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Traumatic Experiences Quotes

Browse 129 quotes about Traumatic Experiences.

Traumatic Experiences Quotes

“...some patients resist the diagnosis of a post-traumatic disorder. They may feel stigmatized by any psychiatric diagnosis or wish to deny their condition out of a sense of pride. Some people feel that acknowledging psychological harm grants a moral victory to the perpetrator, in a way that acknowledging physical harm does not.”

HealingPridePrejudiceMental HealthDefeatTraumaMental IllnessRecoveryDenialTherapyDefeatedPtsdStigmaAbuse SurvivorsPsychotherapyPowerlessnessTraumatic ExperiencesLabelingMental Health StigmaMental DisorderPost Traumatic Stress DisorderHealing From AbusePosttraumatic Stress DisorderTorturedSelf StigmaLabellingTorture SurvivorsMale SurvivorPolitical Refugees
Book:Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
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“Admitting the need for help may also compound the survivor's sense of defeat. The therapists Inger Agger and Soren Jensen, who work with political refugees, describe the case of K, a torture survivor with severe post-traumatic symptoms who adamantly insisted that he had no psychological problems: "K...did not understand why he was to talk with a therapist. His problems were medical: the reason why he did not sleep at night was due to the pain in his legs and feet. He was asked by the therapist...about his political background, and K told him that he was a Marxist and that he had read about Freud and he did not believe in any of that stuff: how could his pain go away by talking to a therapist?”

HealingPsychologyPrideMental HealthMental IllnessDenialTherapyPtsdPsychoanalysisStigmaAbuse SurvivorsPsychotherapyPowerlessnessTraumatic ExperiencesMental DisorderFreudPost Traumatic Stress DisorderHealing From AbusePosttraumatic Stress DisorderSigmund FreudTorturedSelf StigmaTorture SurvivorsMale SurvivorPolitical Refugees
Book:Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
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“The traumatic moment becomes encoded in an abnormal form of memory, which breaks spontaneously into consciouness, both as flashbacks during waking states and as traumatic nightmares during sleep. Small, seemingly insignificant reminders can also evoke these memories, which often return with all the vividness and emotional force of the original event. Thus, even normally safe environments may come to feel dangerous, for the survivor can never be assured that she will not encounter some reminder of the trauma.”

MemoryTraumaPtsdTriggersNightmaresTraumatic ExperiencesTraumatizedRepressed MemoriesRecovered MemoriesTrauma MemoryTraumatic StressFlashbacksTrauma MemoriesTraumatization
Book:Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
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“…is methodical abuse, often using indoctrination, aimed at breaking the will of another human being. In a 1989 report, the Ritual Abuse Task Force of the L.A. County Commission for Women defined ritual abuse as: “Ritual Abuse usually involves repeated abuse over an extended period of time. The physical abuse is severe, sometimes including torture and killing. The sexual abuse is usually painful,humiliating, intended as a means of gaining dominance over the victim.The psychological abuse is devastating and involves the use of ritual indoctrination. It includes mind control techniques which convey to the victim a profound terror of the cult members …most victims are in a state of terror, mind control and dissociation” (Pg. 35-36)”

FearHealingAbuseMurderKillingTerrorTraumaRecoveryTortureRitualCultHumiliationSexual AbuseRapeDissociationMind ControlIndoctrinationAbuse Of PowerRitual AbuseVictimsTraumatic ExperiencesSatanic Ritual AbusePsychological Abuse
Book:Safe Passage to Healing: A Guide for Survivors of Ritual Abuse
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“He cannot forgive himself for having saved himself when his wife and child went to their deaths we are all as if drugged. Yesterday all of my family were living and now - all are dead. Each of us stands as if turn to stone. I weep for my fate, for what I have left to see.”

PtsdSurvival InstinctTraumatic ExperiencesTraumatizedComplex PtsdHolocaust SurvivorTreblinkaSurvivor GuiltWitnessing Death
Book:The Last Jew of Treblinka
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“The human brain has a safety switch that gets engaged by traumatic exposure and experiences. It’s similar to being in shock but we remain there until it’s long over. We detach. We create degrees of separation between ourselves and what we feel, think, perceive, and ultimately, this impacts not only our worldview but also our perception of self. Clinically, this is called “Dissociation.”

