Now I will use the term, I will use the letters PTSD and CPTSD when we talk about the experience of living with complex trauma because that for a lot of people is is how people understand this experience so I'm not going to fully discount it from my my language, and I would love it one day if the D from PTSD and CPTSD wasn't there anymore. And the reason for this is because trauma is a natural human response.
Trauma is a human response to over whelm-or threat in the body. It is the body responding the body and the brain, which is a part of the body, responding and our nervous systems responding, and trying to keep us alive. It's a survival response and then the ongoing impacts of that are natural human responses. But what tends to happen is we treat them as something that is a disorder. And by it calling it a disorder and by treating it like that we make people feel like there's something wrong with them, when actually what they're doing is responding in a human way. Now,that doesn't mean that I don't advocate for people getting support.
I absolutely do. We all need support in this life whatever the cause of that is. Whether it's in our day to day life or whether it is for things where a big event happens a traumatic event happens or weenier into grief over a death or a loss of some kind - there's a whole spectrum to needing support. And in that I absolutely advocate for people finding the support they need and the support can look like so many different things, from therapy to support with our friends, to community support to medical support, there's so many areas that we can get support and I absolutely advocate for that, and I provide it myself, I provide trauma support myself.
And there's nothing wrong in needing support. So me saying that the there's nothing wrong with you doesn't mean, oh and now you have to carry on with the impacts of trauma on your own.Because while there isn't anything wrong with you and these are human responses,they can also be deeply painful experiences to live through, both in the initial aftermath of the traumatic experience and potentially decades and decades later.
When we live with trauma there are so many aspects to it that can be the whole spectrum from uncomfortable to some of the most painful things we will ever experience. And so of course we'll need support in that, but needing support doesn't mean there's something wrong with you. What we've been living through recently with this Corona virus Pandemic for some people it's been a traumatic experience. For some people the experience in and of itself has impacted them by way of trauma. And for some people it has stirred up trauma responses from past traumatic experiences. And again, these are normal human responses. I wrote a post that by my standards went viral.
I don't know what the definition of viral is and in terms of the internet and but it was shared thousands and thousands of times. And what the past was saying was here's a list of natural responses to a pandemic, or really and I'll expand that by saying, natural responses to trauma,to a traumatic experience, that we don't need to pathologist or treat is abnormal.I'm going to read the post out. It's quite long but I want to say it out loud.I want to I want to talk about these areas that are natural human responses instead of just putting them all under an umbrella, I want to actually name some of them.
Now, when I when I do this, this isn't this list isn't exhaustive, it is not the whole list of responses to trauma, responses to this pandemic,responses to challenging experiences in life, responses to stress. There are many,many more that I could have carried on and carried on, and so if there was something that I don't list here that you are thinking, oh does that mean this isn't a normal human response, likely my answer will be, no it is, I just didn't have room for it on on the square, on the image that I was putting it on.So normal human responses to a global pandemic that do not need to anthologized or treated as abnormal: Food and eating challenges and difficulties.A resurgence of compulsive or addictive behaviors. Obsessive or intrusive thoughts memories or fears. Generalized fear, anxiety, panic and overwhelm.Depression, dissociation, shutdown freeze, hopelessness, feelings of abandonment or loneliness or isolation.
A sense of a loss of control or powerlessness. Feeling confused. Anxiety around money, shelter, food and other survival needs. Past traumas being triggered, activated or re-experienced. Health anxiety heightened,about Covid-19 or otherwise. Feeling unheard or unseen amidst the flood of stories. Feeling like existing chronic needs are being ignored. Thoughts and feelings about death and dying. New and old grief surfacing. Feelings of anger,irritation, frustration. Caring for everyone to your own detriment.Compassion fatigue. Feeling exhausted, fatigued, unmotivated, lethargic.
Hyper-focused, surges of energy, keeping doing to distract. Immune system depleted or other illnesses starting or chronic flyers. And like I say, the list goes on. If you've been experiences any of those,or any other trauma responses, or any other painful responses to stress or to grief - you're human. And if you need support with that, that's okay. And while I know that there is a lack of support for a lot of these experiences in many areas in our cultures, in many of the areas around the world that we reach, I know there's a lack of support. The systems aren't setup to support us adequately enough through these experiences. And your need for support isn't wrong.
And if you can find that support that I absolutely support you in in seeking that out, because you're important and your needs are important, and you need start making you wrong, they make you human.
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