By
Updated 4 years ago,July 29, 2021
Trauma is sneaky in that it is subtle.
Youre confused by your feelings.
Its not just that youre hyper-sensitive, its that youre emotional in ways that just dont quite make sense.
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You might find yourself over or under-reacting to situations or world events.
You might find yourself crying once an hour, or struggling to understand what you feel at all.
All of this is a symptom of a fundamental disconnect between you and your nervous system.
so you can survive, you had to tune out your authentic feelings.
You need time to process.
Then, slowly, you gotta reconnect with your ability to intuit your needs and wants.
Youre recalling memories you totally forgot about.
Memory suppression is another classic sign of trauma.
Youve reached a peak of success or stability.
Though it seems counterintuitive, this is precisely the point at which most people begin emotionally unraveling.
This is simply because you are no longer just trying to survive.
Youre questioning your direction in life.
Recognizing that you behave differently today is actually a positive thing.
Youre experiencing an array of physical symptoms.
The tension in your shoulders and gut that youve had for as long as you could remember?
Its probably not unrelated to anxiety and trauma.
The same is true for a lot of unexplainable physical discomforts.
Now, instead of just trying to treat the symptoms, youre willing to address their causes.
You feel totally numbed out, or apathetic about other peoples suffering.
When this occurs, its not necessarily that youre a bad person or that youve lost your empathy.
You feel guilt or shame for no clear reason.
This is another way that hypervigilance takes control of our lives.
Practicing mindfulness and grounding techniques along with your other emotional processing work can be helpful for managing this.
Youre mentally foggy, and its hard to concentrate.
Yet again, your mind is overstimulated from trying to respond to too many things at once.
Similarly, the thoughts that we might get lost in are not always predictive or realistic.
Youre withdrawing from others.
While this isnt sustainable long-term, sometimes, being alone is the healthiest thing we can do for ourselves.
When we remove ourselves from other peoples expectations and needs, were able to start responding to our own.
Being alone forever isnt healthy, and connection is essential for us to thrive.
But being alone for a while, and especially while you are healing, can be extremely powerful.
Youre questioning what you once thought to be true.
Your old belief system simply cannot carry you into this next phase of your life.
