Threats we perceive when we are triggered by trauma are more than triggers of our trauma. They are triggers of the very real feelings associated with trauma, our survival instincts. Trauma can feel like the world is ending. According to our perception, the world as we know it has in fact ended, usurped by a single or series of life events. Trauma is, as Judy Crane defines it in The Trauma Heart, “any single life event or series of life events that create a negative impact on your life that changes or distorts your vision of yourself and your place in the world.” Therefore, when our trauma is triggered, due to our complex layers of experiences, our activated “reptile brain”, and our disordered sympathetic nervous system, we instantaneously feel as though our world is ending again.
Due to the way our “reptile brain” is activated, we can no longer distinguish what is mild, moderate, or severe when it comes to the threats we perceive when we are triggered in our trauma. In a way, until we heal our trauma, our lives are lived in a constant state of misperception. However, since it is our perception, it is our truth. Millions of people live in the broken philosophy that fighting and being a fighter is their truth.
Fighting is part of the survival response in “fight, flight, or freeze”. Fighting also becomes a way of life for many of us who are living with unresolved complex trauma. Living in a constant flux of activated reptilian instinct and survival impulse becomes normalized in such a way that it is something to hold on to. Many of us come to believe that fighting is the only way to keep living, in any capacity. If we give up fighting, we may have to relive our trauma, face the truth of our trauma, or feel the feelings of our trauma. Moreover, we may have to simply live, which we have forgotten how to do or may never have fully learned how to do.
Most often, we believe that our fighting lifestyle is our way of not letting our trauma run our life. By being in control, by self-sabotaging, self-harming, or self-destructing in some way; even by helping others or committing our lives to service, we feel we are showing trauma what we’re made of. By fighting trauma, we feel, we are transcending our trauma. Surrender is a sign of weakness, we mistakenly interpret, and weakness would mean that our trauma wins. What we don’t realize until we seek trauma treatment or trauma therapy is that we can’t fight forever and that fighting directly means we still believe our trauma has, or can take, our power. Giving up the fight, seeking trauma treatment, and healing is taking our power back.
The Guest House Ocala specializes in the treatment of trauma, addictions, and related mental health issues like anxiety. Everyone has a story. If you are living with unmanageable anxiety as a result of trauma it is critical for you to know, you are not alone. Help is available. You can and you will recover. Call us today for information on our custom plans of treatment and our private luxury care: 1-855-483-7800