trauma and complex ptsd therapy
We may hear the word trauma and think to ourselves… what does trauma even mean? Trauma is an experience that feels so overwhelming that we cannot process it at the time. Trauma is extremely specific to the person who experienced the event. It all depends on the level of distress it caused that person at the time and how it affects their overall quality of life moving forward.
trauma symptoms
I felt it might be helpful to list some trauma symptoms below and you can read through to see how many of these symptoms apply to you.
1. Hyper-vigilance response meaning that your body becomes “jumpy” when someone slams a door, for example. You notice you are on edge much of the time.
2. You tend to be “waiting for the other shoe to drop” or have a sense of impending doom and don’t necessarily know why.
3. You find yourself pushing people away either by feeling too anxious about the relationship or feeling to suffocated by the relationship.
4. You have nightmares with intense emotions at least once per week. When you wake up, you find that these emotions stay with you for a little while.
5. You avoid reminders of the trauma. For example, if you experienced sexual assault you find yourself not wanting to watch movies with rape scenes in it.
6. You have negative beliefs about yourself and the world. Beliefs such as “the world is unfair” or “I am unloveable” .
7. You find yourself sexually aroused by the same traumatic experience that haunts you at night. This is a very common trauma response.
8. You minimize your past experiences and question if “it even happened”. Downplaying your trauma can help us maintain an illusion of control.
9. We find ourselves wants to numb our intense emotions by using substances, people, food, shopping or any other addictive behavior.
10. We experience intrusive thoughts or memories about the trauma even when we are not trying to think about it. It seemingly comes out of nowhere and really affects us.
If you have three or more of these trauma symptoms above, it is time to seek some professional help.
If you have any more questions about trauma, PTSD and CPTSD please reach out via the Metta Holistic Therapy get in touch page or email me directly at reneeminxtherapy@gmail.com
“After trauma therapy with Renee, I feel so much more myself. It’s hard to describe but it felt like I was living in a fog before and that my life wasn’t mine.”
T.L.
Metta Holistic Therapy 