Why SOME Experiences are Traumatic (And Others Aren't)

Transcript

Everyone goes through difficult times, but not everyone experiences trauma. In this video, I explain why some experiences are traumatic and others aren’t. So keep watching to learn why!

Hi folks, I’m Will Bratt from Heart & Oak Therapy, supporting better, brighter lives.

We’re trauma therapists who do regular videos on mental wellness, and give practical ideas and tips to make your life happier and more fulfilling – so hit the subscribe button to keep in the loop!

It’s no mystery that human beings are a diverse lot, and that’s made abundantly clear by the phenomenon of trauma. Two people can be side-by-side experiencing the same adverse event, and one can find it distressing while the other finds it traumatic. So why is that?

In this video I’ll be casting light on things that make it more likely for an experience to be traumatic.

In our last video, “Why You Can’t Just ‘Get Over’ Past Trauma”, I laid out what it is we’re talking about when we’re talking about trauma. I put a link in the description, so if you haven’t watched that video yet, make sure to check it out. Among other things, in that video I explain that a trauma response is something we have when we’ve experienced something overwhelmingly distressing, often of a terrifying nature. It’s how we respond to the worst of the worst kinds of events and experiences.

Now, an important nuance is that there are no set experiences that are inherently traumatic in themselves. But if it’s not the event itself that dictates whether an experience is traumatic, then what does? Well, let’s dive into that!

1.    First off, the nature of the event itself does tie in to whether or not you’re likely to experience it as traumatic. What I mean here is that there are certain kinds of events that most people are likely to experience as overwhelmingly distressing. Events like natural disasters, motor vehicle accidents, large scale acts of violence or terrorism, as well as interpersonal violence and persistent abuse and mistreatment, are all commonly associated with trauma responses – especially if they could or do result in loss of life. This doesn’t mean that you absolutely will experience any one of these kinds of events as traumatic, but these do tend to be the kinds of things that people find to be traumatic – more so than, say, a nearly averted car accident, or an assault that you were able to stop or get away from.

2.    Another factor that can make it more likely for an adverse experience to be traumatic is if it’s interpersonal in nature. While it’s absolutely true that a natural disaster or accident can be traumatic, there is something about intentional interpersonal violence or abuse that most people find to be far more distressing. This makes sense, as intentional harm generally requires someone to make a decision to hurt others, whereas natural disasters or accidents are more random and not born out of an intent to harm. A lot of people find it easier to accept that they were at the wrong place at the wrong time, as opposed to being a chosen victim of someone else’s malicious intent.

3.    The degree of control you have within a distressing event also ties in to whether you’re likely to experience it as traumatic. Generally speaking, the more free will you’re able to exercise, the more likely it is that you can mitigate the harm done to yourself or the others involved. In other words, the more you’re able to effectively resist, the less profoundly you’re likely to feel traumatic distress in the aftermath.

4.    Social responses are a factor that often gets overlooked when talking about trauma, but are absolutely relevant when it comes to the degree to which you feel post-traumatic distress. If you experience any kind of overwhelming event – whether it’s interpersonal violence or abuse, or an accident or natural disaster – and you receive positive, helpful, just social responses, you’re likely to feel more ok when it’s all said and done. If, on the other hand, you receive negative, blaming, shaming, ineffective, or harmful responses from others, you’re more likely to struggle down the road. The reason for this is pretty simple, and it all comes down to safety. Overwhelming events disrupt our sense of safety in our lives or in the world, and helpful social responses serve to restore our sense of wellbeing. On the flip side, negative social responses reinforce our sense of unsafety and understandably make it hard to feel at ease in our lives.

5.    Your values and the meaning you attribute to an adverse experience or event also plays in to why you might find it to be traumatic. This factor is a lot more complex and nuanced than I can illustrate in this video. There’s a wide spectrum of things that contribute to the meaning we make of an experience, including some of the factors I’ve already mentioned in this video. But at the risk of oversimplifying this one, I will say that how you make sense of an event relates to the emotional response you have to it.

6.    This connects closely to another factor, which is your level of sensitivity to the particular kind of adverse experience. Someone who is gradually desensitized to adverse content or experiences would likely find it less difficult to accept and move on from the same experience that someone with less exposure to that kind of content might. For example, a veteran paramedic might be unsettled, but otherwise ok after witnessing the aftermath of a tragic accident, while a more junior paramedic could really struggle.

