic memory, and it is as if you are back in that dreadful moment again. Those feelings occur at the most inconvenient times and places, and your emotional and physical responses are overwhelming.
In the middle of a social event, the memory causes you to start sweating. You don’t know what triggered it, but you know you need to flee.
Emotionally, you feel fear, panic, confusion, causing you to feel numb and unable to relate to others how you feel. Each waking day, you live in fear of that event occurring again.
Some traumatic events are hard to resolve.
Trauma is the response to profoundly distressing or disturbing events that overwhelm an individual’s ability to cope, cause feelings of helplessness, and diminish their sense of self and ability to feel the full range of emotions and experiences.
Trauma can result from many different causes, including abuse as a child, a life-threatening accident, witnessing violence, or other stressful experiences. Thoughts of that event can linger, sometimes for many years – causing emotional and physical symptoms.
Living with unresolved trauma can influence every aspect of a person’s life – work, relationships, family.
Without help, the impacts of some trauma are difficult, if not impossible, to overcome.
Seek help – Don’t let trauma win!
When trauma is ruling your life, you know it is time to learn strategies to cope with those overwhelming sensations. And you do not have to do this alone.
You can learn how to recognize the signs and signals of trauma in your body. Likewise, you can learn to recognize the triggers in your current life.
We can work together to help you learn the skills to regulate your emotions and start processing experience a little bit at a time. You can learn to set boundaries that work for you, make separations from what is not yours, and learn to recognize what is your responsibility and what is not.
Living with trauma is not the answer. It’s time to gain control of those memories and start making new, positive ones. Together, we can neutralize and remove that old, old Kryptonite and re-discover your superpower.