If you’ve ever experienced a medical trauma, a traumatic experience related to the medical setting, you may have noticed some unexpected effects on your relationships. Maybe it’s more challenging than usual to interact with the people in your life and you’re wondering why. 

Research suggests that trauma, particularly in early childhood, can increase the risk the developing bulimia, anorexia, and binge-eating disorders.* This is useful information, not only in treating disordered eating, but also because it can help us to understand more about how trauma impacts a person’s development and healing process.

In the medical setting, the goal is to do no harm and bring healing, but it is rarely this simple. Patients discover they cannot control their circumstances and become vulnerable to the limits of their bodies and the medical expertise of others. Unfortunately, it can be extremely stressful, sometimes to a detrimental degree, to be a patient undergoing medical care.

You know how to read other people and assess for danger (read: rejection) better than you know yourself. That’s where that whole confusing-their-needs-for-yours thing gets so hard to tease apart: fawning can feel like knowing exactly what someone wants and being in alignment with that and that alone. But fawning is actually knowing how to protect yourself (most of the time) from being ignored, unaccepted, or pushed to the side by catering to the potential abandonment-risk-of-a-person in front of you.

Most people try to please others at some point. It’s a pretty human thing to do. But they’re usually doing it from a place of being in touch with their own needs, emotions, and sense of self-worth that transcends whatever they can do for another person. So what happens when someone isn’t?

When someone is in an abusive relationship, they might stay and try to “fawn” their abuser, making sure their meal is cooked by the time they get home, their favorite beer is fully stocked in the fridge, and their kids are put to sleep. They “fawn” so that their abuser doesn’t explode. It’s a protective mechanism to prevent their abuser from causing more damage.

Let’s say you’ve got a good handle on a couple of triggers you have. You thought you knew what put you in “The Bad Place,” but now you’ve got a couple more things that you’re aware of. Now you can recognize when you’re feeling terrible, and maybe even how you’re feeling, in general, a good amount of the time. That’s great! Let’s talk about actually *doing* all those things on that list.

You know most people think of productivity as doing the most at the flip of a switch. You also know that doesn’t describe you outside of the rare day you finish some things, but also go into that fuzzy space where fingernails magically get chewed off and you forget to feed yourself, let alone blink. And you know productivity should be attainable. It should account for people like you with PTSD.

Your brain is very good at scanning your environment, both internally and externally, for threats to your survival. In fact, it’s probably reacting to perceived threats most of the time you can’t seem to take that next step in your day. And that doesn’t make you “unproductive” or “lazy.” It just means your brain frequently has different goals than you want it to. But why is it so hard to be productive after trauma? Read more to learn why.

If or when you start dating, you may find that you and your partner have different backgrounds when it comes to romance, relationships, and sex. Let’s dive into the many things to think about when navigating the lasting effects of purity culture with a partner.

After leaving Purity Culture, the ambiguity we face after a loss of structure can feel debilitating. How do we relate to ourselves? How do we relate to others? There are no longer clear-cut answers about when you should have sex and what you should want from a relationship.

Purity Culture was typically closely connected with American Evangelical churches and ministries of the 80’s and 90’s. We are now learning how much damage purity culture has done to those trapped within it. Let’s talk about how to heal after leaving purity culture.

Today we will be talking about the relationship between trauma and substance use. Trauma can significantly impact your relationship to different substances, and the holidays can trigger substance use to cope with situations and surroundings. Since many people create intentions or goals at the beginning of the year, we want to provide you with some information about the connection between trauma and substance use in case you are thinking about your relationship with substance use.

Last week we talked about coping during the holidays. The holidays can be very stressful, but after the holidays can be stressful in a different way!

The holidays can be a challenging time for anyone, but they can be especially difficult for those who have experienced trauma. The holiday season is often associated with feelings of joy, love, and togetherness, but for those who have experienced trauma, these feelings can be overshadowed by painful memories and emotions, and can lead to dysregulation.

Self-betrayal is a way of coping that many people develop to keep themselves safe and try to meet their needs. Individuals who experienced trauma as children may develop this type of response because they believed that it was the only way to stay connected to their caregivers. We dive into what self-betrayal may look like.

We’ve been talking about trauma therapy this month, and you may have wondered- do I have trauma? And if I do, what kind of trauma do I have? This topic can be very overwhelming to tackle, so we want to provide you with a starting point. Woven Together Trauma Therapy focuses on working with trauma, so we have created some resources to assist you in your healing journey.

When we experience trauma, our bodies and minds do what is necessary for us to survive. This might be repressing our memories, compartmentalizing, numbing our emotions, or projecting our emotions onto others. This month, we will be sharing blogs about trauma therapy and what that process is like. Today we are covering why trauma therapy is so difficult.

Trauma therapy can help you make sense of your trauma history and feel more grounded in your life. When trauma happens, you need trauma-informed and competent therapy to support your recovery. Trauma therapy provides a space to talk about trauma, identify how it has impacted you, and process all of it. This type of therapy looks at more than what is currently going on in your life- this process will look more deeply into your experiences, beliefs about yourself, and how these things impact you.