THE TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE-WHAT IS IT? HOW TO MOVE FORWARD THROUGH CHRIST

                                                 FROM PAIN TO PEACE
   THE TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE-WHAT IS IT? HOW TO MOVE FORWARD


Isaiah 58:6 says, “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?”

John 5: 6-8 " When Jesus saw the man and knew that he had been sick for a long time, Jesus asked him "Do you want to be well?" . The sick man answered, "Sir there is no one to help me get into the pool when the water starts moving. While I am coming to the water someone else always gets in before me. Then Jesus said " Stand up, Pick up your mat and Walk"

This subject is so close and dear to my heart. I have family and friends that have dealt with trauma in many forms. I have worked with numerous clients that have been through unspeakable things. I, too, have been through traumatic events in childhood, young adulthood. I have finally acknowledged that these events have affected my self worth, my choice of relationships, my engaging of destructive behaviors and most important put up a wall between God and I. I am in my 40s and beginning the process of healing. When I didn't  acknowledge these things, attempting to put bandaids on my emotions, feeling somehow that I was at fault.

Does this sound familiar?
Is it hard for you to trust and attach to others?
Do you have anxiety or panic when certain situations arise?
Do you attempt to "self medicate" through alcohol, drugs or other destructive ways to "escape the emotional pain"?
Do you have problems sleeping? When you do, do dreams come back so vividly to you?
Do you have intense mood swings? Reactive anger?
Do you feel at fault at what happened to you?
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Trauma is a type of damage to a person's mental well being that occurs as a result of a severely distressing event.A traumatic event involves a single experience, or an enduring or repeating event or events, that completely overwhelm the individual's ability to cope or integrate the ideas and  involved with that experience. The sense of being overwhelmed can be delayed by weeks, years emotions or even decades, as the person struggles to cope with the immediate circumstances. Psychological trauma can lead to serious long-term negative consequences that are often overlooked even by mental health professionals: "If clinicians fail to look through a trauma lens and to conceptualize client problems as related possibly to current or past trauma, they may fail to see that trauma victims, young and old, organize much of their lives around repetitive patterns of reliving and warding off traumatic memories, reminders, and affects.(DePrince & Freyd, 2002)
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How Can We Start the Process of Healing?

This is my first suggestion for you to do when you are ready to be delivered from the pain.
1) Acknowledge what happened - as painful and hard as it may be- with a pastoral or christian based therapist or a very close friend that you can express anything and everything to.
2) The road to recovery must involve building a sense of empowerment and reconnection - support of christian friends and church groups, begin reading, journaling and praying to God to help us to begin to heal and become effective for him. When you call His Name - he will be by your side, loving you every step of the way...

This is how I started my journey of healing and peace. In later blogs, we can discuss in detail symptoms, negative emotions and thinking "traps" and how to counteract these things through becoming closer in our relationship with God and taking steps toward acceptance and forgiveness......
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References:
The New Century Bible "The Everyday Bible" (1991). Dallas, TX: Word Publishing
 A.P. & Freyd, J.J. (2002). "The Harm of Trauma: Pathological fear, shattered assumptions, or betrayal?" In J. Kauffman (Ed.) Loss of the Assumptive World: a theory of traumatic loss. (pp 71–82). New York: Brunner-Routledge