
The days and weeks immediately after a trauma are incredibly important in determining how deeply these events will impact your life. Trauma can interrupt your mental, emotional, and physical well-being, contributing to a sense of overwhelm and isolation. It’s normal to be in shock immediately after a trauma, but seeking help promptly can increase resilience, hope, and prevent the pain of the trauma from causing long-term effects. Above all, addressing your trauma can give you clarity to face all of the aspects of your life that are continuing to demand your attention.
Unlike regular memories, events that threaten your sense of safety act as sentinels to your autonomic nervous system. By drawing on sensory data from previous instances of danger, fear, or isolation, the amygdala identifies potential threats and will initiate a protective response, contributing to any number of trauma symptoms. These common signs indicate that you are at risk for PTSD and that professional support could be beneficial for you:
Intrusive thoughts/memories of the experience
Dreams about the experience and other sleep disturbance
Flashbacks - where it feels like you are reliving part of the experience
A strong emotional reaction to things that remind you of the experience
An urge to avoid talking or thinking about the experience
Urge to avoid places, objects, activities, or people that remind you of the experience
Loss of memory around the experience
Experiencing a persistent lack of safety
Catastrophic thinking about the effects of the experience
Blaming yourself for the experience or an aspect of it
Depressive symptoms including detachment, lack of interest in significant activities, negative mood, irritability, and inability to feel positive.
Increased anxiety, hypervigilance, or exaggerated startle response
As a trauma therapist, I notice clients struggle to validate their experience, feeling it isn’t “bad” enough to impact them so deeply. In a culture that emphasizes strength, it feels shameful to be impacted like this. I want you to know that your pain is valid, regardless of others who may have had worse experiences. Even if you avoided the worst-case scenario, it doesn’t mean that the process didn’t shake you to the core. There is no scale to measure the legitimacy of your trauma. These symptoms are simply messengers, here to let you know that something needs your attention.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a trauma therapy that enables you to process traumatic experiences without being overwhelmed by the emotions of the experience. It facilitates a shift in perspective, allowing negative beliefs to make way for more empowered and hopeful perspectives. EMDR can have a dramatic impact on your experience within as few as a couple of hours of treatment.* When used within the first 90 days after a traumatic event, EMDR can prevent the memory from embedding in the nervous system and causing PTSD or other longterm symptoms.
Recovering and rebuilding is hard enough on it’s own. You don’t have to power through this experience any longer. While it is completely normal to feel overwhelmed in the wake of a traumatic event, seeking support early can help you navigate your experience free from the burden of additional trauma symptoms.
*EMDR on repetitive or complex traumas often require more extensive treatment.
A Message about the LA Fires:
If you are a victim of the LA fires, having lost a home or experienced evacuation, and are in need of support for the trauma you’ve experienced, please reach out. I and other therapists in the area are offering free short-term therapy to support trauma recovery. If I am not able to support you, I would be happy to connect you with another therapist trained in EMDR. If you are a therapist and would like to be added to my referral list of fire relief EMDR providers, please message me as well.
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