DetachedDissociationTraumatic ExperiencesTraumatizedDissociative DisordersDdnosPsychological DefenseDissociatingDissociateEmotionally NumbDissociate Identity Disorder
Author:Jim LaPierre
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“Another patient, Janet, was repeatedly abused by a grandfather who forced her cousin to sexually molest her and put sticks into her vagina. The patient dissociated at the time into a child alter personality, Susie, who remembered the abuse. Susie decided if she had no body, her cousin would not hurt her. Susie imagined she had no body but only her head. The fantasy she had no body to hurt, led to a dissociation of all perceptions of her body and the belief that she avoided pain and her cousin could not hurt her. This mechanism shows the interplay of reality and fantasy in a dissociative defense. Through fantasy, Susie has no body and no pain. Simultaneously, the reality of her torture was recognized as the source of this adaptation. Dissociative defenses adopted her wishful fantasy to solve a brutal experience and its memory.”

FantasyTraumaChild AbuseDissociative Identity DisorderTraumatic ExperiencesDissociative PartsTrauma MemoryAlter Personality
Author:Walter C. Young
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“It is a rare person who can cut himself off from mediate and immediate relations with others for long spaces of time without undergoing a deterioration in personality.”

PersonalityAbuseMental HealthMental IllnessIsolationDomestic ViolenceDissociationAbuse SurvivorsSurvivorsTraumatic ExperiencesTraumatizedComplex PtsdAbusive ParentsAbused ChildrenPersonality DisorderEffects Of Child AbuseSocial IsolationStructural DissociationInterpersonal TraumaPersonality ChangeInterpersonal Partner Violence
Book:The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry
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“I want to remember my past To see before my eyes The image of my parents The house in which I grew up The village in which my family lived for generations I don't want to remember my past I fear for what my memory Might bring before my eyes I wonder whether I can continue my life If I'll rescue from oblivion What I want to recall.”

HolocaustRepressionTraumatic ExperiencesTraumatizedDissociative AmnesiaHolocaust SurvivorForgetting The PastTrauma MemoriesTraumatic AmnesiaHorrors Of WarDon T Want To Remember
Author:Itta Benhaiem-Keller
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“There was something about her playing ... a knowledge of darkness in the most extreme form.” He frowned. “But it’s quite common, isn’t it? What you tend to find in the personal lives of brilliant men is devastation akin to a nuclear bomb going off. Marriages mangled. Wives left for dead. Children growing up as deformed prisoners of war—all of them walking around with holes where their hearts should be, wondering where they belong, what side they’re fighting for. Extreme wealth, like the kind Cordova married into, only magnifies the size and scope of the fallout.”

TraumaTraumatic ExperiencesTrauma SurvivorsDarkness WithinInner TurmoilPersonal Life QuotesVoid With
Book:Night Film
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“Trauma is a thief. It steals our childhoods, years of our adult lives, or even our entire lifetimes. It takes away our ability to feel connected to others, to feel like we belong in the world, and to receive and extend love. It prevents us from growing and thriving. It steals our relationships, work, physical health, families, communities, spirituality, hobbies, passions, and identity. And to add insult to injury, trauma then demands that we grieve these losses in order to heal from them, which can feel overwhelming.”

TraumaTraumatic ExperiencesTraumatizedTrauma SurvivorsPtsd QuotesTraumaticTraumatic StressCptsdTrauma QuotesPtsd Awareness
Book:You Don't Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms
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“Dissociation can be interpreted as an “emergency defense,” or a “shut off mechanism.”[6] According to Allen and Smith,[6] it is understood as an attempt by the individual to “prevent overwhelming flooding of consciousness at the time of trauma.” It is argued that the individual subconsciously cannot tolerate being present emotionally during the trauma but cannot control the situation, and therefore protects him- or herself from experiencing it in the moment via dissociation.”

