Mithra Trust
Understanding Symptoms
“The symptoms of trauma can be stable, that is, ever-present. They can also be unstable, meaning that they can come and go and be triggered by stress. Or they can remain hidden for decades and suddenly surface.
Usually, symptoms do not occur individually, but come in groups. They often grow increasingly complex over time, becoming less and less connected with the original trauma experience.”
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― Peter A. Levine,
Healing Trauma: A Pioneering Program for Restoring the Wisdom of Your Body
Every person’s way of dealing with trauma is different; while some depend on sharing their experience with others in order to make sense of what they went through, others choose to ‘move past’ the incident by pretending it never happened. For a person to be able to heal, it’s important that they process the trauma.
But often, the impacted individual might not be able to find the words to articulate their experience, making it difficult to cope.
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Stories or accounts of trauma that people have experienced can exist in bits and pieces instead of as an objective whole, and it can be difficult for the impacted individual to coherently arrange them. This often leads to stories being confusing, lost, or ignored.
It’s important to remember that there is no normal, right, or wrong way to think, feel, or respond. Every response is valid.
