When the past leaves you feeling trapped, it can feel like you'll never heal. Whether it was one month or ten years, the past is haunting. If you went through something traumatic, it likely changed a lot about your life. Maybe your perspective and faith in humanity dramatically decreased. You might doubt or blame yourself for the things that you went through. Learning to live with the aftermath of trauma can feel like you'll never fully recover. You aren't alone or crazy for not being able to move on. No matter what happened, trauma is debilitating and difficult to deal with. It causes many changes regarding your mental health or physical symptoms you are experiencing.

Trauma is an emotional response to extremely stressful situations or events. Even though you understand that you went through something awful, you may not fully recognize all the ways it affected you. When this happens, you cannot fully process the memory and sensations of what you experienced. Keeping you stuck in the past. Healing from trauma is absolutely possible. No matter what happened, you can find the peace you desire. Let's go over some ways to begin this process.

How To Heal From Trauma

Acknowledge It

The phrase "out of sight, out of mind" sounds great in theory. However, pushing things out of your mind by not thinking about them isn't really helpful. You may not actively acknowledge the memory or your feelings, but your brain and body still remember it. This is often known as storing trauma.

You can't begin to heal if you don't acknowledge what you went through. You don't need to think about every single part of the incident, especially if it causes you to feel unsafe. However, you can recognize that you went through something that changed you.

Pay Attention To Your Physical Symptoms

Are you getting headaches or stomach aches frequently for no reason? Do you have trouble sleeping or notice that your immune system is weak and you are frequently sick? These are all classic symptoms of physical trauma response in the body. When you can't figure out why something is happening, and you went through trauma, it is your body's way of manifesting it. This is another part of acknowledging your trauma because it teaches you that the trauma you went through didn't go away.

Be Gentle Towards Yourself

First, you are never to blame for someone else's actions. It's common for trauma survivors to blame themselves for what they experienced, especially sexual assault survivors. No action you took, nothing you wore or drank, ever makes it okay for someone to abuse another person. Be gentle and kind towards yourself. It's easy to fall into feeling shame regarding trauma, but you are never to blame for another person's choices. Remind yourself of that truth anytime you feel yourself slipping into self-doubt and blame.

Seek Support

Most people who went through something emotionally scarring will self-isolate themselves from friends and family. Not wanting to burden their loved ones, they keep what they are feeling bottled up inside. It boils and festers inside of you, making you feel as if you can explode at any second.

Talking through what you experienced is one of the best ways to begin healing from trauma. The best place to start is a professionally trained therapist. As a trained therapist, I know that the aftermath of trauma is emotionally draining.

Don't be afraid to reach out when you feel ready so we can help you with trauma therapy. Together, we can find ways to help you move on from the past so you can finally feel free.