By Victoria Uwumarogie, Illustration: Klaus Vedfelt/Digitalvision, Essence, September 30, 2022
Never underestimate the impact of unaddressed trauma.
If you’ve been in unhealthy, even violent relationships in the past, it can negatively impact your ability to be able to see the good in a romantic interest in the present. It can even send you into the arms of the same type of toxic partners. Financial trauma experienced growing up can lead to an intense scarcity mindset in the present and affect the way you see and handle money. And research has shown that different forms of past trauma can cause emotional and physical reactions that can have long-term effects, like increasing the possibility of obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart attack and stroke.
So if we’re going to talk about self-care, as we have done all month, we have to discuss one of the biggest barriers to joyfully practicing it, which is unresolved trauma. To help with that, we’ve sought out the insights of licensed trauma therapist Fanike-Kiara Olugbala Young, DBH, LCSW, author of What the F*ck Is Your Problem?! Becoming an Active Worker in Healing Your Trauma. Not only is she an expert on the topic through her education, but also through her experiences, as she is a survivor of childhood and financial trauma. This is what she says about the different forms of trauma, how we often avoid it, and how dealing with it is the ultimate act of self-care.
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