DissociationAbuse SurvivorsTraumatic ExperiencesDissociative DisorderDissociativePsychological DefensePsychological DefenceDissociatingDissociative State
Author:Julie P. Gentile
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“Without warning, something struck me in the head. It felt like a railroad tie had been driven through the top of my head, into my skull, and out my left eye socket. The pain was excruciating, as if a bowling ball had fallen on my head, and shuddered through my whole body.”

GolfTraumatic ExperiencesTraumatic Brain InjuryGolf Lessons
Book:Direct Hit: A Golf Pro's Remarkable Journey back from Traumatic Brain Injury
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“[In a] recent PubMed and PsychAbstracts search... as we could not find a single reference for recovered memory therapy apart from those writing about its dangers. Our experience suggests that an overwhelming majority of clinicians do not assume or suggest to clients that they must have buried traumas from their past. It is also our experience that most clinicians are careful not to assume the literal veracity of reported traumatic memories, whether newly remembered or not." Cameron, C., & Heber, A. (2006). Re: Troubles in Traumatology, and Debunking Myths about Trauma and Memory/Reply: Troubles in Traumatology and Debunking Myths about Trauma and Memory. Canadian journal of psychiatry, 51(6), 402.”

Traumatic ExperiencesSociety DenialTrauma MemoriesTrauma TherapyRecovered Memory TherapyTrauma Therapist
Author:Colin Cameron
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“To what extent are such laboratory results generalizable to real traumatic experiences? Pezdek, Finger, and Hodge (1997) demonstrated the importance of event plausibility. Researchers were able to implant false memories of plausible events, such as being lost in a shopping mall, but were unsuccessful at causing participants to form false memories of implausible events, such as receiving an enema or participating in a religious ceremony from a tradition other than their own (Pezdek, Finger, & Hodge, 1997; Pezdek & Hodge, 1999). Besides failing to address event plausibility, laboratory experiments may also fail to capture emotions such as fear, shame, and betrayal that are often linked to interpersonal trauma." KNOWING AND NOT KNOWING ABOUT TRAUMA: IMPLICATIONS FOR THERAPY”

Traumatic ExperiencesRepressed MemoriesDissociative AmnesiaFalse MemoriesTrauma MemoryFalse Memory SyndromeFalse Memory MythPlausibility
Author:Jennifer J. Freyd
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“Childhood trauma can range from having faces extreme violence and neglect to having confronted feelings of not belonging, being unwanted, or being chronically misunderstood. You may have grown up in an environment where your curiosity and enthusiasm were constantly devalued. Perhaps you were brought up in a family where your parents had unresolved traumas of their own, which impaired their ability to attend to your emotional needs. Or, you may have faced vicious sexual or physical attacks. In all such situations, you learn to compensate by developing defenses around your most vulnerabe parts.”

Childhood TraumaTraumatic ExperiencesTraumatizedComplex PtsdChild Abuse SurvivorsUnmet NeedsComplex Trauma
Book:The Complex PTSD Workbook: A Mind-Body Approach to Regaining Emotional Control and Becoming Whole
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“The power we discover inside ourselves as we survive a life-threatening experience can be utilized equally well outside of crisis, too. I am, in every moment, capable of mustering the strength to survive again—or of tapping that strength in other good, productive, healthy ways.”

InspirationalSelf AwarenessCrisisTraumaSelf ConfidenceSurvivorPtsdSelf EmpowermentTraumatic ExperiencesPosttraumatic Stress DisorderTraumatic Epiphonies
Book:Before the World Intruded
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“One in four girls will experience sexual abuse by the time she is sixteen, and 48 percent of all rapes involve a young woman under the age of eighteen. It’s not surprising then, that in a society where sexual abuse of young women is rampant, many women never share their stories. They remain hidden and invisible.”

