incredible-marketing Arrow
Understanding Our Trauma Responses

If you’re struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Our traumatic experiences can be so overpowering, so destabilizing and so debilitating that we struggle to understand them. We can find it impossible to make sense of them and to wrap our brains around them. Similarly, our responses to trauma can be puzzling and confusing. We don’t understand why we react to our pain in the ways that we do. We beat ourselves up for the emotional responses we feel ashamed of and embarrassed by. When we lash out at other people, for example, we feel increasingly bad about ourselves and judge ourselves for not being able to respond to our trauma in a more appropriate or constructive way. Trauma not only affects us emotionally, it can alter the chemistry and balance of our brains. Memories of our trauma, and all of the emotional information surrounding them, get stored in our subconscious minds, which happen to govern the vast majority of our thoughts, feelings, choices and behaviors, and therefore our lives. The energy of our trauma can be stored in our bodies as well, making it even harder for us to release it from our beings and to return to a state of balance and harmony.

When we’ve been traumatized, our entire sense of stability, security and normalcy can be powerfully altered. We can feel unsafe, easily threatened and panic-stricken. Nothing feels normal anymore. We don’t recognize ourselves. We can begin to hate ourselves and blame ourselves for our trauma. We can begin to reject ourselves, believing that our trauma makes us inadequate, unworthy and unlovable. Our trauma can lead to the development of depression, anxiety disorders and other mental health issues. We harbor intense insecurities about who we are as people and about our ability to recover from our illnesses. We can respond to our trauma by turning to addictive substances and behaviors in order to help ourselves cope and to manage the intense pain we’re feeling.

Our trauma responses can be mental and can involve toxic thought patterns such as obsessing constantly, replaying painful memories or, conversely, suppressing them and blocking them out altogether. They can be emotional, and we can find ourselves grappling with intense mood swings and other feelings we struggle to comprehend. They can be physical, causing us intense bodily pain and discomfort. All of our responses to trauma can cause us to lash out at ourselves, causing us to self-harm and even to consider suicide as a form of escape from our pain.

When we don’t understand our trauma responses, they tend to cause us even more pain and distress because we’re being driven by them unconsciously, and they impact our lives in unforeseen and destructive ways. Gaining more clarity and understanding on them is a crucial part of the healing process.

Are you ready to take the first step on your journey to recovery? Call The Guest House today! 855-483-7800.