What is Trauma? Have you experienced a Traumatic Event?

PTSD, Trauma, Traumatic Events

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What happens when you experience Trauma...

Aaron Brinen Reliving versus revisiting. The difference is that when individuals experience intrusive memories of ptsd, the memory pops into their mind without warning, usually at the worst part. The reaction is typically to push the memory out (thought suppression). Therapeutically, the provider helps the individual move through the memory from beginning to end systematically. The terrible parts and also the less terrible parts. The aim is reduced distress (through learning memories in and of themselves are not dangerous, rather unpleasant) and Reduced need for avoidance. Other good learning too.

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Brandlyn's Traumatic EventS

The very first traumatic event which led to my PTSD was childhood sexual abuse which lasted for years. The next event happened as I witnessed my grandmother being emotionally abused. The next event was when  a neighborhood friend's child hit and killed  by an SUV, he must have been under 4 years old. The next event happened when my cousin's mom fell down a flight of stairs in our neighborhood and died immediately.
OH IS THIS NOT ENOUGH???? This is all by the age of 16. Post 16... When my grandmother who raised me my entire life lost her short battle with ovarian cancer on June 16, 2003---That was it for me. I spiraled out of control. I really couldn't come home to Myrtle Beach. I would try to drive there, sometimes my panic attacks were so intense and I was so embarrassed I would turn around and come back to North Carolina. Once it got so bad I had to check myself into the hospital in Conway because I couldn't stop having a panic attack.  I was homeless... she wasn't there. We had an HOME, then suddenly my sister and I HAD NOTHING, NO HOME TO go to, no place to bring friends too. Life had officially changed. We had to depend on   This burrito that I was eating was filled with unimaginable grief, anger, sadness, questions, and numbness. It took me almost 10 years to replace the contents of this burrito I was ingesting. One of my earliest memories that caused my  PTSD, Complex PTSD, and Anxiety Disorder was inappropriate touching -(molestation) from the time I was about 6 until age 11 or 12. Up until now, only 4 people in the world know this happened to me and it was traumatic. I was a child, I had no idea what was happening, why it was happening to me, and how the person wasn't getting caught. Eventually, I had the courage to tell them to stop or I would tell. In my next Trauma post I will elaborate more and introduce you to my best friend, my mother Daphine Bryant-James; who died at the tender age of 54 (heart attack) 1 month after her baby (11th child) died of a heart attack. This. changed. my . entire. life. And not in a good way. 

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