The Truth About Trauma (and why nobody can go through life avoiding it)

There’s a lot to say about trauma. Despite what common myths may have you believe, you are NOT your trauma, and it does not define you. To dispel those myths, let’s define trauma itself. From its Greek roots, the word trauma originally referred to a physical wound–trauma to the head, trauma to the shoulder. It wasn’t until WWI that psychologists observing the mental and emotional effects of war, such as shell shock and phantom pains, started using the word trauma to refer to these psychological kinds of injury. Trauma is not a disorder. If someone involved in a serious car accident has broken bones, you wouldn’t diagnose them with a broken bone disorder. That would be a physical injury that needs healing. In the same way, mental and emotional traumas are not disorders. They are psychological injuries that need healing as well. In a more abstract definition, trauma is an anchor weighing you down, keeping you in the past. As someone recovering from complex PTSD, trust me when I say it has been amazing diving into trauma. Not just for my own healing but within the transformations of my clients as well.

“Your issues are in your tissues. So when you don't process your emotions, your stress response, all of that, it becomes stored in your body.”

Trauma is not what happened to you–it's how your body copes with that stress. So the earlier the trauma, the more intense and longer lasting the effects will be. In order for us to heal it, we have to feel it.  

Feelings are just our body's feedback. For example, sadness is a signal to release emotion–this is your cue to cry, to grieve. Swallowing emotions and sweeping them under the rug will only work for so long. When they’re stored in our body and we refuse to feel them, we become backed up with unprocessed trauma. The smallest things can start to seem life-threatening as our body becomes stuck in hypervigilant survival mode–which is exhausting!

Unprocessed trauma can start manifesting itself in these 4 F’s

• FIGHT

• Shouting, name-calling

• Pushing people away to self-protect

• FLIGHT

• Frequently leaving jobs, relationships

• Moving to a new place as an escape

• FREEZE

• Shutting down when feeling judged or threatened

• Paralysed by overwhelming emotions

• FAWN

• People-pleasing response

• Self-protecting by making those around us happy

“Information gives us a hit of dopamine. It's a temporary relief. It makes us feel good. Transformation comes from implementation.”

Knowing your enemy is only part of the battle.Transformation comes from implementation.

Becoming more self-aware of our body’s response to trauma will help us reframe our past, live in the present, and start creating that compelling future we’re yearning for.

Best,

Claire