Could this really be Trauma or PTSD?
Are you struggling with anxiety, depression, lack of motivation, anger, addiction or relationship problems?
Anxiety, depression, and relationship problems can significantly impact all aspects of your life, disrupting your relationships, career, social life, and family intimacy. It can fuel constant worry, fear, panic, and interrupt healthy sleep.
You may be feeling sad and lonely or worthless and empty. Possibly you’re struggling with low self-esteem or a lack of confidence. Men often struggle with their sense of masculinity. Fear of rejection or disappointment from ongoing relationship challenges may leave you feeling hopeless and stuck. Ultimately, anxiety, depression, and relationship struggles can erode your capacity to feel happy and fulfilled with your life.
Perhaps you've tried to avoid your pain through overworking, alcohol or drug abuse, relationship addiction, or other compulsive behaviors. Maybe you've done talk therapy or used prescription drugs, but only experienced partial or no relief, leaving you even more discouraged.
What is trauma?
Trauma can be any painful memory or experience that has been unresolved in your brain, and causes a disruption in your normal functioning. The types of major traumas that often underlie anxiety, depression, and relationship problems may include:
Family relationships (cut-offs, emotionally abusive or unavailable parents)
Physical, emotional, or sexual abuse
Peer, social, or school trauma (e.g. bullying, teasing, learning disabilities)
Significant separations (e.g. adoption, foster care, hospitalization of self or caregiver)
Returning veterans experiencing war, threat of war, death and violence
Experiencing or witnessing domestic violence, physical or sexual assault, serious injury or near death
First responders and law enforcement experiencing fatalities, accident and crime scenes, chronic verbal abuse and stress by the public, an officer-involved shooting, death or injury of fellow officers
Serious accidents, medical injury, chronic conditions, or surgeries
Any life experience that left you feeling helpless, powerless, or threatened
If you've experienced a pattern of subtle, but painful experiences, they can have a long-term, negative impact on your sense of well-being.
Infidelity, betrayal, or a painful relationship breakup
Public embarrassment or humiliation
Constant criticism or ridicule by an authority figure or partner
Painful, invalidating or hostile family relationships
Experiencing a significant letdown, disappointment, or personal failure
Traumatic memories are often the underlying source of chronic symptoms and presenting issues
One of the main reasons that anxiety, depression, and relationship problems can be so difficult to overcome is because the memory of a traumatic experience gets “stuck” in the amygdala, which is not a keeper of time or able to reason. The prefrontal cortex is where executive functioning happens; decision making, rational thinking, sound decisions.
Trauma freezes in short term memory and overwhelms the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. This is why you can feel out of control when you are so emotionally reactive; the emotional brain (right) and rational brain (left) cannot work at the same time; one has to go offline.
Even well after a traumatic event has ended, the trauma can remain alive and active, creating painful symptoms that are highly sensitive to getting re-activated or "triggered" by current situations. For example, if you were frequently criticized by a parent in the past, you may notice those same painful feelings from childhood getting re-activated when you're feeling criticized by your spouse or your boss.
Understanding Trauma…
Brené Brown studies human connection -- our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand humanity.
Shame is an unspoken epidemic, the secret behind many forms of broken behavior. Brené Brown, whose earlier talk on vulnerability became a viral hit, explores what can happen when people confront their shame head-on. Her own humor, humanity and vulnerability shine through every word.
PTSD disrupts the lives of average individuals as well as combat veterans who have served their country. The person experiencing the trauma often then impacts the lives of his/her family, friends, and workplaces. PTSD does not distinguish between race, age or gender and often goes undiagnosed.
In his work with trauma patients, Dr. Rigg has observed how the brain is constantly reacting to sensory information, generating non-thinking reactions before our intelligent individual human brains are able to process the event and formulate a self-driven response. John is a professional musician, who became a physician in his 40s.
Childhood trauma isn't something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain.
