Tagged With "Stress Disorder"
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The Books That Helped Me Transition from Trauma to Triumph: A Book Review Series – “Getting Past Your Past”
Naturally, I would at times experience panic attack symptoms, and would almost always cry. Sometimes slow tears cascading down my cheeks. Other times full-on ugly crying, requiring a pause in the action.
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Thoughts to share
Wishing everyone peace and love during these difficult times. Take care, Michael. “Don't stress the could haves, if it should have, it would have.” - Unknown “How we perceive a situation and how we react to it is the basis of our stress. If you focus on the negative in any situation, you can expect high stress levels. However, if you try and see the good in the situation, your stress levels will greatly diminish.” – Catherine Pulsifer “Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but...
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Why Slowing Down & Reflecting On Our Lives And Values Is So Vital Right Now (YourTango.com)
The unbridled spread of COVID-19 has caused all but essential service providers to drop what we were doing and settle in at home. This forced slowdown is very uncomfortable for most. But, this forced slowdown may not necessarily be a bad thing. With many of us at home, now's a good time to let our lives catch up to us and envision a new future.
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A Holiday Guide for Abuse Survivors [psychcentral.com]
Hardly anyone would claim to be a stranger to holiday stress. From money woes to holiday travel, traditions, and family tension, at some point everyone has struggled to make it to January. But the holidays can be a particularly tough time of year for anyone with a family history of abuse, whether it’s emotional or physical. The idea that one shouldn’t be alone during the holiday season is drilled into our heads and we want familiar people near, even if those people can be toxic to us.
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‘Burnout is real’: The importance of engaging in self-care practices when faced with secondary trauma [whyy.org]
Chera Kowalski remembers working at McPherson Square Library when overdoses became a more common occurrence in Kensington. It was 2015, and Philadelphia saw 696 overdose deaths that year — a 52% increase from just two years before — eighty percent of which involved opioids. There were more than twice as many overdose deaths than homicides. At the time, library staff didn’t have naloxone — an opioid overdose reversal medication — or the training to administer it. The best staff members could...
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Calming Your Anxious Mind Through Rhythmic Movement
5 Rhythmic Movement Practices That Can Calm Our Anxious Mind
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Childhood PTSD and Avoidance: Learning to Be OK in Groups (Resilience Series)
It’s super common for those of us who grew up with abuse and neglect when we were small, to feel as adults that we are on the outside somehow. When we're in groups we feel as if we are only partly in it, and never really included . Or we start as a full participant but pull away over time. We un-include ourselves. But it feel like other people are keeping us out. The telltale sign that being on the outside could be a personal choice, even when it doesn’t feel like it, is that we’re almost...
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Coronavirus Pandemic likely to Trigger more Post-Traumatic Stress Cases, LSU Researcher Says [nola.com]
By Mark Schleifstein, NOLA.com, March 30, 2020 A combination of stress, trauma and depression triggered by the coronavirus pandemic after the virus abates is likely to increase what’s already a high number of cases of post-traumatic stress disorder among Louisiana residents, who have been hammered by natural and man-made disasters in the past, according to a behavioral epidemiologist at the Louisiana State University School of Public Health. Associate professor Ariane Rung bases that...
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For California Firefighters, How 'Mindfulness' Can Ease the Deadly Stress of Their Jobs [sacbee.com]
By Cathie Anderson, The Sacramento Bee, November 12, 2019 About three and a half years ago, paramedic Susan Farren underwent major surgery for kidney cancer, and as she lay in the recovery room, one of her doctors told her that he had treated quite a few first responders with organ cancers. The comment stuck with her. “I went home and started researching it after getting out of the hospital,” Farren said, “and for the next year and a half, that’s what I did every single day. I researched...
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How You and Your Kids Can De-Stress During Coronavirus [pbs.org]
By Deborah Farmer Kris, Public Broadcasting Service, March 13, 2020 A few weeks ago, my eight-year-old daughter made a glitter jar for my students: “Tell them that when their brain has a glitter storm, they can shake this up and take deep breaths as the glitter falls.” We could all use some help settling our glitter right now. If you are feeling stress about the COVID-19 pandemic, your brain isn’t misfiring. Stress is a normal, healthy biological response to perceived threats and challenges.
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3 Steps Toward Managing And Healing Anxiety
I've struggled with anxiety throughout my life. A difficult childhood and my highly sensitive personality meant I grew into an anxious kid—there was just too much pain and emotional overwhelm for my young brain to handle. My anxiety most often manifested as perfectionism and people pleasing, so from the outside everything seemed great. I excelled in school and I was a good kid who did as she was told. But there was a war inside me. I felt broken, unable to navigate these huge feelings of...
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Mindfulness Stress Reduction Techniques for Healing
Whether you're healing from illness, trauma, or other difficult times, these mindfulness stress reduction techniques can support your healing.
