Stress and traumatic stress and strong influencers of human personality and behavior.
“What a terrible thing to have lost one’s mind. Or not to have a mind at all.” – Dan Quayle We’ve all experienced times when we felt like we were losing our minds. This is a crazy psychological phenomenon that makes you think that you’re going crazy. Of course, it’s unlikely that you’re actually going …
As a social species, humans expect other humans to support them, especially in difficult times. When two people go through the same traumatic experience, as difficult as times can get, they typically have no one but each to support them. When we’re supported and reciprocally support during a hardship, our distress gets reduced1Olff, M. (2012). …
In healthy romantic relationships, there’s a balance of closeness and distance. Each partner retains their own identity while also identifying with the relationship to some degree. This interdependence helps partners meet some of their needs themselves, and some are met by their partners. When there’s too much closeness in the relationship, the dynamic becomes unhealthy. …
When faced with a life-threatening situation, an organism generates the following trauma responses: In certain traumatic situations, fight and flight are not the appropriate responses. Neither is freeze. These are the situations where the organism will display a fawn response. The fawn response to trauma is when someone behaves submissively towards an aggressor, communicating: “I’m …
A trauma bond is an emotional bond that gets formed between an abuser and their victim. An abusive relationship will rarely be 100% abusive. Usually, there’s a mix of abuse and positive bonding in an overall abusive relationship. This keeps the victim stuck in the trauma bond, hoping to get the next fix of positive …
Trauma usually occurs in response to a seriously threatening event. Trauma is likely to happen when stress is intense or chronic, and a person cannot cope with that stress. Humans, like other animals, have three main responses to threats or stressful events: When we fight or take flight in response to a stressor, the event …
A trauma bond is formed in abusive relationships. An abusive relationship is one where there’s a major power imbalance between the partners. The abusive partner exercises power control over the other partner- the victim of abuse. In a healthy relationship, the two partners have more or less equal power distribution. A trauma bond is formed …
We’re hard-wired to seek connection with our closest genetic relatives- our family members. The more family members connect with each other and help each other, the greater the chances of their gene pool surviving and reproducing. In other words, we all have an inbuilt expectation of getting help and support from our closest family members. …
Emotional healing is anything but a linear process. Think of a linear process as a step-by-step process like climbing stairs. Every single step you take moves you closer to your goal of healing in a linear fashion. It’d be great if healing worked that way, but it doesn’t. Instead, healing is more of a ‘two …
Children experience trauma when they find themselves in a threatening situation. They’re particularly vulnerable to threats because they’re helpless and haven’t yet developed the ability to cope with frightening events. When children experience less-than-ideal circumstances at home or in society at large, they face Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). However, not all adverse childhood experiences necessarily …