7.    The second last factor that plays into why some experiences are traumatic while others aren’t is the intensity and duration of the experience. If you think that the more intense an adverse event is, the more likely it is that someone will find it traumatizing, you’re absolutely right. Of course, while all potentially traumatic experiences are unique in their own right, it’s probably fair to say that it would be more traumatizing to be held hostage in a bank robbery where the robbers are brutal, ruthless, and violent, versus one in which the robbers are calm, considerate, and kind – as far as bank robbers go. Similarly, it’s generally assumed that adversity, like abuse, that happens once or twice and never again, is likely to be less traumatizing than repeated violations over a longer period of time. Of course, there are other contextual factors that can contribute to how we respond to these kinds of experiences, but less is generally easier to handle than more.

8.    Finally, the last factor that can make a difference in terms of whether an experience is traumatic or not is the age at which it happened. We generally implicitly know this to be true, but children are often more vulnerable than adults. This ties in to a couple of the factors already mentioned in this video, like our sensitivity to a kind of adversity, and our capacity to control what happens. This is clear by how we, as adults, often respond to children who are in the presence of graphic or violent content by shielding their eyes. I remember being a little kid and seeing violent movies that were not appropriate for someone my age, and feeling really scared for some time after. Now, years later, I can watch movies or TV shows with graphic violence and feel somewhat unsettled, but more or less ok. While this may not exactly be an example of trauma, the analogy still fits. Because of the tendency for children to be more sensitive and vulnerable to adversity than adults, it can be more likely that a younger person will find an overwhelmingly adverse experience to be traumatizing.

So there are several reasons why some experiences are traumatic and others aren’t. It’s a real mix of both individual and contextual factors.

Now I’m wondering if there are any that you can think of that weren’t included in this video. Or even if there are some factors that were mentioned that you hadn’t thought of before. We’d love to hear from you, so make sure to leave a comment down below, and be part of the Heart & Oak community!

If this video has been interesting or helpful, go ahead and hit the “thumbs up” button below. For more helpful videos related to therapy and mental wellness, subscribe to our channel and hit the bell notification icon to make sure you stay in the loop.

Take care until next time, and keep doing the things that help you live a better, brighter life!

Past Trauma: 5 Reasons Why You Can't Just Get Over It

Transcript

Why is that some negative experiences are fairly easy to forget about and move on from, while others can trouble us for years or even decades after? Keep watching to learn 5 reasons why you can’t just “get over” past trauma. 

Hi folks, I’m Will Bratt from Heart & Oak Therapy, supporting better, brighter lives.

We’re trauma therapists who do regular videos on mental wellness, and give practical ideas and tips to make your life happier and more fulfilling – so hit the subscribe button to keep in the loop!

We’ve all heard sayings like, “Let the past be the past”, or “That’s just water under the bridge”, or, “Live in the moment, not in the past”. Sayings like these have a positive philosophy about focusing on what’s in front of you and not getting tripped up by things that happened in the past. But anyone who’s had a traumatic experience knows that can be easier said than done. 

Traumatic experiences aren’t like your run of the mill hard times or challenges. They’re profoundly upsetting or distressing on a deeper, more personal level, making them hard not to revisit as time goes on.

In this video I’ll explain why traumatic experiences can be so hard to move on from, and why it’s unrealistic to expect someone to just “get over” past trauma.

Starting off, it’s important to make it crystal clear what sets traumatic experiences apart from other kinds of adversity. We’ve probably all gone through hard times, where the things we were dealing with were upsetting or stressful. What distinguishes trauma from these kinds of experiences is the fact that traumatic experiences are profoundly overwhelming.

Traumatic experiences are intense and extreme, taking us way outside our challenge zones into terrifying danger. Of course, every traumatic experience happens within its own unique context, so the reason why we find them upsetting or distressing rests on the specifics of what happened and what the events mean to you.

The fact that traumatic experiences are different than other kinds of adverse experiences in the way they’re profoundly overwhelming should be reason enough as to why we can’t just “get over” them. But there are other valid reasons why “letting go” can be easier said than done.

1.    One big reason is that trauma often relates to our safety, wellbeing, or mortality. Traumatic experiences tend to involve brushes with death – such as in the case of motor vehicle accidents or natural disasters – or interpersonal violence and abuse – like robberies, assaults, and abuse by partners or caregivers. If there’s one thing human beings are really good at, it’s learning. When stuff happens, we remember things, and we apply those memories to future circumstances to try for better outcomes. This is absolutely true of traumatic experiences. When we go through events that are intensely overwhelming and upsetting, we remember, and we try to keep those things from happening again. If we just “let it go”, we may not be as prepared to handle similar circumstances in the future.

