If you've experienced trauma, it may be affecting your life in more ways than you realize.

There are many different types of traumatic events: sexual assault, violent relationships, grief, loss, bad breakups, childhood neglect and abandonment, and more.

Trauma inevitably takes a certain toll on your mental health, but have you ever considered all of the ways that it affects your life on a daily basis? You may experience physical symptoms or work hard to repress your trauma only to never really process it. Or perhaps you have issues with anger management but don't know why, or you may even suffer from PTSD.

Whatever your particular case may be, trauma can easily become all-consuming and affect your entire life.

Avoiding and Stuffing Your Pain

A common way that people deal with trauma is by repressing it. If you've experienced a childhood event that emotionally affected you, you may try to avoid thinking about it in your adulthood. You may find yourself minimizing and even denying what has happened to you.

However, avoiding your trauma actually can prolong your suffering and pain. 

Physical Symptoms of Trauma

Many people tend to think that trauma only affects its survivors mentally or emotionally. In reality, trauma can cause many physical symptoms.

You may experience trouble sleeping, digestive issues, or general body aches and pains. It's easy to write these symptoms off or assume that they don't have any correlation to your trauma, when in fact, they're very intimately related.

Emotional Triggers and PTSD

Of course, trauma does affect your mental well-being. In fact, it can certainly lead to severe anxiety or depression.

It can also lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which causes painful memories and flashbacks for its survivors. These triggers can happen in everyday life, suddenly, and without warning. Loud noises, memories, and seeing people or things that remind you of your trauma can all cause a PTSD flashback. 

Anger and Self-Blame

Survivors of trauma often blame themselves for what happened. Even when there was a clear perpetrator, survivors tend to think that there was something they could've done differently to prevent the incident.

Perhaps, you also feel angry or frustrated with yourself over the fact that your trauma affects you so deeply. To move forward, you must stop blaming yourself. What happened to you was not your fault—and as a survivor, you have a right to be upset or angry.

And as a survivor, you have the choice to address your pain, anger, fear, shame, and no longer give it the power to run your life.

Healing Is a Process That Takes Time and Patience

If you're living with trauma, you know just how difficult it is to carry such a burden. Furthermore, you understand that it's not just something you can simply get over.

Trauma is complex, and it affects everyone a little bit differently. Because of this, it's important to be kind, understanding, and patient with yourself when trying to heal from trauma. It takes time, dedication, and courage to be able to face your trauma and take steps to move forward.

If you've been carrying around the burden of trauma, know that you can find hope for the future.

You may have experienced deep wounding due to your trauma and now believe that your wounds are a big part of your identity. As you begin to address these painful places, you can start to come back to life and no longer define yourself by your wounds of the past. As this process takes place, you can become hopeful about your future.

The right trauma therapist can guide and direct you through this healing process. And be your witness as you share those difficult, painful memories. Finding the right therapist who really “gets it,” and with whom you develop trust can greatly help you take steps toward moving forward with hope and wholeness. Give me a call so we can begin this amazing healing journey

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