Trauma at any age can cause a cluster of symptoms that occur in the wake of a distressing incident. There are 3 components of trauma, the 3 E's:<ul><li>the Event</li><li>the Experience</li><li>the Effects</li></ul>PTSD is about the effects. It is one of the mental disorders in the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM). A person diagnoised with PTSD has 4 main symptom clusters:<ol><li>Intrusive symptoms</li><li>Avoidant symptoms</li><li>Depressive symptoms</li><li>Arousal/Reactivity symptoms</li></ol>It is really important to note that PTSD is not the only way trauma impacts our mental & physical health.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

This is the first cluster of PTSD, which includes recurring, unwanted images & thoughts of the traumatic event, and dreams or nightmares. This is related to the brain's effort to make sense of the world. Trauma is threatening & far outside of our usual experience, shattering our inner landscape and worldview. This process involves both conscious and unconscious repetitive "reenactment" behaviors, or writings, drawing, sculpting, or playing. Again & again, revisiting the moment, looking through the wreckage, take something and move it to a safe haven.

Intrusive Symptoms 

These arise when someone feels distressed after being reexposed to people, places, or other reminders of the original traumatic events. In some ways, avoidant behaviors are an attempt to regain control over what feels like the uncontrollability of the traumatic experience. It is a part of the dissociative response to a threat, especially when it is unavoidable & distressing, to give yourself the sense of protection.

Avoidant Symptoms 

This alteration in arousal and reactivity are derived from the sensitized stress-response networks being overactive and overly reactive. They include anxiety, hypervigilance, increased startle response, high and variable heart rate and sleep problems. Having the survival mode of fight, flight or freeze activated even in the absence of presence threats causes the body to lose a calibrated response to normal daily life.

Arousal/Reactivity Symptoms

When all 4 of these categories are present, then it is labeled as PTSD. The majority of the long term effects don't manifest as PTSD.The effects of trauma stretch far & wide across generations & communities, & it is important to come to the central question with compassion:What happened to you?The objective question helps you to remove the personal narrative assigned to your traumatic experience, with the intention of bringing yourself into the awareness of what occurred and how you were impacted.

PTSD is Just One Of The Outcomes From Trauma

Findings show that your history of relational health - connectedness to family, community, & culture - is more predictive of your mental health than your history of adversity. Connectedness has the power to counter balance adversity.The timing of the adversity makes a huge difference in determining overall risk. Put simply, if you experience trauma at age 2, it will have more impact on your health than the same trauma taking place at age 17.Experiences of the first 2 months of life have a disproportionate important impact on your longterm health and development due to rapid brain growth.

Adversity Vs Connectedness

Trauma, PTSD, and how Connectedness counteracts them

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Our earliest experiences shape our lives far down the road, and What Happened to You? provides powerful scientific and emotional insights into the behavioral patterns so many of us struggle to understand. “Through this lens we can build a renewed sense of personal self-worth and ultimately recalibrate our responses to circumstances, situations, and relationships. It is, in other words, the key to reshaping our very lives.”—Oprah Winfrey This book is going to change the way you see your life. Have you ever wondered "Why did I do that?" or "Why can't I just control my behavior?" Others may judge our reactions and think, "What's wrong with that person?" When questioning our emotions, it's easy to place the blame on ourselves; holding ourselves and those around us to an impossible standard. It's time we started asking a different question. Through deeply personal conversations, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry offer a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” Here, Winfrey shares stories from her own past, understanding through experience the vulnerability that comes from facing trauma and adversity at a young age. In conversation throughout the book, she and Dr. Perry focus on understanding people, behavior, and ourselves. It’s a subtle but profound shift in our approach to trauma, and it’s one that allows us to understand our pasts in order to clear a path to our future—opening the door to resilience and healing in a proven, powerful way.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

mentalhealth

Mental Health

books

Books

ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Our earliest experiences shape our lives far down the road, and What Happened to You? provides powerful scientific and emotional insights into the behavioral patterns so many of us struggle to understand. “Through this lens we can build a renewed sense of personal self-worth and ultimately recalibrate our responses to circumstances, situations, and relationships. It is, in other words, the key to reshaping our very lives.”—Oprah Winfrey This book is going to change the way you see your life. Have you ever wondered "Why did I do that?" or "Why can't I just control my behavior?" Others may judge our reactions and think, "What's wrong with that person?" When questioning our emotions, it's easy to place the blame on ourselves; holding ourselves and those around us to an impossible standard. It's time we started asking a different question. Through deeply personal conversations, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry offer a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” Here, Winfrey shares stories from her own past, understanding through experience the vulnerability that comes from facing trauma and adversity at a young age. In conversation throughout the book, she and Dr. Perry focus on understanding people, behavior, and ourselves. It’s a subtle but profound shift in our approach to trauma, and it’s one that allows us to understand our pasts in order to clear a path to our future—opening the door to resilience and healing in a proven, powerful way.

