{"quotes":[{"text":"Traumatized people chronically feel unsafe inside their bodies: The past is alive in the form of gnawing interior discomfort. Their bodies are constantly bombarded by visceral warning signs, and, in an attempt to control these processes, they often become expert at ignoring their gut feelings and in numbing awareness of what is played out inside. They learn to hide from their selves.” (p.97).","author":"Bessel A. van der Kolk","tags":["avoidance","body","feelings","numb","numbness","sense-of-safety","trauma","traumatic","traumatized"],"id":95340,"author_id":"Bessel+A.+van+der+Kolk"},{"text":"The door suddenly jerks open. A wideeyedteenager bursts out. She stares at me in dazed horror. In a strangeway, I both know and don’t know what has just happened. As the fragmentsbegin to converge, they convey a horrible reality: I must havebeen hit by this car as I entered the crosswalk. In confused disbelief, I sinkback into a hazy twilight. I find that I am unable to think clearly or towill myself awake from this nightmare.A man rushes to my side and drops to his knees. He announces himselfas an off-duty paramedic. When I try to see where the voice is comingfrom, he sternly orders, “Don’t move your head.” The contradictionbetween his sharp command and what my body naturally wants—toturn toward his voice—frightens and stuns me into a sort of paralysis.My awareness strangely splits, and I experience an uncanny “dislocation.”It’s as if I’m floating above my body, looking down on the unfoldingscene.I am snapped back when he roughly grabs my wrist and takes mypulse. He then shifts his position, directly above me. Awkwardly, hegrasps my head with both of his hands, trapping it and keeping it frommoving. His abrupt actions and the stinging ring of his command panicme; they immobilize me further. Dread seeps into my dazed, foggy consciousness:Maybe I have a broken neck, I think. I have a compellingimpulse to find someone else to focus on. Simply, I need to have someone’scomforting gaze, a lifeline to hold onto. But I’m too terrified tomove and feel helplessly frozen.","author":"Peter A. Levine","tags":["auto-accident","car-accident","dissociated","dissociation","fear","floating","frozen","paramedic","ptsd","terror","trauma","traumatic"],"id":103051,"author_id":"Peter+A.+Levine"},{"text":"Blame is a Defense Against PowerlessnessBetrayal trauma changes you. You have endured a life-altering shock, and are likely living with PTSD symptoms— hypervigilance, flashbacks and bewilderment—with broken trust, with the inability to cope with many situations, and with the complete shut down of parts of your mind, including your ability to focus and regulate your emotions.Nevertheless, if you are unable to recognize the higher purpose in your pain, to forgive and forget and move on, you clearly have chosen to be addicted to your pain and must enjoy playing the victim.And the worst is, we are only too ready to agree with this assessment! Trauma victims commonly blame themselves. Blaming oneself for the shame of being a victim is recognized by trauma specialists as a defense against the extreme powerlessness we feel in the wake of a traumatic event. Self-blame continues the illusion of control shock destroys, but prevents us from the necessary working through of the traumatic feelings and memories to heal and recover.","author":"Sandra Lee Dennis","tags":["affect","affect-regulation","betrayal","betrayal-bond","betrayal-trauma","betrayal-trauma-theory","blame","control","emotional-health","emotions","higher-purpose","hypervigilance","illusion","memories","mental-health","mental-illness","out-of-control","posttraumatic-stress","posttraumatic-stress-disorder","powerlessness","ptsd","regulate-emotions","self-blame","shock","trauma","trauma-victims","traumatic","traumatic-experiences","traumatic-memories","traumatized","victim-blaming","victimhood","victimization","victims"],"id":105905,"author_id":"Sandra+Lee+Dennis"},{"text":"It would cut into him at unpredictable moments, like a gutting knife made of colored light.","author":"David Baldacci","tags":["memory","past","trauma","traumatic"],"id":106603,"author_id":"David+Baldacci"},{"text":"There are edges around the black and every now and then a flash of color streaks out of the gray. But I can never really grasp any of the slivers of memories that emerge.","author":"Katie McGarry","tags":["depression","memories","memory-loss","ptsd","remember","remembering","sadness","trauma","traumatic"],"id":111821,"author_id":"Katie+McGarry"},{"text":"As I feel