2.    Another reason why we can’t just “get over” traumatic experiences has to do with meaning. We typically think of meaningful experiences as positive ones, but as terrible as they are, traumatic experiences are meaningful in their own right. There’s a saying I use to remember the relationship between our experiences in the world and our responses to them, and that is, “The bigger the meaning, the bigger the feeling”. In other words, the more something matters to you, the stronger your emotional response to it will be. When it comes to traumatic experiences, the fact that we think about them, feel worry or despair in their aftermath, and even have nightmares, speaks volumes to the personal importance of our own safety and wellbeing.

3.    A third reason why it can be hard to leave traumatic experiences in the past is because they’re often unresolved. Although this isn’t always the case, when we find ourselves revisiting traumatic experiences, it can be an indicator that we have unfinished business. On top of that, it can even be that the unfinished or unresolved aspect of the experience is what feels most traumatic in the present day. In other words, the lack of resolution or justice can be the most troubling part of the trauma, and that’s why we keep revisiting it. Of course, every context is unique, but this can speak volumes about our values, our sense of right and wrong, and our longings to be adequately and appropriately cared for.

4.    The fourth reason doesn’t apply to every traumatic experience, but is still a really common aspect of a lot of people’s traumas. It’s called moral injury, and it applies to those who have done things that are profoundly out of line with their morals or values. The sense of moral injury is shared by people like soldiers and those who have killed in war, bystanders to acts of violence or disasters who chose not to act, or people who have had to do horrible things to survive terrible odds. You can think of moral injury as the other side of the unfinished business coin. We struggle to just “let it go” because we know we did something wrong and we long to be able to take it back or set things right.

5.    The fifth and final reason that I’ll be touching on in this video highlights a common myth or inaccurate assumption about trauma and the struggle to “get over” it. Often what looks or sounds like past trauma is really not in the past at all – it’s still very much happening in the present day. I’ve met with a lot of people who, for example, describe the abuse they struggled against growing up, only to acknowledge that the abusive behaviour others subjected them to still goes on in present day interactions. In cases like these, terms like “Post Traumatic Stress” are really ill-fitting because the person has never actually stopped experiencing the trauma – so there is no “post”. Even if the person were to “get over” the trauma from years past, it’s only a matter of time until they’re met with more. I think it’s especially unrealistic to expect people to “let go” of something that’s still happening.

So there’s 5 reasons why it can be inappropriate or unrealistic to expect others or ourselves to just “get over” traumatic experiences. It’s one thing if it’s an everyday problem or a smaller kind of challenge, but when it comes to trauma, there are contextually relevant reasons why you might find yourself revisiting the experience across time.

Now I’d like to turn it to you, the Heart & Oak community: Can you think of other reasons why someone might struggle to “let go” of past trauma? How about things that you know can help ease the healing process? Make sure to let us know in the comment section!

If this video has been interesting or helpful, go ahead and hit the “thumbs up” button below. For more helpful videos related to therapy and mental wellness, subscribe to our channel and hit the bell notification icon to make sure you stay in the loop.

Take care until next time, and keep doing the things that help you live a better, brighter life!

5 Reasons Why Adults are Haunted by Childhood Trauma

Transcript

Adults who experienced trauma in their childhoods often struggle to understand why they’re still troubled by those memories today. In this video I’ll be sharing 5 reasons why it makes sense to be haunted by traumatic memories years, or even decades later. Keep watching to find out.

Hi folks, I’m Will Bratt from Heart & Oak Therapy, supporting better, brighter lives.

We’re trauma therapists who do regular videos on mental wellness, and give practical ideas and tips to make your life happier and more fulfilling – so hit the subscribe button to keep in the loop!

One of the most common questions I receive from adults who are struggling to heal from traumatic childhood experiences is, “Why can’t I just get over it?” 

The scope of this question is huge, and there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. It feels incomplete to just say, “Because that was a traumatic experience, and that’s how human beings respond to those kinds of things”. A textbook, answer like this misses the nuance and humanity in the interest of tidiness and order.

In this video I draw out why adults are haunted by childhood trauma, with a special focus on meaning and context.

First, I think it’s important that we get on the same page in terms of what we mean by “trauma”.

“Trauma” is a word that can be used in many ways. People use it to refer to experiences that are challenging, scary, embarrassing, overwhelming, or shocking.