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Self-Care, Boring Self-Care, And Just Showing Up [laurakhoudari.com]
What Is Self-Care Anyway? I spend a lot of time talking about “self-care,” particularly when I am advising my clients, colleagues, and loved ones to practice it. I tell people to take care of themselves or give specific instruction, to “eat,” “sleep,” or “get outside.” The more I preach the gospel of “self-care,” the more I feel inclined to explore the term itself and its history. Sometimes, what we, or our clients are already doing by “showing up”, is in itself all the self-care that can be...
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Sick and Stressed from CPTSD? Power Up Your SELF CARE (Resilience Series)
I’ve been talking about resilience in recent posts — the obstacles that hold back recovery, and the strengths we need to keep healing. Last week the topic was fear. In this post (and the video that goes with it) I want to go up a layer to the next strength, and that’s self-care . I used to think self-care was just hot baths and chocolate for people whose problems were so small that this would actually solve them. But 25 years of continuous healing and strength-building has taught me that,...
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Sick and Stressed from CPTSD? Power Up Your SELF CARE (Resilience Series)
I’ve been talking about resilience in recent posts — the obstacles that hold back recovery, and the strengths we need to keep healing. Last week the topic was fear. In this post (and the video that goes with it) I want to go up a layer to the next strength, and that’s self-care . I used to think self-care was just hot baths and chocolate for people whose problems were so small that this would actually solve them. But 25 years of continuous healing and strength-building has taught me that,...
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Social Media May Foster Post-Traumatic Growth in Disasters [psychologytoday.com]
By Grant H. Brenner, Psychology Today, May 9, 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic is a prolonged, global disaster of epic proportions, unlike anything most people have experienced in their lifetimes. Tolerating Ambiguity and Isolation Unlike many disasters, which have a predictable course (see Phases of Disaster, below), pandemics don't fit a clear mold, with no clear end date, high levels of uncertainty about whether there will be ongoing waves of reinfection, unclear paths toward normality, limited...
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Take Care of You in Troubled Times
Self-care strategies work. In my book, “Goodbye Anxiety, Hello Freedom”, I share 35 different strategies, as one-size- doesn’t -fit-all! Today, I’ve got 5 simple tips to share that will help you relax and find your emotional balance. The #1 Most Important Thing to Add to Your Self-Care Routine Limit how much media you consume and how often. I’ve said this for years and now it is absolutely critical. Checking the latest news over and over again is like taking a jackhammer to our nervous...
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Tell Me Who You Trust the Most
Imagine that you are being held by someone you love (partner, parent, best friend, someone you once knew, or someone you imagine). You are safe and warm and connected. You feel the soothing of presence - the beating of a primitive language. As you find the rhythms of oneness, you know that all is right. You are protected from whatever unknown lies beyond. Close your eyes and feel the exquisiteness...Now imagine that the exquisiteness fails.
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World Premiere: Stress & Resilience: How Toxic Stress Affects Us, and What We Can Do About It [developingchild.harvard.edu]
By Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University, November 13, 2019 When the stress in your life just doesn’t let up, and it feels like you have no support to get through the day—let alone do everything you need to do to be the best parent you can be—it can seem like there’s nothing that can make it better. But there are resources that can help, and this kind of stress—known as “toxic stress”—doesn’t have to define your life. In this video, learn more about what toxic stress is, how it...
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Re: The Books That Helped Me Transition from Trauma to Triumph: A Book Review Series – “Getting Past Your Past”
Teri, this book has been on my list for a while (along with a blue million other books ...). Thanks for the reminder to nudge it toward the top of the list. I'm an EMDR veteran too, and your descriptions of your experience with that therapy echo mine. I too can say I wouldn't be where I am today without it. I've undergone a few more sessions recently and it has not lost its power. It is also quite the trip. Every time I think, nothing is going to happen this session. And then ... boy, do...
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Re: The Books That Helped Me Transition from Trauma to Triumph: A Book Review Series – “Getting Past Your Past”
I totally relate to your "along with a blue million other books" How wonderful you found EMDR and it helped you along your healing journey. And, wow, yes, those session where I would go in thinking everything was calm in my world then . . . BAM . . . I'd walk out thinking, "Where the hell did THAT come from?" But, so glad those aha moments would surface and I could process them and release that negative energy. Cathartic in so many ways. Thanks again for posting the obit for Dr. Shapiro. I...
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Re: How You and Your Kids Can De-Stress During Coronavirus [pbs.org]
I like that! Forgot about those! And one of their best features is that, to enjoy it, you have to slow down and appreciate the effect of the 'glitter storm.' One of my favorite mentors told me long ago that the answer to many of the maladies I was observing was from what she called, 'too much, too fast.' I keep this in mind as much as I can, no matter what the situation, intervention or protocol. And I preach it to my students and clients: Slowing down helps us better regulate our system,...