AbuseTraumaSexual AbuseRapeRape CultureVictimsTraumatic ExperiencesSurvivors Of AbuseChild RapeChildhood Sexual AbuseSurvivorshipSilent PainSexual Abuse Of A ChildInvisible PeopleRape StatisticsHidden ShameHidden VictimsInvisible Girls
Book:Invisible Girls: The Truth About Sexual Abuse
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“I have tried to communicate my ideas in a language that preserves connections, a language that is faithful both to the dispassionate, reasoned traditions of my profession and to the passionate claims of people who have been violated and outraged. I have tried to find a language that can withstand the imperatives of doublethink and allows all of us to come a little closer to facing the unspeakable.”

AbuseTraumaRecoveryRapeUnspeakableTraumatic ExperiencesComplex PtsdHorror Of WarDoublethinkViolationsViolatedDouble ThinkHorror Of RapeViolations Of Human RightsHorror Of IncestAtrocitisTrauma And Recovery
Book:Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
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“Trauma destroys the fabric of time. In normal time you move from one moment to the next, sunrise to sunset, birth to death. After trauma, you may move in circles, find yourself being sucked backwards into an eddy or bouncing like a rubber ball from now to then to back again. ... In the traumatic universe the basic laws of matter are suspended: ceiling fans can be helicopters, car exhaust can be mustard gas.”

TimeMental IllnessPtsdTraumatic ExperiencesMental DisorderTraumatizedVeteransTrauma SurvivorsPost Traumatic Stress DisorderMilitary QuoteTraumatic StressFlashbacksCombat PtsdMilitary PsychiatryMental Distress
Book:The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
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“Wissen Sie, diese Ünfähigkeit zu spüren wird von der Seele als eine Art Schutzschild beispielsweise nach einer Traumatisierung aufgebaut. Das ist ganz natürlich und auch sehr nützlich. Es bewahrt Sie davor, Unerträgliches zu fühlen. Irgendetwas hat Sie veranlasst, sich zu schützen. Sie spüren sich selbst erst dann, wenn es schon fast zu spät ist, wenn Ihre Gefühle sich in einer Panikattacke entladen. Und wir müssen rausfinden, welche Verletzung bei Ihnen diese Reaktion ausgelöst haben könnte.”

TraumaTraumatic ExperiencesPanic AttacksPanikattacken
Book:Mängelexemplar
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“Those who were molested or beaten as children or teenagers might later be vulnerable to sexual abuse or violence, because their natural impulses to protect themselves and protest (physical and verbal) were extinguished. Expectation of hurtful treatment by others or one's own failed capabilities can stubbornly persist despite overwhelming evidence that such is no longer the case.”

Self HelpTraumaVulnerabilitySurvivorChild AbuseRapeSelf DefenseSexual AssaultVictimsTraumatic ExperiencesChildhood AbuseComplex PtsdTraumatic StressRevictimisationPhysical Assault
Author:Babette Rothschild
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“Dr. Peter Levine, who has worked with trauma survivors for twenty-five years, says the single most important factor he has learned in uncovering the mystery of human trauma is what happens during and after the freezing response. He describes an impala being chased by a cheetah. The second the cheetah pounces on the young impala, the animal goes limp. The impala isn’t playing dead, she has “instinctively entered an altered state of consciousness, shared by all mammals when death appears imminent.” (Levine and Frederick, Waking the Tiger, p. 16) The impala becomes instantly immobile. However, if the impala escapes, what she does immediately thereafter is vitally important. She shakes and quivers every part of her body, clearing the traumatic energy she has accumulated.”

TraumaSurvivorsTraumatic ExperiencesTraumatizedTraumatic StressTrauma ExperiencesFight Flight FreezePlay Dead
Book:Miss America By Day: Lessons Learned From Ultimate Betrayals And Unconditional Love
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“When clients are hyperaroused or overwhelmed emotionally, voluntarily narrowing their field of consciousness allows them to assimilate a limited amount of incoming information, thereby optimizing the chance for successful integration. For example, as one client began to report her traumatic experience, her arousal escalated: Her heart started to race, she felt afraid and restless, and had trouble thinking. She was asked to stop talking and thinking about the trauma, to inhibit the images, thoughts, and emotions that were coming up, and orient instead to her physical sensation until her arousal returned to the window of tolerance. With the help of her therapist, she focused on her body and described how her legs felt, the phyisical feeling of anxiety in her chest, and the beating of her heart. These physical experiences gradually subsided, and only then was she encouraged to return to the narrative.”

