In chapter 11 of Pete Walker’s book, Complex-PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving, he briefly describes the symptoms of blocked emotions. It’s under the subsection, Crying and Angering in Concert. Blink, you will miss it. But in those few words, he perfectly describes my ongoing problems with having blocked grief. And after numerous discussions in my …
Blocked Emotions: Anger and Grief Read More »
Alexithymia is an inability to understand our feelings. While true, most resources define it as emotional blindness, and I do agree. I’m alexithymic, myself. But what I’ve found most helpful on understanding my condition is associating emotional awareness with radio signals. Some come in faint, some are staticky, or we pick up nothing at all. …
Alexithymia: The Broken Emotional Signal Read More »
So, here were are again with another companion article. I do these whenever I have a personal story that can help shed further light on our main topic. Since this week’s topic is on Alexithymia, what it is, how it develops, and (as always) what we can do about it, I have my own experiences …
My Alexithymia Journey: A Heal-Along with Jaena Read More »
Depersonalization is a deadened emotional state. It’s an abrupt disconnection from the Self because we feel detached from our thoughts, feelings, and our own bodies. We feel like an outside observer watching someone else walking around in our bodies and making decisions for us. And they aren’t always actions we would normally choose, if only …
Depersonalization: The Emotional Flatline Read More »
Dissociative AD (Attachment Disorder) is an intentional attachment to activities that take us out of the present. In other words, it’s a conscious choice and we have control over it. When we think of dissociating we usually think of the mind going blank suddenly and without warning. Like someone yanked the plug, the brain shuts …
Dissociative AD: Dissociation as an Attachment Disorder Read More »
Mainstream media would have us believe that those who act out are the only ones living in an adverse home. Thanks to the so-called “trained professionals” throwing around the over-generalization that “Hurt people hurt people,” we have only one clue. This is not to say that children who act out are not living in an …
How to Spot a Child Who is Living in an Adverse Home Read More »
Repetition compulsion is when we keep getting the same outcome that we never asked for. It seems no matter what we do, no matter how hard we try, we’re right back where we were before. For some, we end up in the same toxic relationships. For others, we keep encountering setbacks each time we try …
Repetition Compulsion: The Hamster Wheel of Fate Read More »
Most of us have heard of the term displacement. It’s when we take our frustrations out on something or someone who had nothing to do with the triggering event. Well, we can think of transference as displacement’s “next of kin” because at first glance, they have core traits in common. Both are the results of …
Transference: How Unprocessed Trauma Finds an Outlet Read More »
Our beliefs direct our lives and cognitive bias is one of the ways we develop our beliefs. The two most extreme types of cognitive bias are impostor syndrome (Trauma Glossary 2) and the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Of course we don’t all live in one extreme or the other. But as we kick off this brand new …
Cognitive Bias: Impostor Syndrome and its Counterpart, the Dunning-Kruger Effect Read More »
What if I told you that the very trauma responses you’re using now can be used as assets in healing? And what if I told you that through the overreliance of the trauma response, you’ve achieved accidental mastery in some area? That mastery is your gift, your untapped potential that’s waiting to be accessed once …
Healing Benefits of the 4F Trauma Responses Read More »