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Re: How You and Your Kids Can De-Stress During Coronavirus [pbs.org]
I loved reading your article and it inspires me. I am working on a children's show to do on You Tube to teach kids all the different healing modules. I have been working in a private practice for over a decade in trauma and want to get the sciences that heal my clients out to the kids...since mainstream doesn't really know much about these sciences...thank you for all that you do! Blessings!
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Re: How You and Your Kids Can De-Stress During Coronavirus [pbs.org]
"Too much, too fast." YES! Simple and clear but not easy to adjust that internal motor/setting/way of responding. Thanks for encouragement, reminder, explanation, and this comment, Jondi! It's just what I needed! Cissy
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Re: Mindfulness Stress Reduction Techniques for Healing
Love this!!!! Great reminders, Jen. I stopped watching negative news years ago. And being on my summer Facebook hiatus with all its political negativity has been wonderful for my peace of mind. Thanks for sharing. I'll be sure to share it on the podcast social media pages, too. Peace, Teri
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Re: Mindfulness Stress Reduction Techniques for Healing
Such helpful suggestions. I enjoy knowing there's scientific evidence to back up the techniques too (although I've nothing against anecdotal support). I tried the 3-Part breath and was surprised at how different it felt from the usual slow and steady inhalation. Must be something about the mindful focus on where in the lungs the breath is during the breathing process, I'm guessing. Thanks so much, Jen, for sharing this here.
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Re: Mindfulness Stress Reduction Techniques for Healing
And I just realized, Jen, that recently I listened to Teri Wellbrock's interview with you on her Healing Place podcast. I very much enjoyed your conversation! Also: when I went to check out the Meditation for Healing Sleep on your site, I found the link in your post was erroring, so I took the liberty of correcting it. Hope you don't mind!
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Re: Calming Your Anxious Mind Through Rhythmic Movement
Joanna, such great solutions to the problem of wanting to meditate but being emotionally uncomfortable or triggered by trying to sit too long. It's possible to have the best of both worlds -- the benefits of mindfulness meditation AND mindful movement in one. Thank you for sharing your own experience and good ideas with so many of us who can use an alternative to traditional seated meditation. This may encourage some who were hesitant to meditate because of the potential for anxiety to go...
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Re: Tell Me Who You Trust the Most
I think many people who've experienced childhood trauma would recognize this piece as a heartbreakingly accurate depiction of how trauma's effects play out in a child's daily life. I believe this could also serve to help those who haven't experienced it, and even those who may be skeptical of the depth of childhood trauma's impact, to understand. Thank you, Carol.
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Re: Tell Me Who You Trust the Most
Wow. I saw myself in some of that and my little sister (now age 49 and not so little, but my memories flashed to little Katie) in other bits. I am going to share this on my podcast Facebook page. Beautiful. Peace, Teri
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Re: Tell Me Who You Trust the Most
Thank you Teri! The post was inspired by my five children and most especially my 9-year-old son. It is really quite bittersweet to hear how much it resonates. ~ Carol
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Re: Tell Me Who You Trust the Most
Wow, Carol, that was a viscerally accurate description of what most of us survivors of child abuse go through. How to trust? Whom to trust? That gnawing and desperate need for connection wrecks our every interaction in adulthood.
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Re: Tell Me Who You Trust the Most
Thank you Cheryl! To me it rings as the "feeling" side of the eloquent post you wrote on Limbic Revision.
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Re: A Holiday Guide for Abuse Survivors [psychcentral.com]
Beautifully said and so comfortingly necessary for so many. Thank you.
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Re: World Premiere: Stress & Resilience: How Toxic Stress Affects Us, and What We Can Do About It [developingchild.harvard.edu]
Excellent video to introduce the concept of toxic stress to parents, caregivers, and really anyone new to the topic. Its tone is straightforward yet positive and hopeful. I will be sharing this on social media to help spread the word to the "uninitiated".
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Re: Sick and Stressed from CPTSD? Power Up Your SELF CARE (Resilience Series)
True self-care -- difficult to prioritize for anyone, but possibly more so for those with childhood PTSD, because of the tendency to minimize our experiences and to fall prey to depression and anxiety, which often make it harder to just plain function, much less pay attention to and heed our self-care needs. At the same time, self-care essential to healing from childhood PTSD. I don't think healing will happen without it. Thanks, Anna.
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Re: Childhood PTSD and Avoidance: Learning to Be OK in Groups (Resilience Series)
Bingo, again. It can take a lot out of a person to put themselves "out there", especially when, as you say, "we’re just working so hard to just deal." For introverts, the uphill battle is on an even steeper incline. But of course the irony here is that pushing ourselves to do what for so many reasons we resist is one of the very things that will help us become whole. Thank you, Anna, for sharing your blog posts and videos here.