PsychotherapyTraumatic ExperiencesTrauma MemoriesTrauma TherapySensorimotor Therapy
Book:Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy
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“This reorienting is not an attempt to avoid or discount clients' pain and ongoing suffering. Rather, it is a means to help them observe, firsthand, how their chronic orienting tendencies toward reminders of the past recreate the trauma-related experience of danger and powerlessness, whereas choosing to orient to a good feeling can result in an experience of safety and mastery. As clients become able to do so the new objects of orientation often become more defined and & Goodman 1951). Rather than attention being drawn repeatedly to physical pain or traumatic activation, the good feeling becomes more prominent in the client's awareness. This exercise of reorienting toward a positive stimulus can surprise and reassure clients that they are not imprisoned indefinitely in an inner world of chronic traumatic reexperiencing, and that they have more possibilities and control than they had imagined. These orienting exercises need to be practiced again and again for mastery.”

PsychotherapyPowerlessnessTraumatic ExperiencesTraumatizedFlashbacksTrauma TherapySensorimotor Therapy
Book:Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy
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“Many people look at their past and bemoan their mistakes. Those errors in judgment, behavior, hurting others, and the wrong decisions may be what consumes them now. It does not have to be that way, for recovering from a traumatic situation is all a matter of how we think about what happened. It is not so much about what happened to us as what we make of the circumstance.”

LovePastJoyChangeShameChaosMistakesRecoveryTraumatic ExperiencesDysfunctionalAcceptence
Author:David W. Earle LPC- Love is Not Enough
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“...repeated trauma in childhood forms and deforms the personality. The child trapped in an abusive environment is faced with formidable tasks of adaptation. She must find a way to preserve a sense of trust in people who are untrustworthy, safety in a situation that is unsafe, control in a situation that is terrifyingly unpredictable, power in a situation of helplessness. Unable to care for or protect herself, she must compensate for the failures of adult care and protection with the only means at her disposal, an immature system of psychological defenses.”

TrustPersonalityTraumaBetrayalOverwhelmingChild AbusePtsdOverwhelmedCopingAbuse SurvivorsPowerlessnessTraumatic ExperiencesUnsafeTraumatizedOut Of ControlPost Traumatic Stress DisorderComplex PtsdUntrustworthyAbusive ParentsPosttraumatic Stress DisorderPersonality DisordersBetrayal TraumaDefense MechanismTerrifyingParental AbuseAbused ChildPsychological DefenceHelpelessness
Book:Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
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“Blame is a Defense Against Powerlessness Betrayal trauma changes you. You have endured a life-altering shock, and are likely living with PTSD symptoms— hypervigilance, flashbacks and bewilderment—with broken trust, with the inability to cope with many situations, and with the complete shut down of parts of your mind, including your ability to focus and regulate your emotions. Nevertheless, if you are unable to recognize the higher purpose in your pain, to forgive and forget and move on, you clearly have chosen to be addicted to your pain and must enjoy playing the victim. And the worst is, we are only too ready to agree with this assessment! Trauma victims commonly blame themselves. Blaming oneself for the shame of being a victim is recognized by trauma specialists as a defense against the extreme powerlessness we feel in the wake of a traumatic event. Self-blame continues the illusion of control shock destroys, but prevents us from the necessary working through of the traumatic feelings and memories to heal and recover.”

MemoriesEmotionsIllusionBlameMental HealthTraumaBetrayalMental IllnessShockControlPtsdPowerlessnessEmotional HealthVictimsVictimhoodTraumatic ExperiencesTraumatizedOut Of ControlVictimizationHigher PurposeVictim BlamingAffectPosttraumatic Stress DisorderBetrayal TraumaTraumaticSelf BlameTraumatic MemoriesHypervigilanceAffect RegulationPosttraumatic StressBetrayal BondTrauma VictimsBetrayal Trauma TheoryRegulate Emotions
Author:Sandra Lee Dennis
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