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.
Interpretation
Traumatized individuals struggle with a sense of safety and often disconnect from their own feelings and bodies.
This quote by Bessel Van Der Kolk highlights the profound impact of trauma on individuals. It explains how trauma can lead to a persistent feeling of unsafety within one's own body, which manifests as discomfort and anxiety. The past traumas continue to influence their present experiences through these warning signals. As a coping mechanism, many people trained themselves to ignore these innate responses, leading to a disconnection from their true selves and feelings.
In practice
In a mental health seminar discussing the effects of trauma on individuals.
People have a range of capacities to deal with overwhelming experience. Some people, some kids particularly, are able to disappear into a fantasy world, to dissociate, to pretend like it isnt happening, and are able to go on with their lives. And sometimes it comes back to haunt them.
The parent-child connection is the most powerful mental health intervention known to mankind.
The deepest urge in human nature is the desire to feel important.
The fact is that people are good, Give people affection and security, and they will give affection and be secure in their feelings and their behavior.
Few of us can accurately gauge how we will feel tomorrow or next week. That's why when you go to the supermarket on an empty stomach, you'll buy too much, and if you shop after a big meal, you'll buy too little.
They don’t need walls and water to keep the prisoners in, not when they’re trapped inside their own heads, incapable of a single cheerful thought. Most go mad within weeks - Lupin
Psychotherapy is a sanctuary; it is a battleground; it is a place I have been psychotic, neurotic, elated, confused, and despairing beyond belief.
People just hate the idea of losing. Any loss, even a small one, is just so terrible to contemplate that they compensate by buying insurance, including totally absurd policies like air travel.
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