08/18/2020
is any event where we experience severe psychological distress that we are not able to cognitively process as we do everyday events and so unhealed trauma can have the potential to impact us in many ways.
Our physiological responses may be impacted. If we are of and a host of other situations and we are not able to process and heal from the pain of these experiences, the trauma may continue to impact our day to day, even if it’s not in our immediate awareness.
Unhealed Trauma can disrupt our:
💜 SENSE OF SAFETY
We may experience anxiety, hypervigilance, a sense of high alert 🚨 and the more often we experience or navigate traumatic situations, the more complex our symptoms may become. Trauma can negatively impact various parts of our brain 🧠 including the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, areas of the brain that regulate our “fight or flight” threat/fear response, our attention, decision making ability, and emotional regulation.
💜 SENSE OF SELF
If we have experienced assault, violence, abuse, neglect, danger, a life threatening situation, racism, sexism, and the many other situations that may cause and aggravate traumatic reactions, we may question our self worth depending on the situation. For children raised in abusive homes, they may internalize harmful messages about love, communication, and self worth.
💜 SAFETY IN CONNECTIONS
For those of us who have experienced relational trauma, we may have trouble with valuing ourselves, knowing what healthy behavior and relationships looks like, trouble identifying and asserting our boundaries, and we may also unknowingly attract people that trigger or re-injure us.
💜 CREATIVE EXPRESSION
Some of us who have experienced trauma may find art and creativity to be a healing outlet but unprocessed pain may also negatively impact our expression; we may feel less confident to pursue our artistic goals and ventures, we may struggle with authenticity and “imposter syndrome,” and we may spend a large amount of our emotional resources managing trauma symptoms leaving less space for creative hobbies and interests.
