Traumatic Effects

 By Don Shetterly

The book by Peter Levine, Ph.D. called Waking The Tiger has so much to share on how trauma affects us.  All too often we go through life oblivious to it.  All too often we think trauma is some horrific one-time incident, failing to see how the little moments can be just as traumatic as one big moment.

In the following quote, he sums up so much of what happens in traumatic effects.

Traumatic effects are not always apparent immediately following the incidents that caused them.  Symptoms remain dormant, accumulating over years or even decades.  Then, during a stressful period, or as the result of another incident, they can show up without warning.  There may also be no indication of the original cause.  Thus, a seemingly minor event can give rise to a sudden breakdown, similar to the one that might be caused by a single catastrophic event."  (Waking The Tiger by Dr. Peter Levine)

In my own life, I've had those moments that connected from the current moment I'm living into something that happened in my past.  I was not aware of it. It led me to the Conversion Disorder.  It took me years to put those pieces together to understand what happened.

The series of events didn't affect most people.  They didn't end up with back and neck pain.  They didn't end up being paralyzed and almost dying.  But, I did...  See my book for more about what I went through.

The thing is, we all have those connections, and they impact us differently.  They can add to anxiety, depression, back pain, neck pain and other physical issues in our body.

What happens to us does impact our body, and so often we don't stop to look at that connection.  Even if we do, we barely open the closet door to see what is inside.  We do everything we can to avoid it and delay it and act as if it doesn't exist.

You might not be able to put one thing with the other in a connection, but it doesn't mean that it is not there.  Sometimes we just cannot see the connection.  Our brain is protecting us from things that are just too difficult to deal with in our life.

However, you can be sure that if something physical is showing up in the body, that you need to look beyond your usual paradigms and beliefs.  There is more to it.  There is a mind body connection that means so much more than the buzzword we use every day.

Just the awareness that there can be the connection present may help you heal and move through what is showing up.  Sometimes, that is the hardest part of the journey, but it is often the most important part.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

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