When you’re living with a chronic illness, it is natural to begin to have anxiety about the future. What will progression look like? How will symptoms evolve? Will there be a burden on your family? How will you afford to manage your health and daily activities? Worrying about any of these things can cause you to feel anxious, let alone worry about multiple factors. Treatment options exist to combat any anxiety you may have and allow you to be as mentally focused as possible to push through your chronic illness and find joy in living your life.
If you’ve been watching the scenes coming out of Turkey and Syria you’ve probably been affected. Maybe you are even experiencing vicarious trauma. Vicarious trauma happens when you feel emotional pain, terror, fear and helplessness from exposure to others peoples’ trauma. For instance, imagining what it’s like to be stuck under rubble from the earthquake, losing your entire family or becoming homeless.
When it comes to trauma, no single person is immune. However, women are twice as likely to experience some type of traumatic event than men. With medical trauma, that scale can be tipped even a little further. Medical trauma is considered a physiological or psychological response to some negative, likely traumatic, experience within a medical setting.
If you have never discussed depression before, you may not even know what it is. Even if you know what depression is in the broad sense, you may not fully understand what it entails and how deep it goes. Specific terms may not be a part of your vocabulary. Certain cultural norms teach you that you work hard, you reach your goals, and maybe you don’t complain when things go awry.
EMDR research started with its use for PTSD treatment. There has been evidence showing positive outcomes with other psychological issues. Depression stems from negative or overwhelming life experiences. Some of these experiences can also be traumatic. So the tie-in here can be significant. Being able to identify the cause of the depression and reprocess how a person deals with those experiences can be helpful in overcoming the negative aspects.
There’s a lot of taboo when it comes to suicide, and people often fear that talking about it will “put the idea in someone’s head” or somehow make the thoughts worse. You may have encountered people like this in your family or community. However, research has shown that these fears are not helpful and ignoring the issue may actually cause harm in some cases.
Unknown anxiety present one of the main threats to our nervous system regulation, so learning to companion and soothe ourselves in the face of unknowns can be hugely supportive to our well- being. Unknown anxiety show up in all kinds of ways. One type is the relational unknown, such as feeling uncertain about how our partner feels, how to communicate with our friend, or how others might feel about us. Another is the unknown about the future of our own lives
Nighttime anxiety can be super frustrating because it’s the exact opposite of sleep. It can rob you of much needed rest and relaxation. And unfortunately, the anxiety can be self-perpetuating once you associate attempting to sleep with anxiety. The good news is, there are a few steps you can take to lessen the intensity of nighttime anxiety and build bedtime routines that work for you.
Emotional trauma can impact anyone and occur at any time. Whether it is something you have recently experienced or something that has been packed away, it is quite possible to feel sad, anxious, overwhelmed, or unhappy. While there is no clear-cut time frame for healing, knowing that you can move forward and regain your power is important. Here are six ways that you can begin your recovery process.
The way EMDR and many other therapies now conceptualize trauma is with a much broader scope than traditionally thought. It isn’t just limited veterans who have seen combat or people who were abused as children - though those experiences certainly qualify as trauma and often result in a PTSD diagnosis.
As a highly sensitive person (HSP) chances are you are tired of having to explain yourself to others and advocate for the needs you have that others do not understand. You may be thinking that something is wrong with you and wish that you weren’t so sensitive. It’s easy to imagine that being more “like everyone else” would be a lot better. Please don’t waste any more of your time and energy wishing for the impossible. HSP is a trait people are born with, not a disorder; a gift, not a curse. Below are some things you can do to better manage and enjoy your life as a highly sensitive person.
Girls, queer and trans kids were often passed over because they didn’t exhibit these stereotypical behaviors, while BIPOC students who weren’t passed over were likely treated with disciplinary measures rather than exploring the why behind their behaviors. Systemic racism, sexism, trans- and homophobia all show up in the public school system. Autistic people in these groups likely learned to mask from a young age to avoid being further targeted for bullying, discrimination, and harassment.
Do you believe that we are all made of different parts? After all, not everyone is all bad or all good. Human beings have a combination of helpful and harmful amounts of themselves. Unfortunately, trauma has a way of bringing out the worst in us. INTERNAL FAMILY SYSTEMS (IFS) is a type of therapy that helps you discover who you are and bring all of these parts together. The three main parts include: Exiles, Managers and Firefighters.
Unfortunately, when two people have a traumatic history in a relationship, it can create something called “trauma bonding.” It can even happen in your relationships with family members or friends. It’s easy for abusers to shift the perspective of their victims, often using gaslighting techniques. They can get you to change the way you view what happened, or what continues to happen. Instead of recognizing that you’re the victim, they can end up making you feel like you’re the one to blame.
