This is what the result of unresolved trauma looks like.
What we witnessed Will Smith do in assaulting Chris Rock during the Academy Award ceremony was a trauma response.
While I am in no way condoning violence, this is a very public and important opportunity for us to understand what a trauma response can look like.
A trauma response can take many forms and look like:
- Slapping someone for saying “the wrong” thing.
- Yelling at someone for not doing something “fast enough” or “up to your standards.”
- Avoiding or not responding to a boss’s emails about scheduling an upcoming performance review.
- “Having to” do everything “perfectly,” otherwise you feel anxious or unsettled.
- Not setting boundaries around your time and energy because you’re worried about confrontation and upsetting the other person.
- Working endless hours without taking time for yourself or the things and people you enjoy because your job is your primary source and measure of your own self-worth and value.
When a person has experienced trauma (“Big T” or “Little t”) from their childhood (or adulthood), the brain and body store that traumatic memory in ways such that aspects of that memory can be re-activated by present-day interactions and situations.
[To read the rest of this blog post by Melissa Hankins MD, click here.]
[Image: Shutterstock.com]
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