When Trauma Is Too Strong to Face Alone
Cuando el trauma es demasiado fuerte para enfrentarlo solo
A discussion about the limits of working with trauma in meditation, and why professional support is often essential before attempting to face overwhelming memories on one's own.
When Trauma Is Too Strong to Face Alone
A discussion about the limits of working with trauma in meditation, and why professional support is often essential before attempting to face overwhelming memories on one's own.
I'd like to add something to that. If the trauma is strong enough, which is most likely because either the event was truly life-threatening or terrifying, or because you were very young when it happened, it is very, very difficult, and for some people close to impossible, to do it alone. The classic example is a soldier who comes back from war. He's walking down the street in the city and a helicopter flies over. It's perfectly safe, a peaceful time, but his experience is as though he's completely back on the battlefield. He knows he's not, but it is so completely and totally overwhelming to his whole system. That's the work of therapy: somebody helps ground you and keep you in the present moment, while the person who was traumatized remains in charge of the process. If they say, "This is too much, I can't do this today," you simply don't do it.
I wouldn't recommend trying to sit in meditation if you feel you're being totally overwhelmed by past memories and you're caught in a trauma reaction. I don't think that's necessarily good for you if it's absolutely overwhelming.
Yes, I agree. What I was saying is that working with this in meditation can come after you've had the support of someone doing exactly what's being described here: helping you go there, helping you stay in this body, stay in this present moment, and guiding you through it. After quite a bit of that kind of work, there is going to be room and an ability to balance on your own.
It's like learning to surf. First you have somebody standing on the board with you, keeping you balanced, helping you learn. But after a while you can go on your own and ride those same kinds of waves.
The need for professional support
I really want to emphasize this point: it is very hard to do alone at first, and it could be quite a while before it becomes easier. I've done this work myself. I would not have been able to do it alone, and I've done it with a lot of help from several people.
And it depends on the trauma and the person's past. I'd also like to point out that sometimes the veteran doesn't even know that the helicopter is the trigger.
Uncovering hidden triggers
Yes. The trigger is a trigger, and you can do nothing about it. The experience is completely overwhelming and very real. I understand that.
Sometimes we don't even know there was a link.
That's right. Over time, as you're able to be with it more, you start to see what the triggers are. You begin to uncover things that you learned from a very young age to repress.