Trauma: Letting Go and Moving On

A catastrophic experience can leave you feeling traumatized and affect your overall perspective. It can overwhelm your ability to adjust, stay on top of things, or feel in control of your life. It can take you down paths you never thought you would travel. The effects of trauma can feel paralyzing, you are not alone, help is available. Early intervention can be the key to recovery.

An event or experience should not define you, your life, or your decisions. While it is natural to want to stay away from trauma triggers, avoidance of this can actually make symptoms worse. You may be left feeling as if you have nowhere to turn. Understanding the impact that trauma can have can be imperative when it comes to recovery and treatment. Don’t wait too long to seek help.

What Is Trauma?

“Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape or natural disaster,” says the American Psychological Association (APA). It can affect you and the way you think in a number of different ways. Traumatic experiences can bring about unpredictable feelings and thoughts that may lead to extreme fears. These fears can leave you feeling helpless and hopeless, even when the danger is no longer present. This can make letting go of the past and moving on exceptionally difficult.

Challenging life situations are not always avoidable. Accidents, life-changing injuries, deaths, natural disasters, losses, violence etc. can be traumatic, whether they happened to you directly or you witnessed these events. Being exposed to continuous pain and fear can also lead to trauma. Other events such as a surgery, a humiliating experience, a divorce in the family, or living with an ailing loved one, may contribute to traumatization.

What to Watch Out For: The Risk Factors

Traumatic experiences can happen to anyone. While anyone can experience something traumatic, not everyone develops post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other emotional conditions in response to their trauma. There are certain risk factors that can make you or a loved one more likely to develop PTSD. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a risk factor is “any attribute, characteristic or exposure of an individual that increases the likelihood of developing a disease or injury.” The Mayo Clinic identifies some of the following risk factors for PTSD:

  • Experiencing intense or long-lasting trauma
  • Having experienced other trauma earlier in life, including childhood abuse or neglect
  • Having a job that increases your risk of being exposed to traumatic events, such as military personnel and first responders
  • Having other mental health conditions, such as anxiety or depression
  • Lacking a good support system of family and friends
  • Having biological (blood) relatives with mental health conditions, including PTSD or depression

What are Symptoms of PTSD?

The symptoms of trauma or PTSD can affect your life and dreams. Reminders of your past trauma can take you back to the exact moment of overwhelming fear or terror. The horror of the experience can also come back in the form of nightmares, flashbacks, and intrusive memories.

PTSD has a broad range of emotional, psychological and physical symptoms; yours may not be the same as others. People can react differently to a traumatic experience, there is no right or wrong response. Some responses that you may experience include numbness, social withdrawal, negative feelings, extreme fear or anxiety, and poor focus. The physical symptoms could be sleeplessness, nightmares, fatigue, muscle tension, aches, and other manifestations of the “fight-or-flight” response common to anxiety.

If the experience is recent, your symptoms of trauma may be more intense. Typically, they can last from a few days to as long as several months or years. Early intervention can make a large difference.

The ability to adjust is intrinsic to all human beings, but it can be impaired by traumatizing life events. Even after a long time, without closure, past events such as a traumatic childhood experience can catch up to you. Recognizing the signs that you are suffering from trauma is helpful; it can be a good reason to seek professional help or counseling.

Moving Forward: The Type of Help Sought Matters

“You need to let go and move forward.” You may hear this message from others or even yourself. While this may be said with the best intentions, it is rarely helpful. Moving forward after a traumatic event is incredibly difficult and often not something you can do on your own.

In an effort to help yourself, you may look to support systems or self-help guides that are less than helpful. This can perpetuate negative beliefs and actually leave you feeling worse than before. You may be left wondering what you can possibly do to make things better?

There is nothing wrong with self-help. It is important that you stay interested in improving your circumstances. It is good to be patient, because healing from emotional or psychological pain can take time, but oftentimes this is not enough to treat symptoms of PTSD or other trauma responses. It is good to have supportive relatives and friends, but they may not fully comprehend your experience. It is good to continue caring for yourself, though this may not be a priority when you are affected by trauma.

The effective treatment for PTSD, and other trauma related symptoms, often involves therapy. Counseling can help you address your symptoms and begin to move forward in a way that works for you. A therapist contracted with Carolina Counseling Services — Pinehurst, NC, can help you begin to move forward.

Facing Your Trauma with Counseling

The past is the past, though when you are experiencing symptoms of PTSD the past may not be staying in the past. Letting go and moving on can be challenging, but it isn’t impossible with professional therapy. You can benefit from counseling. You can make more beautiful memories by moving through the painful memories of the past.

Traumatic experiences can derail your life and positive outlook. Reprocessing traumatic experiences can be done in a healthy way, allowing you to possibly even grow. Post traumatic growth is possible. Staying in the past can leave you feeling disconnected and afraid. Overcome your trauma and build a new healthy and positive life with the help of a therapist contracted with Carolina Counseling Services — Pinehurst, NC. Call now and schedule your first appointment.

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