What Are the Stages of Recovering From Trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?

While healing from traumatic experiences and PTSD can follow a linear arc, remember that sometimes you may fall back and relapse into another stage. Relapse and regression can occur during a person’s recovery. When facing relapse or regressing, remember the resilience that you have gained throughout your recovery journey. When you recognize the relapse, reach out for help, learn from the experience, and move forward. We can view the stages of recovery as follows:

1. Victim
   -In the victim stage, the person is at the least empowering point of their recovery journey. As a victim, no one feels empowered. Something bad has happened to them, and they feel they are helpless or alone. They may still be experiencing the trauma that has captured their mindset as a victim or they may not have found the strength to move on with their lives. Feelings of loneliness and hopelessness abound in the victim stage.
2. Survivor
   -Survivors begin to move past the traumatic experiences. They may be now getting out of abusive or unhealthy environments that caused their trauma. Now that the person has gotten out of the bad situation, they are still experiencing the effects of the trauma. While the survivor is more empowered than the victim, they are still just getting by and have not yet pushed into the next stage of recovery.
3. Thriver
   -The thriver or the warrior is now learning coping skills to create a life of meaning and purpose. Where a survivor gets by day-to-day, a thriver makes plans for the future and learns from processing the pain of their trauma. During this stage, a person is well into their recovery journey and is moving forward from their trauma or PTSD by creating a new life based on growth and resilience.

Each person advances in recovery at their own rate. Allow yourself the time you need to heal from your pain and to process your pain to thrive in your recovery journey!

What stage of healing from trauma are you in? Are you a victim reaching out for help for the first time? Are you a survivor looking for a more fulfilling way to live your life? Are you a thriver looking for new skills to avoid potential relapse and regression? Call The Guest House today at (855) 483-7800 to talk about ways that we can help you with your recovery journey!