3 Signs You’ve Experienced Trauma
3 Signs You’ve Experienced Trauma
From a trauma therapist in Cleveland, Ohio
No one goes through life without experiencing traumatic moments. However, you can go through traumatic experiences without getting a trauma disorder! Trauma shows up in many ways! It can look like anxiety, anger, depression, addiction, and so much more. Check out three indicators below to see if you could be experiencing some trauma symptoms.
One
You feel the need to avoid reminders of the experience
No one loves to reflect back on painful moments of their life! However, when experienced with other symptoms, this may be a sign of trauma. Not wanting to go down a certain street, listen to the specific song, smell that specific scent, run into that specific person are all signs that something may be off. Avoiding the reminders may make the reactions to the triggers even more intense over time!
Two
You notice your emotions and body become very uncomfortable when exposed to reminders
Notice how your emotions shift when you experience a reminder. Do you suddenly feel intense emotional stress? Emotions such as grief, shame, sorrow, embarrassment, fear or other distress may arise. Typically it happens very quickly and without much cause aside from a breif reminder of the incident. Additionally, take note of how your body experiences sensations when exposed to the cue. Does your body seem to reexperience it as if it were already happening? Do you experience a flashback? While these two things are more severe symptoms of trauma, it can also be more subtle than this. Notice if you feel a lump in your throat, your eyes start to tear up, tightness in your chest, or you notice a sinking pit in your stomach. Everyone experiences this differently. These things are your body’s natural alarm system so please remain curious and take note of what happens!
Three
Your view of yourself and of the world changes after the experience.
Your body wants to be alive, safe, and well. Which means, it adapts as much as needed to keep itself safe. After a traumatic event, your brain may adaptively or maladaptively start to protect itself through what it believes about you/the world. For example, you may have once believed the world was mostly safe but are now starting to shift towards feeling fear most of the time in the world. In terms of viewing yourself, you may start to notice you feel responsible for what happened. You may start to question your own value or worth. You may question your ability to remain in control, to trust your judgement, or trust yourself to stay safe.
What else should I Know?
This list isn't meant to be used as a diagnosis tool or to be refered to as a comprehensive list. Trauma, in the widened perspective, boils down to having an experience that was nonnurting. As we go through life, we try to keep ourselves safe. Each positive or negative moment is stored as a roadmap for protection.
As an EMDR therapist, I am trained to help you make connection to your past events that lead to your trauma symptoms! Making the connections is only the first step. For alot of us, we don't need help picking out the hurtful moments that happened. Unfortunately, knowing the moments and healing the moments are separate.
When you experiece trauma, it either heals normally (just like a physical wound) or it gets "infected" (again, like a physical wound). EMDR therapists are trained to help your brain store and heal from the trauma like it would have naturally. Sometimes traumatic memories/moments get stuck. We (EMDR) therapists support you getting unstuck.
If this sounds like you, please don't hesitate to get professional help. If you live in Ohio, I'd love to set up a free consult to see if we are a good fit. If you're interested, click here.
Thank for reading !
Carley Trillow
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