Recovering from trauma takes time, and everyone heals at their own pace. But if months have passed and your symptoms aren't letting up, you may need professional help from a trauma expert. Seek help for trauma if you're: Having trouble functioning at home or work.
There are degrees of trauma. It can be emotional, mental, physical or sexual. It can occur once, or repeatedly. However, it is possible to fully recover from any traumatic experience or event; it may take a long time, but in the end, living free from the symptoms of trauma is worth every step of the journey.
Traumatic experiences
It is normal to have strong emotional or physical reactions following a distressing event. On most occasions though, these reactions subside as a part of the body's natural healing and recovery process. There are many things you can do to help cope with and recover from such an experience.
Cognitive Signs of Unhealed Trauma
You may experience nightmares or flashbacks that take you back to the traumatic event. Furthermore, you may struggle with mood swings, as well as disorientation and confusion, which can make it challenging to perform daily tasks.
Exposure to trauma can be life-changing – and researchers are learning more about how traumatic events may physically change our brains. But these changes are not happening because of physical injury, rather our brain appears to rewire itself after these experiences.
Fortunately, an individual's life doesn't have to be defined by their trauma. With professional help, it's possible to get back to normal after a traumatic event.
There is an intense desire to feel well quickly and individuals can feel that the process is taking too long or they are not doing it “right”. Recovery is not defined by complete absence of thoughts or feelings about the traumatic experience but being able to live with it in a way that it isn't in control of your life.
Safety is perhaps the most difficult part of the trauma recovery process. If you do not feel safe in your body, environment, or relationships, then you will not be able to healthily process the trauma experience(s).
Trauma is not physically held in the muscles or bones — instead, the need to protect oneself from perceived threats is stored in the memory and emotional centers of the brain, such as the hippocampus and amygdala. This activates the body whenever a situation reminds the person of the traumatic event(s).
But post-injury emotional changes don't usually lead to a true personality disorder. Instead, they're from symptoms that will go away if you get the right treatment. Undergoing these emotional changes or watching your loved one suffer through them is really hard.
Fortunately, there is a way to overcome trauma and find happiness once again – post-traumatic growth. In recent years, the concept of 'post-traumatic growth' has gained massive popularity among researchers and mental health professionals.
Smiling when discussing trauma is a way to minimize the traumatic experience. It communicates the notion that what happened “wasn't so bad.” This is a common strategy that trauma survivors use in an attempt to maintain a connection to caretakers who were their perpetrators.
The UK Trauma Council defines complex trauma as traumatic experiences involving multiple events with interpersonal threats during childhood or adolescence. Such events may include abuse, neglect, interpersonal violence, community violence, racism, discrimination, and war.
If you're a survivor of trauma, you can have great relationships too. There are a lot of quotes out there about how you can't love someone else until you love yourself or that you have to be ready to have a relationship, but that's not the truth.
Extreme emotional instability is also a sure-tell sign of trauma where the person may express anger or rage, irritability, and other outbursts that are uncharacteristic of their typical behaviors. Therapists often observe emotional mood swings that are difficult to control for the individual.
Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event. Most people who go through traumatic events may have temporary difficulty adjusting and coping, but with time and good self-care, they usually get better.
Finding Inner Peace After Trauma
With therapy and other treatment, you can find inner peace again. The first step is to make an appointment to begin your treatment, followed by a willingness to do whatever it takes to find the pain inside and acknowledge it so that it, and you, can be set free.
The final stage of recovery is about empowerment. You might worry that you'll never be the same as you were before the traumatic incident, but the trauma you endured doesn't need to define who you are.
Self-Love Tip #1: Stop Hiding Yourself from the World
People who have experienced trauma often find themselves avoiding. Avoiding people, avoiding attention, avoiding intimacy, avoiding feelings, or avoiding anything that could remind them at all about the trauma.
“Trauma changes the insula, the self-awareness systems. Traumatized people often become insensible to themselves. They find it difficult to sense pleasure and to feel engaged. These understandings force us to use methods to awaken the sensory modalities in the person.”
When someone experiences a traumatic event or experiences extreme fear, brain chemistry is altered and the brain begins to function differently--this is called the "Fear Circuity" and it is a protective mechanism which we all have inside of us.
Our brains are more susceptible to change than many people think, and even though overcoming trauma is a difficult process, you're actually changing the way your brain works: adding new pathways, increasing the functions of certain areas, and strengthening connections.
Brain areas implicated in the stress response include the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. Traumatic stress can be associated with lasting changes in these brain areas. Traumatic stress is associated with increased cortisol and norepinephrine responses to subsequent stressors.