Best Tweets for Trauma Survivors (week ending 03/26/10)

Best Tweets for Trauma 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.

Please add your candidates for Best Tweets For Trauma Survivors in the comments.

Standalone Tweets

@TormentedOne “One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can’t utter.” ~ James Earl Jones

@LillyAnn “Our soul appears .. when we make room for it..” ~ Thomas Moore

@rcinstitute “Soulful Sunday: the soul needs meaningful connections with others; isolation and alienation destroy the soul.”

@TormentedOne “Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.” ~ Anonymous (via @HALO_7)

@Tamavista “Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.” ~ Buddha

@chapin55 “Worry less about whether your thoughts are Positive or Negative. Shoot more for Accurate, Moderate, and Balanced.”

@MindfullyChange “The senses are like a reversible coat. They can go outside to the world, or inside to the soul.” ~ Buddhist proverb

@rcinstitute “Truthful Tuesday: honesty is completely compatible with healthy boundaries.”

@SarahEOlson2009 “It’s one thing to take back your power; it’s being your own person to know when and if to use it. Brava!”

@Tamavista “Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.” ~ D. Waitley

@karenkmmonroy “Having a great imagination isn’t enriching the world if you find reasons to not write, paint, or express your gift.”

@Maura_Aura “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” ~ Carl Gustav Jung

Linked Tweets

@whenmedicine Mental Health America says health reform bill will “greatly expand access to mental health care”

@NIMHgov See all our publications on mental disorders and research.
[SEO: Excellent database of free printable resources.]

@yogini4 Playing Tetris May Reduce PTSD Flashbacks: Video Game May Protect Against Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (via @suite101)

@drcmblake What Good Psychodynamic Therapy Is About
[SEO: Gets to the heart of what a good therapy experience feels like, and what it should be able to do.]

@PsychTimes Commentary: Boundaries and Benefits of Psychotherapy

@psychcentral News TeleTherapy for PTSD Found Effective

@BeyondMeds Meditation may protect your brain
[SEO: I like how hard science keeps proving stuff previously scoffed at by the “pros”.]

@kris_burns 9 Tips For Better Sleep (via Lifehacker.org)

@PTSDdotOrg Body-Mind Therapist, Mindy Fox, Utilizes Neurofeedback to Naturally Retrain the Brain

@DarleneOuimet When Bad Thoughts Wreck Good Feelings ~ Emerging From Broken (via @ssanquist)

@Mindful_Living Finding Hope in the Midst of Depression

@thereseborchard 12 Strategies to Help You Recover From a Relapse

@LisaKiftTherapy How to Make Mindfulness a Habit With Only a Tiny Commitment
[SEO: Raptitude.com is now on my list to explore in greater detail. Thanks Lisa!]

@DrKathleenYoung Mindfulness of Ourselves, Mindfulness of Others

 

Triggers Inform You

Many abuse survivors are hyper-sensitive to things that remind them — or trigger a response in them — of a danger or grievous wrong that happened long ago. It feels fresh, though. It may appear quite innocently, as in a song not heard in years, or a certain smell from the kitchen or someone’s perfume. And if you don’t know why you are feeling it, your confusion and anxiety grow.

I used to run from triggers because I point blank did not wish to feel whatever was triggered yet again. I would put up a wall (literally, inside) to put that “bad” feeling or memory in a locked box. All that negativity was forced inward, and then always seeped into nightmares, inappropriate behaviors, and isolation. To avoid that set of consequences, I would just eat myself numb.

It works until it doesn’t.

Even now, when I’m 99% sure I know why I am being triggered, I zoom into the conditioned responses — which are really counter-productive and frustrating. The overriding need to control my diabetes has been a helpful stop at the “eating myself numb” place. But then I’m stuck with a swirl of feelings which need to be addressed and resolved. Sometimes many, many times, depending on how deep the wound goes.

The wound doesn’t just go away by itself. Facing those fears, and coming to healthy resolution about them, is part of the hard work of therapy. The process really sucks at times, and requires what feels like endless repetition to get it. But the lightness you feel when you get to the other side of it is liberating.