When Fear Turns Into Trauma
We all have fears, a completely natural reaction to a threat. But where is the boundary between fear and trauma? When are the limits of fear crossed and we start talking about something much more serious?
Being afraid is normal and always, at some point in our life, this feeling will appear. But, we do not speak of the same when we refer to trauma, since this is a toxic wound that affects us in our daily lives.
A trauma recalls everything in great detail
Traumas usually appear when something serious happens to us, such as robbery, kidnapping or rape. Situations that, on the other hand, it is normal that they cause us fear, since they are not exactly pleasant. But when do we stop talking about an adaptive fear consistent with experience and move on to talking about trauma?
When a fear transforms into a trauma, images appear in our minds repeatedly and uncontrollably. Suddenly, we cannot stop feeling and remembering everything that has happened to us, mentally reliving it over and over again, reviewing an experience that plunges us into a prison of anguish.
Is it negative to remember everything that has happened to us and that is potentially traumatic? Not really. The negative is letting ourselves be carried away by those feelings and memories that only generate discomfort. We cannot erase memories, but we can implement strategies to quickly get them out of our focus.
Can you get out of this situation? The answer is yes, but it takes time. Think that you do not have absolute control over what happens in your mind. Even if you want to reduce those thoughts that haunt you over and over again, chances are they will come back and it is best to be prepared.
One of the techniques to get out of this situation is to try to block and eliminate these memories. But this is very difficult to achieve, since we do not yet have a rubber that can affect our memory in such a selective way.
Thus, feelings become substitutes for memories as a habitual object of intervention. In this way, people who suffer trauma tend to become cold and listless. This is a classic psychological mechanism that we all use without being taught by anyone: dissociation.
Not everyone can implement this mechanism and it is not a long-term solution either. The memories will still be there, you would only have changed the way you act and see things. In reality, you lie to yourself.
It is clear that there are experiences that hurt, of course you will go through good and bad times, nothing is ever going to be perfect. But, do not try to defeat all this by escaping from fear and activating mechanisms that sooner or later will fall by themselves and reveal the pain that you carry inside.
Face fear
As we have always said, the best thing in these cases is to face your fears. Take all those memories, all the traumas, and face them! You still have time to solve all this.
Fear does not have to block you, fear can remain in a tolerable and adaptive state without necessarily transforming into trauma.
If you have already done it, solve it as soon as possible. Seek professional help if you need it, they will give you the specific keys for your case and will accompany you on the way out, starting from the situation in which you find yourself.