As the visionary and leader behind OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network and formerly the supervising producer and host of the top-rated, award-winning “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Oprah has entertained and inspired millions of viewers to live their best lives. Her accomplishments as a global media leader and philanthropist have established her as one of the most respected and admired public figures today.

Oprah Winfrey

Bruce D. Perry is an American psychiatrist, currently the senior fellow of the Child Trauma Academy in Houston, Texas and an adjunct professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois.

Bruce D. Perry

What Happened to You?

It is easy to acknowledge the direct impacts of trauma but some of its more life altering impacts are what it has on the mind.In addition to the impact from the direct interaction, the imagination is not only stunted but also becomes a place where you relive the origin of the trauma, over and over, snowballing new trauma from the imagination with the initial trauma, maimed by things like regret and guilt.Eventually, the imagination only becomes familiar with the past, being rooted only in what has happened and not being able to fathom a future any different.

Trauma & The Impact On The Imagination 

The imagination is the mind's eye: how we perceive & even interact with intangibles in the cosmos.When we experience trauma, the imagination relives the moment over & over, searching for ways to avoid the experience in the future or overcome it. With every replay of that moment, we experience a second hand trauma compounded on our original experience.Eventually, we blame ourselves for what happened, taking on guilt, shame & regret. Through repetition in the mind, the imagination conforms to a reality where only shame, guilt & regret are the only thinkable outcomes. This stunts our perception.

Trauma Hijacks The Imagination

In other instances, instead of guilt, shame & regret, we seek to escape from a reality that we feel is too much to bear. We begin to fantasize on the what ifs, & explore those mythical timelines in our imagination. Slowly, we begin to yearn more for the fantasy as it temporarily eases our stress, but it also removes us from the present & in turn impede our ability to impact it for the better.Fantasizing may seem harmless at first but it is teaching the mind to interact with the unreal parts of your experience. The escape isn't just from the pain, but also a vacancy from your driver's seat.

Trauma Influences Imagination Escapism

Inspiration & fantasies may seem like the same but are vastly different. The imagination intakes both similarly. But one is birthed from the body's fight or flight system & the other catalyzed by an appreciation of something, even in the bad.Fantasizing is an effort of escapism from reality while inspiration is an attempt at impacting reality. We often fantasize when we are bored or uncomfortable etc, in hopes of passing time with more ease.Inspiration comes when you're able to see the possibilities of what's infront of you in the present. The attention to detail & awareness of yourself.

Inspiration Vs Fantasizing

When the trauma overwhelms the mind, when the replays become suffocating, when the inspiration no longer comes, the imagination chooses numbness. This coping mechanism shuts down the ability to perceive to spare ourselves the trauma. This numbness while copes in one way, icreates a hopelessness and despondency. Without the active imagination, the mind is unable to perceive future possibilities, & it is disconnected from the past that you could learn from. The dead imagination disrupts our interactions with one another and the ability to deeply commune with each other in the intangible ways.

Snuffed Imagination

The imagination is meant to be inspired, to see possibilities by appreciating what is available to it. While it is no simple task to see the good in everything, the imagination powers the image of the reality you will perceive. Therefore it is not the image of the past nor the image of the present that should influence us, but rather the image of the future. Not allowing what has happened, nor your present circumstance, to completely change the image of your future. Perhaps it may refine as we learn and grow, but appreciating the image of the future will enable us to remain inspired by it.

Revived Imagination 

The imagination powers the way you see the past, present and future. The image of the future is hope. Hope is built by what you feed it today. The best food for hope is knowledge, understanding and faith. Learning new things helps us broaden our horizon. Understanding things helps broaden our capabilities and belief helps us broaden our performance. The imagination thrives under the inspiration of hope. The power to channel the strength & joy of your future through hope, is the power of the imagination. With a goal in mind, it provides a way forward.

Hope Is The Mind Tiller

By understanding how trauma fully impacts us, we can become more self aware and find the capacity to overcome.

#1 New York Times bestseller “Essential reading for anyone interested in understanding and treating traumatic stress and the scope of its impact on society.” —Alexander McFarlane, Director of the Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies A pioneering researcher transforms our understanding of trauma and offers a bold new paradigm for healing in this New York Times bestseller Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

creativity

Creativity

#1 New York Times bestseller “Essential reading for anyone interested in understanding and treating traumatic stress and the scope of its impact on society.” —Alexander McFarlane, Director of the Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies A pioneering researcher transforms our understanding of trauma and offers a bold new paradigm for healing in this New York Times bestseller   Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.

Bessel A. Van der Kolk is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Bessel A. Van der Kolk has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Bessel A. Van der Kolk's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

What Happened to You?

The Body Keeps the Score

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