The Effects of PTSD & Trauma: Avoidance

Effects of Avoiding Triggers and Emotions

  • Can delay healing from trauma and PTSD

  • Makes PTSD symptoms worse

  • Interferes with memory consolidation

  • Causes a fractured/disconnection memory (gaps in memories)

  • Can be helpful short-term as a survival strategy/mechanism, and sometimes can be ineffective and unhelpful if it’s long-term and impacts life areas such as: employment/ job, personal relationships, school/academics, etc. which can impact negatively with our quality of life and day-to-day functioning

  • When people are fearful of something, they tend to avoid the feared objects, activities or situations. Although this avoidance might help reduce feelings of fear in the short term, over the long term it can make the fear become even worse.

  • Results? Integration and completion of memory helps put trauma in context in the present instead of the past

Examples of Avoidance

  • Avoiding difficult and challenging conversations due to fear of conflict, tension, and disagreements

  • Avoiding discussing the traumatic event(s)

  • Avoiding being around people who remind them of the initial traumatic event(s)

Types of Avoidance

OVERT AVOIDANCE

  • Not going to a party to avoid/decrease social anxiety

    • Short term effect: Temporary relief and release of tension, worry, discomfort, and fear

    • Long term effect: Increased anxiety being around others, difficulty going to events where you don’t know everyone in attendance

  • Not driving a car due to fears of getting into an accident

    • Short term effect: Temporary relief and release of tension, worry, discomfort, and fear

    • Long term effect: Not being able to drive a car, inconvenience of not being able to drive, relying on public transportation or walking everywhere, relying on taxis/Ubers'/Lyfts

  • Avoiding situations, experiences, places that remind of you the trauma(s)

    • Short term effect: Temporary relief and release of tension, worry, discomfort, and fear

    • Long term effect: Trigger will elicit stronger discomfort and reactions in the future

COGNITIVE AVOIDANCE

  • Distraction

    • Short term effect: Keeps our mind off a difficult situation

    • Long term effect: Maintains belief we cannot cope with the traumatic experiences/memories/situations

  • Dissociation

    • Short term effect: Avoid feelings associated with the trauma(s)

    • Long term effect: Disconnected from a wide range of feelings including pleasant or neutral feelings

  • Worry/Rumination

    • Short term effect: Temporary solution as if we are solving/fixing/working on the trauma(s)

    • Long term effect: Does not solve/fix/work on the trauma(s), requires a lot of effort, requires a lot of time, increases negative emotions over time

  • Pushing Away/Down “Negative” or “Bad” Thoughts

    • Short term effect: Relief from not having to think about our thoughts related to the trauma(s)

    • Long term effect: Thoughts come back, thoughts are usually more intense than before, thoughts even feel more dangerous than before

What Happens When We Avoid?

  • We feel it in our bodies (the body keeps the score)

  • Feeling physically on edge, restless, anxious

  • Isolation and social withdrawal

  • Negative core beliefs about themselves

  • Negative assumptions about others and the world

  • Self blame and exaggerated sense of self blame

  • Shame and guilt

  • Difficulties with sleep such as insomnia and nightmares

  • Difficulties with silence

  • Difficulties with stillness

  • Difficulties concentrating

How Does Therapy Help With Trauma Avoidance?

  • Helps with gradually confronting the avoidance in a step-by-step manner

  • Helps with learning practical skills/tools to manage overwhelming emotions like panic, anxiety, fear, worry, etc.

  • For example, Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy was created to help people confront their fears.

    • PE involves gradually and safely exposing individuals to trauma-related memories, allowing them to confront and process their fears in a safe and controlled setting. Through repeated exposure, individuals learn to tolerate distress and reduce avoidance behaviors, ultimately diminishing the power of traumatic memories.

    • Read more here

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