Best Tweets for Trauma and PTSD Survivors is a weekly Friday feature. My selections are entirely subjective, and I know it will never be possible to include every great resource tweeted. But I can try! I’ve personally read all tweeted links, and believe them to be of great value.
Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for content found on any other website. Stay safe, and don’t follow links if you believe you might be triggered by them. Also, I will not be re-checking links from older Best Tweets posts, and if the site’s archived URL is different from the one I’ve provided here, you may need to do a search on their site.
NEW and REALLY COOL: You can now “like” and “share” this post everywhere with the touch of a button or two at the end of the linked tweets! Feel free to do any or all of that! (And thanks.)
Photo Credit
@MichelePTSD “Our sorrows and wounds are healed only
when we touch them with compassion.” ~ Buddha
Six Standalone Tweets to Ponder
@karenkmmonroy “Imagine when you exhale a breath, you can send a blessing of healing into the world — and it matters.”
@lizstrauss “Don’t give with an expectation attached. That’s not giving … that’s passive-aggressive demanding.”
@zebraspolkadots “I’d always had emotions; I’d been taught to deny them so anything other than my ‘normal’ was seen as excessive.”
@AnnTran_ “To become learned, each day add something. To become enlightened, each day drop something.” ~ Lao Tzu
@RyanEliason “What you can do or think you can do, begin it. For boldness has magic, power and genius in it.” ~ Goethe
@rcinstitute “SoulfulSunday: ignore the care and feeding of your soul at your own peril.”
Linked Tweets
@DeborahSerani Top 50 blogs by psychology professionals (via @ssanquist)
[SEO: Categories: General Psychology; Forensic Psychologists; School Psychologists; Child and Developmental Psychologists; and Other Specialties. (Congrats to Dr. Deborah Serani for being included at #42!)
@counsellingnews Feeling the blues? Here’s a comprehensive list of free educational resources from @beyondblueorg
[SEO: Literally hundreds of free, downloadable guides, worksheets, and fact sheets pertaining to just about every aspect of depression. Most documents are in .PDF format.]
@therapynews Guided Imagery – A Simple yet Powerful Technique for Mind-Body Health
[SEO: Explains what guided imagery consists of and how it may be beneficial. “‘Guided imagery’ is a technique in which a person is literally guided on a journey of the mind, usually with the purpose of enhancing positive feelings and thoughts, and decreasing feelings of distress, failure, or worry.” Years ago I used a guided imagery CD (and regret its loss in moving across country) to relax and sleep better. A very soothing, steady man’s voice, accompanied by music and nature sounds, guided me into a meadow, and showed me how to release my troubles in a ball of light. Yes, it sounds hokey, but I did not hear the end of the tape till about the 20th time — because I was falling fast asleep long before the tape ended every time! I was then in the earliest, scariest aspects of therapy, and good sleep was rare.
Having said that, this post offers a warning: “Those who have experienced significant trauma should see a qualified mental health professional before engaging in this process. Additionally, people who tend to dissociate, have had psychotic episodes, or whose anxiety tends to increase when they attempt to relax may benefit from other approaches either first or instead of guided imagery.” Talk with your therapist about this first, and ask for recommendations of specific CDs. I actually believe it was my ability to dissociate that allowed me to utilize the CD, but we’re all different, so be careful.]
@Care4Anorexics Self Help for Self Esteem
[SEO: A comprehensive look at how self esteem is created, operates, is wounded, and is restored. Provides a Self Esteem Quick Reference Sheet (PDF), and other helpful tools to work on improving your self esteem.]
@psychcentral Mindful Living Blog: To Seek Approval is to Seek Dependence
[SEO: Illustrates how seeking approval can begin at seemingly small points that gather steam along the way. “Lesson learned: to seek approval is to seek dependence; to seek dependence is to lose your sense of self.”]
@therapynews Chronic Pain – All in Your Head?
[SEO: Trauma survivors often are dealing with both physical and mental/emotional pain. Whether the physical pain is directly related to the source of trauma or not, the physical pain exacts a price in trying to cope with the mental/emotional pain. (I am sooo in this place these last few years.) This article addresses the issue that people with chronic pain are often not treated by medical professionals with compassion or understanding. The doctor either doesn’t know how to deal with it, or wants someone else to dispense controlled substances, or actually tells you ‘it’s in your head’. “There is no question that chronic pain has emotional repercussions. Depression and anxiety are common among pain patients, especially those whose pain is not managed adequately.”]
@DrBeckerSchutte Are You Hiding Your Pain? (via @ssanquist)
[SEO: Discusses ways in which we mask or try to hide the pain we feel, and how heavy a burden that mask becomes. “If you are hiding pain, if you are living behind a mask, I ask you what do you risk by allowing yourself to feel some of that pain? Does it feel like you will lose all control if you feel it? Do you feel like it will overcome you? I have felt that way before… and the truth is, it might overcome you for a while, but if you have support in line (a counselor, a therapist, a trusted pastor or friend) you can trust yourself to feel that pain and move through it. It may be a process, perhaps a long one, but in my experience moving through it always leads to a better place.”]
@DeborahSerani Acceptance and Commitment Therapy | Psychology Today
[SEO: Describes the basics of and strategy behind Acceptance and Commitment therapy. “ACT focuses on 3 areas: Accept your reactions and be present; Choose a valued direction; and Take action. … Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is not a long term treatment. The ACT experience of reworking your verbal connections to thoughts and feelings, known as comprehensive distancing, can be extremely helpful in the treatment of depression, anxiety and many other psychological disorders.”]
@PsychologyNow 12 Steps to Break Your Addiction to a Person
[SEO: (FYI, this is not in reference to any 12 step program.) “In his book, ‘How to Break Your Addiction to a Person’, Howard Halpern first explains what an addictive relationship is, then gives guidelines for recognizing if you’re involved in one. Then, he offers several techniques on how to end an unhealthy relationship (or an emotional affair).” The post author lists the 12 main techniques referenced in Halpern’s book, including excerpts and some exercises.]
@njsmyth Faking Being Happy Makes You Miserable (study) (via @ssanquist)
[SEO: Well, hmm. This needs more study! 🙂 The gist of it is, faking being happy when you’re not makes you feel worse, while cultivating pleasant thoughts that make you feel happier does not make you more miserable. It makes sense; it’s linked to one’s own sense of authenticity. But I’d like to see a study that works with trauma survivors instead of bus drivers because (1) there is a built-in pressure for us to “get over it” or “don’t worry, be happy” mentality; and (2) it wouldn’t be linked to a single profession, which limits the discussion pretty much to “job dissatisfaction”. Your thoughts?]
@thereseborchard Therapy Thursday: You Can’t Unlearn It
[SEO: “My therapist swears to me that you can’t unlearn your progress. And I’m holding her to it. She says that just because you have a day or week or year where you flop on building better personal boundaries, or silencing the inner critic, or identifying and replacing the old tapes, that you still have all the right stuff inside. You haven’t lost any of it.”]
Third of a Lifetime 