When it comes to the world of therapy, “trauma” generally refers to experiences that are emotionally overwhelming, profoundly distressing, and deeply upsetting. This can look like experiences of violence and abuse, brushes with death, moral injuries, deep humiliation, or horrific disasters.

No single experience is essentially or necessarily traumatic on its own. We can’t just say, “Being held hostage in a bank robbery is a traumatic experience”, or “If you’re assaulted by a stranger on the street, you will be traumatized”. Two people could survive a mugging or robbery side by side, and while both may agree that it was distressing, it could happen that only one of them walks away feeling traumatized. The meaning each person holds around the event is the key to whether or not they deem it traumatic.

So what is it about traumatic experiences in childhood that makes them especially hard to shake?

Because meaning is so crucial when it comes to whether or not we experience an event as traumatic, childhood is an especially vulnerable time in our lives. If you put yourself in your childhood shoes, you’ll remember that children are largely dependent on (and at the mercy of) grownups and adult systems. Not only that, the relationships we have are mostly very close and familial, holding very different and more significant meaning than a lot of the more superfluous relations we gain as we get older.

Now I’m going to share 5 hallmarks of childhood trauma that have a lot to do with why traumatic childhood experiences can trouble us well into adulthood.

1.    The first is violence and abuse. A shortcoming of the word “trauma” is that it’s ambiguous and general. The reality is that childhood trauma usually consists of experience of interpersonal violence or abuse. These experiences are of a very different, far more personal nature than, say, a natural disaster or car crash – which can also be described as traumatic. As my mentors, Linda Coates and Allan Wade emphasize, violence is, by definition, deliberate. The fact that someone made the choice to do harm a child can, and should, be terribly upsetting.

2.    The second reason is that traumatic childhood experiences are rarely isolated events. One way that the term “traumatic experience” can be misleading is that it can give the false impression that the experience was an isolated instance. While that can be true of some people’s traumatic childhood experiences, more often it’s violence, abuse, or mistreatment that takes place across time. When we reach adulthood, the trauma responses we have to our childhood memories are more often in relation to the conditions that perpetuated the suffering, as opposed to singular moments in time.

3.    This brings us to the third hallmark of childhood trauma: Violations of social contracts. Abuse against children is typically carried out by people who should be in caring roles. Parents, foster parents, other family members, coaches, teachers, or clergy are socially sanctioned to provide safety and nurturance to children. Abuse is often perpetrated by those exploiting the privilege that comes with those positions. Going back to the issue of meaning, this can make abuse by these people all the more upsetting in the long term because it’s done by people who should have been especially trustworthy and safe.

4.    The social responses a child receives when experiencing violence or abuse, or when seeking help are another factor that can have a lot to do with why someone might deem a childhood experience to be traumatic. Because children largely depend on adults for safety and protection, when it’s not provided, or when that safety is compromised further by an adult’s response, it can be profoundly distressing. This can look any number of ways, including when an adult knows a child is in danger and does nothing to make it stop, when an adult punishes a child for coming forward and seeking help, when an adult on the periphery facilitates the violence, or when a child comes forward and is disbelieved or shamed. Understandably, negative social responses like these can be just as upsetting or more than the initial abuse or mistreatment.

5.    Finally, number 5 is the inability to make it stop. I firmly believe that whenever there is violence, there is resistance. Children are no exception to this – in fact they’re often the cleverest resisters and safety makers around. People of any age who experience violence or abuse know that offenders make efforts to supress resistance, which is why it usually flies under the radar, and can be mistaken for things other than what it is - such as “going along” with the abuse. Despite the presence and prevalence of children’s resistance, it is rarely strong enough to absolutely stop violence, abuse, or mistreatment from happening altogether. Being unable to stop bad things from happening can leave us feeling profound despair, which can haunt us well into adulthood.

Phrases like “unresolved childhood trauma” can feel unwieldy and overwhelming. When people throw phrases like these around, they basically just mean “hurts from the past that haven’t been made okay”. In some cases, “making things okay” is a really tall order, but it’s very unlikely that it’s an impossible feat.

A helpful place to start can be around meaning – the very thing that makes a traumatic experience what it is. Exploring and understanding the meaning you hold around childhood trauma can help expose tangible avenues to pursue healing. This is one way therapy can be especially helpful!

