You cannot overcome what you do not understand!!
If you want to overcome tragedy and trauma, let’s start at the very beginning – let’s understand trauma. Trauma is an event or series of events that leaves you feeling shocked, saddened, anxious, or overwhelmed. This could include the loss of a loved one, surviving abuse, witnessing or being in an accident or violent/criminal event, a relationship breakup, or a natural disaster.
Symptoms of trauma include flashbacks (re-experiencing situations), nightmares, and disassociation (separating yourself from the reality of your experience).
TRIGGERS
Triggers are situations, places, and people that remind you of the trauma or the loved one you lost or the person who abused you.
SURVIVAL TOOL
Identify and eliminate the triggers in your life (if possible). This may mean relocating, changing your social circle, finding new venues to conduct business, and/or confronting your triggers as your mind’s unconscious response to a situation. Recognize it, then engage your conscious mind to process it. It may be something that you need to steer away from or something that will not bother you once you have identified it is irrational.
FLASHBACKS
A flashback is reliving a memory as if it were in fact happening at that moment – you hear the sounds, you can see the traumatic event, and you even smell the smells. You are not just remembering, you are back in that traumatic moment and you react the same way you did then. You will shake, you will stutter, you will break out into a cold sweat. It is an ugly reopening of a wound you would rather not acknowledge.
SURVIVAL TOOL
It helps if you can identify the trigger that brought on that flashback. It helps to reorient yourself to your surroundings and recognize that you are not in that same traumatic surrounding but in a different, hopefully, safe environment. As often as the flashbacks often, you will have to reorient yourself. Being able to talk about your traumatic flashbacks to your support system helps you process the trauma.
Professional Counseling with a Trauma Counselor is one of the most effective and safe ways to process trauma.
Please read more about ways to transform your triggers:
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