I have a new homework assignment and it's a tough one. I've been asked to say how I feel when I think or experience a particular situation... And this is difficult enough because so often I use thinking words rather than feeling words. I think I'm feeling something but, in truth I'm thinking it.... AAAAARGH! Well, the reason this is an important exercise it that, once I've identified a feeling, I am supposed to identify where that feeling occurs in my body. In other words, "How does that feeling manifest itself?" I understand I get into trouble when I decide I've felt something rather than thought it and then attribute the feeling to the circumstances or individual causing me to feel a particular way... It's faulty thinking. I need to work on this and if you're anything like me perhaps you do too?
How are you really feeling? Words for your emotions part 1/3
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
ENCOURAGING WORDS REGARDING GRIEF AND AMBIGUOUS LOSS...
THE POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER SOURCEBOOK, Schiraldi:
From Chapter 28, Grieving Losses: "We grieve what we value; we grieve in proportion to our afftection." -- from memorial to Jane Austen, Winchester Cathedral.
"All the many complex issues involved in PTSD must be disentangled for recovery to proceed. Grief is one such issue. All events that are significant enough to cause PTSD involve loss, yet grief often gets buried in the struggle for survival. Perhaps you were too numbed to grieve. Perhaps you were too busy or were discouraged from grieving. Perhaps some aspects of the trauma still feel so overwhelming that you have avoided them. These reactions are all normal. However, continually avoiding the normal, healthy feelings of grief keep unresolved memories of loss in active memory, emotionally charged, and likely to intrude.
"Grief memories are processed much like other aspects of traumatic memories at your own pace and when you are ready. Losses are confronted and processed so that meaningful adjustments and adaptations can be made in our lives. Of course, adjustments can only be made if we clearly acknowledge the nature of our losses. We can't adapt and find new ways to satisfy the void if losses are not confronted. Losses that are buried -- not explored, experienced, and expressed -- can erupt at inopportune times, resulting in a host of physical and emotional symptoms. The more we fear facing the pain of loss, the more we remain in bondage to the past. So it is important to process our losses." page 248.
The above paragraphs begin a several page chapter that offers useful and comforting information to make sense of the complicated mourning that is involved in recovering from and living beyond trauma.
I'm finding this entire book an excellent resource... I hope you will find something here to aid in your living.
From Chapter 28, Grieving Losses: "We grieve what we value; we grieve in proportion to our afftection." -- from memorial to Jane Austen, Winchester Cathedral.
"All the many complex issues involved in PTSD must be disentangled for recovery to proceed. Grief is one such issue. All events that are significant enough to cause PTSD involve loss, yet grief often gets buried in the struggle for survival. Perhaps you were too numbed to grieve. Perhaps you were too busy or were discouraged from grieving. Perhaps some aspects of the trauma still feel so overwhelming that you have avoided them. These reactions are all normal. However, continually avoiding the normal, healthy feelings of grief keep unresolved memories of loss in active memory, emotionally charged, and likely to intrude.
"Grief memories are processed much like other aspects of traumatic memories at your own pace and when you are ready. Losses are confronted and processed so that meaningful adjustments and adaptations can be made in our lives. Of course, adjustments can only be made if we clearly acknowledge the nature of our losses. We can't adapt and find new ways to satisfy the void if losses are not confronted. Losses that are buried -- not explored, experienced, and expressed -- can erupt at inopportune times, resulting in a host of physical and emotional symptoms. The more we fear facing the pain of loss, the more we remain in bondage to the past. So it is important to process our losses." page 248.
The above paragraphs begin a several page chapter that offers useful and comforting information to make sense of the complicated mourning that is involved in recovering from and living beyond trauma.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
MUSIC'S EFFECT ON PTSD AND ALZHEIMER'S SUFFERERS
http://youtu.be/goIaFST2Epw
This video lecture demonstrates the importance of music for healing and brain function for individuals who suffer from anxiety and fear. Sleep disorders, Alzheimer's, relationship maintenance... Well, take a look and see what you think.
Wanted to mention too a highly user-friendly book I picked up at the library last week:
THE POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER SOURCE BOOK by Glenn R. Schiraldi
This video lecture demonstrates the importance of music for healing and brain function for individuals who suffer from anxiety and fear. Sleep disorders, Alzheimer's, relationship maintenance... Well, take a look and see what you think.
Wanted to mention too a highly user-friendly book I picked up at the library last week:
THE POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER SOURCE BOOK by Glenn R. Schiraldi
http://www.amazon.com/Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder-Sourcebook-Recovery/dp/007161494X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358283071&sr=1-2#reader_007161494X
Sunday, January 6, 2013
The SIDRAN Institute, A Link
http://www.sidran.org/sub.cfm?sectionID=1
If you are seeking further information on what you, as a survivor or a loved-one of a survivor check this website. Lots of helpful information here. I am still seeking a site with discussion forums related to PTSD from childhood trauma. If you find one I would love to hear from you. Most sites are either substance abuse related or war-trauma related. Maybe we can help each other...
If you are seeking further information on what you, as a survivor or a loved-one of a survivor check this website. Lots of helpful information here. I am still seeking a site with discussion forums related to PTSD from childhood trauma. If you find one I would love to hear from you. Most sites are either substance abuse related or war-trauma related. Maybe we can help each other...
Friday, January 4, 2013
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
REMEMBER, TOO, THE NAMES OF THE SURVIVORS...
Soon our hearts and minds will necessarily turn to the survivors. Their long lives ahead are forever changed by what they experienced and are still experiencing in the wake of the tragedy in what should have been their safe place. What will become of the children? It's up to us to guide them. But how? This is uncharted territory for all of us isn't it? There are those who know though. We can learn how children grieve. We can learn to listen to them and watch them for signs of what they need from us. Professionals and specialists and educators can tell us a lot about post traumatic effects, that those effects are sometimes life-long... Yes, children are resilient but we must be very careful not to dismiss what they are going through as insignificant. What can we do? We can read and study and share information so we can be there for these children as they grow to be adults. We ignore these effects of childhood trauma at our peril. For some children safety cannot even be found in their homes. There is the danger that the adults who represent safety to surviving children will be consumed by their own grief and devastation. We cannot allow it to be a lonely and private grief. Extend an arm to the shoulder of the sufferer, pull them close, breathe with them, share their tears, listen to their sorrows ... show them they are not alone and they are as important in their survival as the ones lost to us are in their passing.
Never forget. Never forget. Remember, too, the living....
Never forget. Never forget. Remember, too, the living....
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