Is it possible to return to normal after a traumatic situation?The answer, strange as it may seem, is “No, not always. “First of all, this is not possible because when we put in place coping and healing mechanisms after events like these, they will surely accompany us forever, and will do so in the form of stress, anxiety, depressive states, etc.
On the other hand, there is an important aspect to consider, although it is possible to overcome the effects of a traumatic event, we will never be the same again before, we will give way to a different normality, but that does not mean that it is worse than our previous state or that we have lost our quality of life.
- What’s going to happen is that we’re going to create a new “I”.
- Someone with new resources to face suffering.
- Someone with more inner security to build their own happiness and grow in it.
- Hope.
- It is also advisable to put aside the classic idea that we become stronger people when we go through adversity.
Healing, the act of overcoming a complex or even traumatic event, does not come from strength, comes from skills, resources, strategies, learning to be flexible, resilient and able to accept pain and live with it.
All these processes are not easy, and even if we return to the normality we had, we will give way to new special steps, which are also valid.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is still little known to the majority of the population; it is assumed, for example, that these mental realities are lived mainly among soldiers, those who have been in an armed conflict or those who have been victims or witnesses of a conflict. terrorist attack. We do not realize that this condition is sadly common and that millions of people around the world suffer from it.
In addition, we can now have someone very close to us who has lived years before PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) in silence, experiences such as child or emotional abuse, bullying or bullying at home or at work, surviving a traffic accident. or even a serious illness leaves a brain injury that, in many cases, can last.
Let’s run through some data to better understand the effect and deal with the trauma.
Not everyone lives and interprets the experiences in the same way, an example of this is in people who are traumatically suffering the loss of a pet, others, however, may not feel so much and replace the puppy within a few days of its loss.
However, sometimes the adverse experience can be particularly serious (such as being abused in childhood, for example), and in these cases the impact is always severe. Brian Levine, a scientist at the Rotman Research Institute in Baycrest and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, has studied these situations.
In his book Memory and Trauma, he explains that these experiences generate what is called the ‘drag effect’ on the brain. In other words, certain images and sensations are intensely marked in emotional memory.
It doesn’t matter if days, weeks, months or years pass. These memories permeate and generate a drag effect: they destroy our potential, our happiness, our ability to make decisions and make satisfactory connections, etc.
There are also those who bear very well the fact that they were stolen and who were victims of robbery or kidnapping, however, there are people who develop a paralyzing fear after this experience, with this we mean the following: most of us can return to normal after a traumatic situation, but some people manage to do so earlier because they do not experience the situation with such emotional and psychological impact.
As we said at the beginning of the text, although we were trying to return to normal after a traumatic situation, the truth is that many things change in us, however, it is still possible to achieve it. In addition, we even have scales to measure the effects of trauma, such as the scale developed by Tedeshi and Calhoum in 1996.
With this instrument it could be perceived that, on average, it is women who best overcome traumatic events, developing a new appreciation of life and a new positivism, however, to achieve this state it is necessary to follow the following steps:
In conclusion, these experiments are not easy for anyone, so much so that many people get stagnant in post-traumatic stress disorder without seeking psychological help, it is necessary to treat what hurts to continue living, because it is not enough to survive to be happy. We must break the chains that imprison us.