Trauma
What is trauma?
Emotional and psychological response to experiencing or witnessing an event or experience that is deeply distressing or disturbing. Examples: abuse, domestic violence, car accident, sexual assault, grief/loss, natural disaster, etc.
Name 2 coping strategies that can be used to decrease anxiety?
Meditation, grounding, exercise, thought challenging, deep breathing, aromatherapy, yoga, walking, etc.
When you attach a negative label to yourself because of trauma such as "I am broken" or "I'm unlovable."
Labeling
What is a trigger?
Anything that prompts an increase in or return of symptoms.
What is the difference between self-esteem and self worth?
Self-Esteem: manner in which we evaluate ourselves
Self Worth: belief you are valuable and lovable regardless
What are some symptoms associated with experiencing trauma?
Sadness, anger, fear, nightmares, insomnia, headaches, depression, anxiety, flashbacks, dissociation, difficulty with relationships, difficulty concentrating, memory problems.
If you are experiencing a crisis who are 3 people you can reach out to?
Friend, co-worker, partner, therapist, parent, sibling, child, etc.
This occurs when we see things as either all good or all bad and forget about grey area or nuance. This can show up as "no one can be trusted" or "I will never be safe.”
All-or-nothing thinking
What are the two categories of triggers?
Internal: comes from within the person, such as an emotion or memory
External: comes from the environment, such as person, place, situation
How is self-esteem formed?
Self-esteem is based on who you are and the relationships and experiences you have had at home, in school, with friends, and in the community. You form an image of yourself based on these experiences and relationships. Positive experiences and relationships contribute to healthy self-esteem, and negative experiences and relationships contribute to poor self-esteem.
What are the 3 types of trauma?
Acute: single incident
Chronic: repeated and prolonged
Complex: varied and multiple events
What are some common unhealthy coping strategies people use?
Avoidance, drugs, alcohol, over or under eating, impulsive spending, sleeping too much or sleeping too little, isolation, self harm
After a trauma we may ignore any positive action we took in order to survive, and focus exclusively on all that we “should” have done or didn’t do.
Discounting the positive.
What are 2 of your trauma triggers? You can be as vague or detailed as you would like.
Various.
What are some factors that contribute to poor self esteem?
Disapproving authority figures/frequent criticism from adults during childhood, bullying, academic challenges, trauma, belief systems, society and media, adverse life events, medical and mental health challenges
What is the involuntary bodily response that occurs when one feels threatened or in danger?
Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn
Fight: physical or verbal aggression, stand up to threat
Flight: desire to escape or deny pain or turmoil
Freeze: stalling tactic, brain pauses before it determines the best option
Fawn: please person threatening you to keep them happy in order to protect self
What are the 2 main types of coping skills?
Problem-focused: when you need to change your situation
Examples: work on managing time, ask for support, establish healthy boundaries, create a to do list
Emotion-focused: when you need to take care of your feelings
Examples: taking a bath, exercise, meditate, positive affirmations
When you fall into this thinking trap you take your emotions as facts or evidence of truth. You also assume that your negative feelings reflect how things really are. This can show up as "Because something bad happened to me I must be bad" or "Because I feel bad I must have done something bad"
Emotional reasoning.
What is 'traumatic coupling'?
A trigger is connected to a traumatic experience, causing you to relive experiences.
Example: Perpetrator wore a specific cologne, now when you smell that cologne your brain immediately thinks about the trauma.
What are 3 ways to increase self esteem/self worth?
Identify and challenge negative beliefs, use positive affirmations, identify and develop competencies, accept compliments, use self compassion, acknowledge successes, identify positive traits, practice self care, etc.
Which part of the brain does traumatic stress over-activate?
Amygdala: helps us process emotions and regulate fear response
When over-activated, fear responses become more intense, memories become nightmares and flashbacks, emotion drive thoughts become intrusive, difficulty recognizing present threat vs past threat
While in therapy, you remember a very painful trauma. You feel very upset, but you don't want to cry because you think you would look "weak." How can you cope with this situation?
Talk about how you are feeling, practice self compassion, allow yourself to cry, challenge the idea of weakness vs being strong or brave, etc.
Hindsight Bias
You may think you overlooked clues or signs that signaled what was going to happen and that you could have prevented it had you acted on these clues, hunches, or gut feelings. We often assign more meaning and significance to these clues than they actually had in the moment, and forget that during trauma things happen quickly and we don’t have time to evaluate every piece of information. Because you believe you “should have acted on this knowledge” you may feel like you are to blame or didn’t do all you could.
What are some advantages and disadvantages of trigger warnings?
Advantages: people have a chance to prepare themselves, helps people feel safer
Disadvantages: can reinforce avoidance behavior, avoiding maintains symptoms in long term, increased anxiety for those who have not experienced trauma
What makes you feel good about yourself?
When I do something nice for others, when I am loved or cared for, when I feel in control of myself, when I have accomplished an important goal, when I am respected by someone I care about