While traumatic childhood experiences can haunt us well into adulthood, they can also be taken care of in beautiful ways that honour our dignity and support us in growth and healing. So now I’d like to turn over to you, the Heart & Oak community. Are there other reasons I didn’t mention that might make it hard for adults to shake traumatic childhood experiences? Are there things that you know about that can help toward feeling at peace with childhood trauma. Make sure to let us know in the comment section!

If this video has been interesting or helpful, go ahead and hit the “thumbs up” button below. For more helpful videos related to therapy and mental wellness, subscribe to our channel and hit the bell notification icon to make sure you stay in the loop.

Take care until next time, and keep doing the things that help you live a better, brighter life!

Understanding Trauma and Triggers

Transcript

The word “trigger” gets tossed around like confetti these days, which can make its meaning unclear. In this video, I clarify what the term “trigger” means when it comes to trauma, and also acknowledge some of its shortcomings and useful alternatives. Keep watching to learn what you need to know about trauma and triggers!

Hi folks, I’m Will Bratt from Heart & Oak Therapy, supporting better, brighter lives. We’re therapists who do regular videos on mental wellness, and give practical ideas and tips to make your life happier and more fulfilling – so hit the subscribe button to keep in the loop!

The word “trigger” or “triggered” gets used a lot now-a-days, from basic conversations we have, to blog posts and articles online, to news broadcasts by major media networks. One thing I’ve noticed is that people use the word “trigger” to refer to a pretty wide range of different types of experiences. For this reason, I wanted to set the record straight and clarify what it means when people talk about triggers in the context of trauma.

Make sure you watch until the end because I also illustrate some shortcomings of the concept of triggers and provide some useful alternatives for making sense of responses to traumatic experiences.

The first thing I want to make crystal clear is that when people in the trauma field say “trigger”, they basically mean present-day things that remind us of past traumatic experiences, as well as the strong emotional responses that go along with those memories.

Like all memories, we associate specific contextual factors with traumatic events. These are aspects of our experiences that relate to our five senses – the sounds, smells, sights, feelings, and tastes that were present at the time of the traumatic experience.

Just as these factors can remind us of positive past experiences, they can also remind us of the worst experiences we’ve endured. In trauma literature, these reminders are what tend to be referred to as “triggers”.

Now, if you’re anything like a lot of people, psychological language and theoretical ideas can feel really unwieldy or hard to wrap our heads around. One downside to jargon like “triggers” is that it can set people up to feel dependent on professionals to decode and make sense of their experience, because it’s different from how most people talk about their experiences and responses to things that happen in their lives.

I like to talk about “triggers” using more accessible language that doesn’t require a visit to Wikipedia or Urban Dictionary. One way I do this is by thinking and talking about “triggers” in terms of “sensitivity”

If you’ve ever gone through something traumatic, you probably found that things weren’t the same afterward. One thing that’s often different is that we learn what to be watchful and wary of so that we can do our best to keep something similar from happening again in the future. A really simple way of putting it is that we become sensitive to things that remind us of the traumatic experience as a way of keeping ourselves as safe as possible.

So when someone says “That song is a trigger for me because it reminds me of my abusive ex”, or “I’m triggered by people who withdraw when they’re angry because that’s what my mom did growing up”, they usually mean they’re sensitive to those things - and for good reason! Through negative experiences, we learn what to watch out for so the same thing doesn’t happen again.

It’s absolutely valid, reasonable, and appropriate to be sensitive to places, people, or things that relate to your traumatic experiences, because your sense of safety is important. 

Now, I know that sensitivity can be framed as a negative trait for someone to have. You’ve probably heard people say things like, “She’s too sensitive”, or even, “He takes things too seriously” or “They don’t know how to take a joke”. The perspectives that statements like these come from miss the mark in a big way because they assume people shouldn’t have strong responses to traumatic experiences, and that they shouldn’t be sensitive to things related to their trauma. That’s just unrealistic and ignorant.

Here are a few reasons why post-traumatic sensitivity is totally valid, appropriate, and healthy:

1.    It shows you learn from your experience. When someone has experienced trauma, especially violence and abuse, they learn a hard truth: the world is not entirely safe. This hard lesson can be especially loud if we receive negative responses from our communities and support networks while the trauma is happening, or in the aftermath. This isn’t to say that the world is an inherently dangerous place either – there are people who make efforts to do both good and bad – but trauma awakens us to the reality that safety is something we need to create or work at establishing, and it cannot be taken for granted. Our post-traumatic sensitivities almost always serve that purpose.

