Traumatized people chronically feel unsafe inside their bodies: The past is alive in the form of gnawing interior discomfort. Their bodies are constantly bombarded by visceral warning signs, and, in an attempt to control these processes, they often become expert at ignoring their gut feelings and in numbing awareness of what is played out inside. They learn to hide from their selves.
Interpretation
Traumatized individuals struggle with a sense of safety and often disconnect from their own feelings and bodies.
This quote by Bessel Van Der Kolk highlights the profound impact of trauma on individuals. It explains how trauma can lead to a persistent feeling of unsafety within one's own body, which manifests as discomfort and anxiety. The past traumas continue to influence their present experiences through these warning signals. As a coping mechanism, many people trained themselves to ignore these innate responses, leading to a disconnection from their true selves and feelings.
In practice
In a mental health seminar discussing the effects of trauma on individuals.
People have a range of capacities to deal with overwhelming experience. Some people, some kids particularly, are able to disappear into a fantasy world, to dissociate, to pretend like it isnt happening, and are able to go on with their lives. And sometimes it comes back to haunt them.
The parent-child connection is the most powerful mental health intervention known to mankind.
The aim of psychoanalysis is to relieve people of their neurotic unhappiness so that they can be normally unhappy.
This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever.
I'm all for 'tools,' not 'schools,' of therapy. To me, the schools of therapy compete much like religions, or even cults, all claiming to know the cause and to have the best method for treating people.
A theory that denies that thoughts can regulate actions does not lend itself readily to the explanation of complex human behavior.
People's behavior makes sense if you think about it in terms of their goals, needs, and motives.
It's hard to penetrate characters who are very cut off and lack empathy and to do it with sympathy. It's so easy to make a damaged character repugnant.
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