A Fresh Start: Life After Trauma

Have you experienced a very upsetting, frightening, or traumatic event at some point in your life? Did it threaten or hurt you, someone you love, or people you know? When this sort of thing happens, the emotional toll can be intense, confusing, and scary, and you may find these feelings difficult to get over. Disturbing thoughts and symptoms may also develop years later, when you think the trauma is buried in the past.

Living under the Control of Traumatic Memories

Trauma is an extreme emotional reaction generated by something scary, unexpected, or uncontrollable. The memories arising from such experiences may not get processed in the typical fashion because the logical, reasoning part of the brain is incapacitated during the moment: you act now and think later. However, whether the trauma happened many years ago or very recently, its profound effect on your psyche may last a lifetime.

The emotional toll from a traumatic event is not exclusive to the people who directly experience it. Every day, mass media bombards the general public with horrific news and vivid images of natural disasters, violent crimes, and tragic accidents in many parts of the world. Viewing these images repeatedly can weaken your sense of security, especially with human-caused events such as terrorist attacks.

People have different responses to experiences. What may be traumatic to you may not bother others at all. When you’re a survivor or an eyewitness or live in continuous exposure to an extraordinarily distressing event, it’s normal to feel anxious, angry, afraid, and uncertain. If an experience leaves you feeling powerless and hopeless about the future, you can take steps to recover your emotional balance and start living life again with a clean slate.

When Painful Emotions Take Over

If you have unresolved trauma, it may manifest as an emotional condition with debilitating symptoms. In fact, traumatic memories are often the root cause of emotional intimacy issues. A
childhood trauma may make it difficult for you to trust or open up to people around you. Or, if you have survived an abusive relationship, you may become overly sensitive or emotionally numb.

You may feel physical aches, pains, and muscle tension as flashbacks and nightmares of the traumatic event torment you. In an attempt to distance yourself from the upsetting memories, you may bury yourself in work, but unresolved trauma can leave you exhausted from shock, anger, and guilt.

The good news is that you can work through these difficult feelings. With the help of a competent trauma therapist, you can achieve healing and interact with the world and yourself without the painful memories controlling you.

Knowing When to Seek Treatment

Most intense feelings following a disaster or traumatic event are temporary and usually start to dissolve within a short period of time. If your negative reaction is persistent to the extent that it significantly disrupts your ability to function, the help of a professional may benefit you.

It is definitely time to take action if the following warning signs become noticeable:

  • Regular nightmares with horrifying images or impressions of the traumatic event
  • Continuous experiences of terrifying memories or flashbacks as if the event is happening all over again
  • Difficulty in maintaining relationships
  • Self-harming thoughts and behavior
  • Avoidance of things that remind you of the traumatic event
  • Unsettling feelings, such as anger, anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem, that persist for longer than six weeks after the experience

Moving Forward to a New Life

Nobody needs to live in a world of unprocessed traumatic memories. If you have unresolved trauma, whether from a major or minor experience, you are certainly not alone. Professional help from a counselor might be what you need to pull you out of fight-or-flight mode. Getting early help allows you the best chance to recover from the effects of trauma and move on with your life.

The treatment you need depends on the kind of trauma you’re experiencing and your personality. The key is in finding a professional who can tailor the treatment to yield the best result for your unique needs. Consider seeing a trauma specialist independently contracted with Carolina Counseling Services – Fuquay-Varina, NC.

At CCS in Fuquay-Varina, NC, the sympathetic and well-trained staff will answer your call and connect you to the right-fit counselor, who can support you as you address the shock, process the situation, and get all the way back to achieving emotional balance. Request an appointment to start your therapy now and start rebuilding a healthy outlook on life.

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