less overwhelmed, my fear softens and begins to subside. I feel a flicker of hope, then a rolling wave of fiery rage. My body continues to shake and tremble. It is alternately icy cold and feverishly hot. A burning red fury erupts from deep within my belly: How could that stupid kid hit me in a crosswalk? Wasn’t she paying attention? Damn her!A blast of shrill sirens and flashing red lights block out everything.My belly tightens, and my eyes again reach to find the woman’s kind gaze. We squeeze hands, and the knot in my gut loosens. I hear my shirt ripping. I am startled and again jump to the vantageof an observer hovering above my sprawling body. I watch uniformedstrangers methodically attach electrodes to my chest. The Good Samaritanparamedic reports to someone that my pulse was 170. I hear my shirt ripping even more. I see the emergency team slip a collar onto my neck and then cautiously slide me onto a board. While they strap me down, I hear some garbled radio communication. The paramedics arerequesting a full trauma team. Alarm jolts me. I ask to be taken to thenearest hospital only a mile away, but they tell me that my injuries mayrequire the major trauma center in La Jolla, some thirty miles farther.My heart sinks.","author":"Peter A. Levine","tags":["anger","auto-accident","car-accident","dissociated","dissociation","fear","floating","frozen","hospital","injury","overwhelmed","panic","paramedic","ptsd","terror","trauma","traumatic"],"id":162363,"author_id":"Peter+A.+Levine"},{"text":"When I got out of prison, I was basically no longer human,' Miriam says.","author":"Anna Funder","tags":["human","humanity","no-longer-human","political-prisoner","prison","ptsd","torture","trauma","traumatic","traumatic-experiences"],"id":176974,"author_id":"Anna+Funder"},{"text":"Unlike other forms of psychological disorders, the core issue in trauma is reality.","author":"Bessel A. van der Kolk","tags":["minimization","posttraumatic","ptsd","reality","society","society-denial","trauma","traumatic"],"id":181276,"author_id":"Bessel+A.+van+der+Kolk"},{"text":"Attitude Is EverythingWe live in a culture that is blind to betrayal and intolerant of emotional pain. In New Age crowds here on the West Coast, where your attitude is considered the sole determinant of the impact an event has on you, it gets even worse.In these New Thought circles, no matter what happens to you, it is assumed that you have created your own reality. Not only have you chosen the event, no matter how horrible, for your personal growth. You also chose how you interpret what happened—as if there are no interpersonal facts, only interpretations.The upshot of this perspective is that your suffering would vanish if only you adopted a more evolved perspective and stopped feeling aggrieved. I was often kindly reminded (and believed it myself), “there are no victims.” How can you be a victim when you are responsible for your circumstances?When you most need validation and support to get through the worst pain of your life, to be confronted with the well-meaning, but quasi-religious fervor of these insidious half-truths can be deeply demoralizing. This kind of advice feeds guilt and shame, inhibits grieving, encourages grandiosity and can drive you to be alone to shield your vulnerability.","author":"Sandra Lee Dennis","tags":["attitude","bad-advice","belief-in-self","betrayal","blind-to-betrayal","demoralizing","emotional-pain","false-perspective","guilt","half-truths","insidious","intolerance","invalidation","loss-of-belief","mental-health","positive-attitude","ptsd","responsibility","shame","stigma","stigmatization","suffering","trauma","traumatic","traumatization","traumatized","unsupportive","victim-blaming","victimhood","victims"],"id":212111,"author_id":"Sandra+Lee+Dennis"},{"text":"The symptomatology of PTSD.In PTSD a traumatic event is not remembered and relegated to one's past in the same way as other life events. Trauma continues to intrude with visual, auditory, and/or other somatic reality on the lives of its victims. Again and again they relieve the life-threatening experiences they suffered, reacting in mind and body as though such events were still occurring. PTSD is a complex psychobiological condition.","author":"Babette Rothschild","tags":["flashbacks","mind-body","physical","ptsd","somatic","the-body-remembers","trauma","trauma-memory","traumatic"],"id":244345,"author_id":"Babette+Rothschild"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":14,"pages":2,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}