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Re: 3 Steps Toward Managing And Healing Anxiety
Joanna, clearly you "get" what it's like to deal with anxiety, especially that which is rooted in early trauma. Your description of how your anxiety manifests itself sure rings a bell with me, and I'm guessing it does so with many others with difficult childhoods. Thanks for sharing your experience-based suggestions for how to manage and overcome anxiety.
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Re: ‘Burnout is real’: The importance of engaging in self-care practices when faced with secondary trauma [whyy.org]
This is such important information. It's one thing for social workers, mental health care providers, first responders and the like to require self-care to avoid secondary trauma, but when librarians are added to the list, you know things have gotten bad (and I have worked in public libraries, but a few years before conditions reached their current off-the-charts level). Thank you for sharing this with us, Caitlin.
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Toxic Stress, ACEs, and Polyvagal Theory
Stress is a normal part of life that no one can fully escape. However, when stress becomes toxic, it can affect our lives in drastic fashions that may change our life’s outcome. Adverse childhood experiences tie into toxic stress and both can cause considerable harm to both children and again when these kids grow to become adults. This article will explore the connection between toxic stress, ACEs, and how understanding them through the polyvagal theory can help us to find ways to defeat...
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You Can Reduce the Stress You’re Feeling Right Now!
During these challenging times, it’s normal to be experiencing increased anxiety. Everyone is! And if your baseline is regularly higher in anxiety or hyperarousal , this will feel like even more to you! If you have a past trauma history, you may feel yourself triggered more often than usual. You may not understand what those triggers are yet or where they are coming from. You may just be feeling feelings so big, and those feelings may be familiar to a time in the past you have felt powerless...
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What to Do About Suicidal Thoughts in a Pandemic
Who knew when the year started we’d be separated from loved ones for months? And here we are, canceling celebrations, work and vacation plans, and not even hugging our friends. We are facing more stress – financial, emotional, social – than anyone could have imagined. We haven’t seen the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health yet. But as therapists, we know that as chronic stress continues, more people will experience depression and even suicidal thoughts. Let’s not wait to...
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Post-Traumatic Growth: Hope Is a Strategy, Not a Feeling [Juvenile Justice Information Exchange]
When a young person experiences trauma, there is no single answer regarding how that experience may impact them in their later years. Two 12-year-olds experiencing the exact same kind of trauma, for example, may have two very different responses — one crumbles and the other rises. One processes it deeply and the other suppresses it. One becomes a powerful force for change in the community and the other struggles to make their place in the world. Furthermore, what may be considered traumatic...
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Loving An Orchid: Understanding Child Abuse Trauma's Impact [psychologytoday.com]
By JoAnn Stevelos, Psychology Today, August 21, 2020 As a child, I was an orchid but lived like a dandelion. I have always prided myself on my resiliency, for surviving a long and painful childhood filled with abandonment, psychological, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse . Child abuse can do that to you—give you a false sense of self and what resiliency really looks like. Resiliency is not just surviving. This false narrative of resiliency can take years to undo. One approach is to try...
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Staying Strong During Lockdown Means Reaching Out - And Working Your Mind, Too [npr.org]
By April Fulton, National Public Radio, August 18, 2020 It can be tempting, as the pandemic wears on, to shut down — to escape into TV binging, social media and other inadequate ways of blocking out the stress and fears of illness or economic disaster . Dr. Maryland Pao, the clinical director of the National Institutes of Mental Health Intramural Research Program and a psychiatrist who regularly sees children with life-threatening illnesses, says she's seen striking similarities between the...
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4 Simple Phrases to Halt Anxious Thoughts
Anxiety is a fact of life. There's much we can do to calm ourselves in the short and long-term. Here are some tips for immediate relief.
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The Difficult Road to Intimacy: Living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Living with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) is very challenging. It affects every aspect of the lives of those who suffer under its symptoms. In this article, we are going to examine together with a brief synopsis of CPTSD and how this disorder creates difficulty in forming and maintaining intimate relationships.
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Re: The Difficult Road to Intimacy: Living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Well done Shirley. Lots of great insight. Informative and helps us to know we are not alone and there is hope and healing. hmnn....I didn't find the article triggering in a bad way. Knowledge is power. Take care.
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Make December the First Month of the Rest of Your Life
This month many of us are heading into a holiday season whether it be Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah or another notable day. It is traditionally a time when we get together with family and friends, open our hearts, and put our absolute best foot forward in hospitality and grace. The pandemic has changed the physicality of our lives but not the meaning and intention that lies beneath this very special season. The origin of the word season comes from the Latin word ‘satio’, meaning ‘sowing’ and...