Dopamine is the body chemical that begins with, “I want.” Whatever the want is. Then it develops our habits by what works to get it. Thus, how “boss” dopamine is the chief influencer of our happiness hormones. It can make or break our mood (Serotonin) and social interactions (Oxytocin). So, what happens to our dopamine …
Boss Dopamine in the House of Habits and Desires Read More »
Cortisol is a major neurotransmitter (or body chemical). It’s best known as a stress chemical, which is why our first impression of cortisol isn’t a good one. But cortisol is the one responsible for regulating not just our stress response, but our blood pressure, blood sugar, metabolism, and immune system. Suffice to say, how we …
Boss Cortisol in the House of Stress and Trauma Read More »
Our emotions are our signals for meeting our needs. Our uncomfortable emotions are simply telling us that one of those are unmet. When we understand what our emotions want, we can learn how to work with them instead of against them. These visual aids are a wrap up to the past five weeks, where we …
What Do My Emotions Want? Answers in 14 Visual Aids Read More »
No one likes guilt or shame. There is nothing humbler than having to admit we were wrong. There is nothing more painful than believing we are fatally flawed. But without guilt or shame, we would have no conscience and no moral code. Together, they help us understand right versus wrong so that we can develop …
Guilt or Shame: What it’s Good for Read More »
This heal-along is a companion to my article on the benefits of Sadness and Grief. Ironically, it’s a bit of a sequel to my last heal-along, where I shared the story of my year of rage flashbacks and how they helped me rewire my self-abandonment (Trauma Glossary 2) programming. What happened on New Year’s Eve …
New Year’s Grief: A Heal-Along with Jaena Read More »
Grieving is when we give ourselves permission to cry over a problem. Sadness is what we feel before we grieve, but we don’t always grant ourselves permission. Sadness is the emotion we easily push away, especially in today’s hectic life. When more urgent, high energy emotions, like anger or anxiety have our attention, it’s hard …
Sadness and Grief: What it’s Good for Read More »
If you have complex-PTSD, you’re all too familiar with fear and its brainchildren: anxiety and dread. We have more than our share of problems responding to stress, and such feelings tend to aggravate them. It causes us to worry, ruminate, and panic over that which we have no control over. This is the very thing …
Fear and Anxiety: What it’s Good for Read More »
I’ve mentioned the Father’s Day rap that I wrote and performed which helped me master my rage flashbacks. It still serves as a great example of what creativity can do for our healing. But something never occurred to me until writing Anger and the Fight Response. That painful flashback year was acting as shock therapy …
A Year of Rage Flashbacks: A Heal-Along with Jaena Read More »
No one likes uncomfortable emotions, such as anger, sadness, fear, and shame. In the CPTSD community, we tend to experience one of “Trauma’s Big Four” more often than the others and use it to define us. Having a lot of anger gets translated into “I’m such an angry person!” Or conversely fear, “I’m scared of …
Anger and the Fight Response: What it’s Good For Read More »
I’ve mentioned the value of the cognition sheet several times before. It’s listed in Master Toolbox 1 twice: both as a tool for alexithymia and again for transference. (Both underlined terms are in Trauma Glossary 2.) I even included it as a troubleshooting tool for working with our Broca’s Area (Trauma Glossary 3 under parts of …
The Cognition Sheet: More Reasons it’s an Important Tool Read More »