2.    It honours our grief. Many of the people I talk to in therapy confirm that their responses to their traumatic experiences are akin to grief. This is supported by popular literature in the trauma field. When we lose someone close to us, it’s understandable to respond to things that remind us of them with sorrow or despair. The same can be said about trauma. When we’re reminded of a traumatic experience, it’s fair to respond with strong emotions that are akin to grief. Even though the trauma may not be a loss in the typical sense, it still gives us something to grieve.

3.    It highlights the purpose of our emotions. Just as the word “sensitive” can carry negative connotations, so too can the word “emotional”. When we experience something as awful as trauma, it’s both unrealistic and unreasonable to expect to have the same level of emotionality after the event as we did before it happened. It’s popular to assume that it’s “right” to feel even-keeled and neutral about things, in spite of the fact that something profoundly negative has happened. Emotionality and sensitivity in the wake of traumatic experiences tell us that we have a pulse and are tuned in the reality of our experiences.

You might notice that all 3 of these reasons basically boil down to meaning. I like to say, “The bigger the meaning, the bigger the feeling”, and for as awful as traumatic experiences are, they’re also profoundly meaningful. This partially explains why we feel so sensitive to things that remind us of our trauma.

Shortcomings of “Trigger” Language

As I said at the beginning of this video, I also wanted to share my perspective on what I believe to be shortcomings of the language of “triggers”.

1.    First, it’s ambiguous. If someone says they felt “triggered”, it tells us little about the specific details of their experience in those moments, leaving us with a vague account that can be interpreted a number of potentially inaccurate ways.

2.    Secondly, as a metaphor that reduces people to the status of machines. “Sadness”, “anger”, and “afraid” are all descriptive words that tell us about specific emotional experiences. The word “trigger”, on the other hand, is a mechanistic metaphor that doesn’t account for the dynamic responsiveness of living beings. The word “triggered” positions us only as being acted upon or effected by traumatic experiences. It totally ignores the ways we actively respond to and resist adversity in our lives. In therapy, this results in incomplete stories, which limits therapeutic potential.

3.    Third, the term “trigger” has an inherent negative bias. It implies that when things that remind us of past trauma are present, they act upon us in negative ways, without regard or consideration for the breadth and nuances of our responses.  But if negative factors “trigger” us to have negative feelings, shouldn’t the same be true of positive factors as well? The reality is, it would sound odd and out of place if you described yourself as “triggered” when you had positive emotional responses to a kitten curling up on your lap, or your partner making you a wonderful meal, or your employer giving you a bonus in recognition of the good work you’ve done. My point is, the “trigger” discourse is a one-way street that assumes that we’re passively acted upon by negative experiences, but not positive ones. Logically speaking, it can’t be one way and not the other.

Useful Alternatives to “Triggers”

Because of the ambiguous, deterministic nature of the concept of “triggers”, having other language to account for our responses to traumatic content can be really useful.

Here are 2 really simple ways of describing your responses in ways other than “triggered”:

First, use emotional language. Instead of the more ambiguous catch-all statement, “I felt really triggered”, simple emotional statements like “I felt really angry/afraid/hurt/upset” can say a whole lot more, in more direct and descriptive terms.

And secondly, acknowledge your sensitivity. “Trigger” language positions you as being passively acted upon by your experience. On the other hand, when you acknowledge feeling sensitive about something, you acknowledge your agency in relationship to it. You’re responding to the thing, not having it act upon you. Even though sensitivity goes hand-in-hand with vulnerability, you’re in a far more active and empowered position.

When it comes to dealing with trauma, the most important thing is healing. While “trigger” language offers a way to understand the relationship between aspects of our traumatic experiences and our present-day responses, it falls short in its ambiguity and cause-effect assumptions.

With all that said, it’s really important to know that your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours in the wake of traumatic experiences make sense and are valid, regardless of the words you use to describe them.

Understanding how and why we experience newfound sensitivities after going through traumatic events can help us navigate those situations and create a greater sense of safety for ourselves as we adjust to the world with new eyes.

So, turning it over to you, the Heart & Oak community, what do you think are some useful advantages or downsides to the “trigger” analogy that didn’t get mentioned? Are there other ways of making sense of post-traumatic sensitivities that you find helpful? Make sure to let us know in the comment section!

If this video has been interesting or helpful, go ahead and hit the “thumbs up” button below. For more helpful videos related to therapy and mental wellness, subscribe to our channel and hit the bell notification icon to make sure you stay in the loop.

Take care until next time, and keep doing the things that help you live a better, brighter life!