{"quotes":[{"text":"The traumatic moment becomes encoded in an abnormal form of memory, which breaks spontaneously into consciouness, both as flashbacks during waking states and as traumatic nightmares during sleep. Small, seemingly insignificant reminders can also evoke these memories, which often return with all the vividness and emotional force of the original event. Thus, even normally safe environments may come to feel dangerous, for the survivor can never be assured that she will not encounter some reminder of the trauma.","author":"Judith Lewis Herman","tags":["flashbacks","memory","nightmares","ptsd","recovered-memories","repressed-memories","trauma","trauma-memories","trauma-memory","traumatic-experiences","traumatic-stress","traumatization","traumatized","triggers"],"id":115960,"author_id":"Judith+Lewis+Herman"},{"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":"It registers that I am sitting there topless, but this body I am in doesn't feel like mine anymore so the half-nakedness seems irrelevant, like a rumor, something I'm supposed to care about but don't.","author":"Lauren Miller","tags":["coping-mechanism","detachment","disassociation","trauma","traumatization","traumatized"],"id":260489,"author_id":"Lauren+Miller"},{"text":"Children who are resilient often have an appearance of a Teflon coating: nothing seems to faze these children.","author":"Asa Don Brown","tags":["asa-don-brown","children","resiliency","traumatization"],"id":433770,"author_id":"Asa+Don+Brown"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":4,"pages":1}}