#somatic memories

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How To Prepare For A Trauma Anniversary, According To Mental Health Experts

How To Prepare For A Trauma Anniversary, According To Mental Health Experts

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be a challenging mental health issue to manage, especially considering it's unique to each and ever

"A trauma anniversary, or anniversary reaction, is the recurrence of emotional and/or physical distress experienced around the time of a past traumatic event or experience," Devon Hawes, a Clinician at Mountainside treatment center, tells Bustle. "It can reactivate thoughts and feelings from the actual traumatic event.”

In addition to flashbacks, other symptoms of PTSD can intensify on a trauma anniversary. Brook McKenzie, the Director of Clinical Outreach at New Method Wellness treatment center, says that “common [anniversary] reactions may include disrupted sleep, intrusive thoughts and imagery, irritation or sadness, and poor appetite.”

McKenzie says that sticking to a planned schedule on the day of the trauma anniversary can be super valuable: “Having a schedule and a discipline on these anniversaries helps us to better manage our emotional and spiritual states,” she explains, adding that it’s key “to honor the process of healing and mindfulness” on an anniversary. She explains that utilizing dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills, breathing techniques, and repeating empowering affirmations can make an anniversary feel a little more manageable.

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The Imprints of Sexual Trauma: How the COVID-19 Pandemic May Trigger Survivors

The Imprints of Sexual Trauma: How the COVID-19 Pandemic May Trigger Survivors

It is vital to understand how survivors may be triggered by their past experiences and the present threat of COVID-19.

Resurfacing Memories

Survivors of sexual trauma may be experiencing the resurfacing of dormant somatic (body) memories as they are once again (or more intensely) faced with questions related to shelter, income, food, safety, empathy, and care-seeking in human relationships. If our sexual trauma occurred prior to the brain’s development of its capacity for explicit memory (memory that has a clear narrative) which is around 18 months old, or, if because the nature of the harm was so disturbing for our brain that it blocked it out (abuse at the hands of a caregiver who is biologically wired to be your primary protector), the onset of these innate, self-protective mechanisms, whether sudden or slow, could feel extra troublesome.

Numbness and Shutting Down

When a survivor’s nervous system is overwhelmed, we might expect to see more outward expressions of this such as crying, agitation, inability to be still; however, it is important to know that a high percentage of sexual assault survivors experience the physiological state of freeze, which can cause temporary immobilization of the body. As experienced during trauma, freeze states may surface time and time again as a way to cope. For every survivor that feels heightened anxiety right now about COVID-19, there may be just as many who feel numb to it. From the outside, people in states of high nervous system activation may appear calm or even indifferent to this chaos. The scale and scope of what they are facing (again) may feel unreal. Like the individual experience of sexual trauma, the science-based projections — alongside the lived reality of loss of life, debilitating illness, and socio-political collapse — can be so disturbing to our psyches that we unconsciously close the door on any line of thinking that exposes us to our profound vulnerability.