#survivor-trauma-and-resilience
#survivor-trauma-and-resilience

Resilience and Reconstruction in Practice

A long-term approach is essential for supporting displaced individuals, emphasizing identity continuity and meaningful work for resilience.

Mental health

Resilience and Reconstruction: What Now?

Social justice

Resilience and Reconstruction in Practice

A long-term approach is essential for supporting displaced individuals, emphasizing identity continuity and meaningful work for resilience.

Mental health

Resilience and Reconstruction: What Now?

more#forced-displacement

9 hours ago

Where the Resistance Lives

Internal resistance to emotions can block creativity and flow, but confronting difficult thoughts can restore movement and reduce tension.

fromwww.theguardian.com

Always in crisis mode? You might be catastrophizing here's how to stop

Catastrophizing is a cognitive distortion where individuals jump to the worst possible conclusions, often leading to chronic distress and mental health issues.

#adhd

Education

Why So Many Adults With ADHD Still Feel Wounded by School

Neurodivergence and Post-Diagnosis Grief Among Adults

Late diagnosis of ADHD, autism, or dyslexia often leads to 'post-diagnosis grief' among adults, reflecting on lost opportunities and struggles without support.

Education

Why So Many Adults With ADHD Still Feel Wounded by School

Many adults with ADHD carry emotional wounds from school that affect their parenting and self-concept.

Neurodivergence and Post-Diagnosis Grief Among Adults

Late diagnosis of ADHD, autism, or dyslexia often leads to 'post-diagnosis grief' among adults, reflecting on lost opportunities and struggles without support.

Psychology says people who were the emotional anchor for their families rarely experience loneliness as a single event. They experience it as a slow accounting where they realize the support only ever flowed in one direction and nobody designed a return current. - Silicon Canals

Family support often flows in one direction, with one person bearing the emotional load while others remain uninvolved.

Grief, Storytelling, and Identity

The concept album is a response to the brutal murder of Breedlove's father and stepmother at the hands of his stepbrother. The frame—the first song and the last—of the album is about the murders and their aftermath. But this is not a true crime record.

Music production

Artificial intelligence

fromrubyflow.com

8 hours ago

A different kind of tired

AI has transformed the nature of work, making it better and shifting the challenges faced.

Women in technology

fromLos Angeles Times

8 hours ago

Commentary: Why now? Because that's how trauma works. Get over it

Survivors of sexual assault often face skepticism and fear when coming forward, regardless of their status or power.

Careers

Why So Many Young Adults Can't Launch-and How to Help

Action precedes confidence; overthinking hinders young adults from launching their careers.

Medicine

Polyvagal Theory Has Not Been "Debunked"

Polyvagal theory's clinical tools remain valuable despite critiques of its mechanisms, emphasizing the importance of effective frameworks for trauma therapies.

I Didn't Expect to Outlive My Father

Outliving a parent prompts deep reflection on loss, identity, and the meaning of familial connections.

Psychology says the reason some people become gentler as they age while others become bitter has nothing to do with personality. It depends on whether they processed their grief along the way or stored it in their body and called it toughness - Silicon Canals

Grief, especially non-finite losses, significantly influences whether individuals become gentler or more bitter as they age.

Writing

9 hours ago

I Didn't Expect to Outlive My Father

Outliving a parent prompts deep reflection on loss, identity, and the meaning of familial connections.

Psychology says the reason some people become gentler as they age while others become bitter has nothing to do with personality. It depends on whether they processed their grief along the way or stored it in their body and called it toughness - Silicon Canals

Grief, especially non-finite losses, significantly influences whether individuals become gentler or more bitter as they age.

Yom HaShoah and Transgenerational Trauma

Yom HaShoah calls for transforming grief into purpose and confronting inherited trauma with courageous optimism.

Why I Let My Kids See My Sadness Now (After Hiding It for Years) - Tiny Buddha

Embracing vulnerability allows deeper connections with loved ones, as hiding emotions can create barriers instead of fostering understanding and support.

fromMindful

The Gift of Being Alive: A Q&A with Rhonda Magee

Embracing vulnerability and anger is essential for healing and fostering connection in the pursuit of racial justice.

fromTiny Buddha

Why I Let My Kids See My Sadness Now (After Hiding It for Years) - Tiny Buddha

Embracing vulnerability allows deeper connections with loved ones, as hiding emotions can create barriers instead of fostering understanding and support.

fromMindful

fromAlternative Medicine Magazine

The Gift of Being Alive: A Q&A with Rhonda Magee

Embracing vulnerability and anger is essential for healing and fostering connection in the pursuit of racial justice.

Let's Rethink the "Doomer" Label

Labeling AI critics as 'doomers' hinders essential discussions about the technology's risks and impacts on human connection.

Alternative medicine

Tips to Manage Daily Stress

Gen Z and Millennials are experiencing peak stress levels earlier, with burnout common by their 30s, affecting work, sleep, and daily routines.

NewYork-Presbyterian agrees to bolster care for patients in mental health crisis

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital will implement reforms to improve mental health care following a settlement over inadequate patient supervision.

The Promise of the New National Mental Illness Justice Center

Severe mental illnesses require proper treatment and should not be labeled as 'behavioral health' conditions.

fromFast Company

Why the future of mental healthcare is team-based

Team-based care improves mental health treatment outcomes by integrating multidisciplinary teams to address complex conditions effectively.

A New Master's Degree Helps Improve Global Mental Health

Global mental health awareness is increasing, but significant gaps in services and cultural acceptance persist worldwide.

Healthcare

fromGothamist

NewYork-Presbyterian agrees to bolster care for patients in mental health crisis

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital will implement reforms to improve mental health care following a settlement over inadequate patient supervision.

The Promise of the New National Mental Illness Justice Center

Severe mental illnesses require proper treatment and should not be labeled as 'behavioral health' conditions.

fromFast Company

Why the future of mental healthcare is team-based

Team-based care improves mental health treatment outcomes by integrating multidisciplinary teams to address complex conditions effectively.

A New Master's Degree Helps Improve Global Mental Health

Global mental health awareness is increasing, but significant gaps in services and cultural acceptance persist worldwide.

If you want to get something done, hire a cancer patient

Cancer patients can and do work during treatment, challenging the stereotype that they are too fragile to maintain employment.

Psychology says people who describe themselves as self-sufficient aren't always describing a strength. Sometimes they're describing the scar tissue that formed where the need for other people used to be, and they've carried it so long they genuinely mistake the numbness for peace. - Silicon Canals

Self-reliance is often mistaken for strength, but true strength includes the ability to seek help and share vulnerabilities.

18 hours ago

I'm 66 and I recently understood that the reason I find it so hard to ask for help is not independence - it is the very specific and very old belief that needing something from another person is the first step toward becoming a burden, and a burden, in the house I grew up in, was the one thing nobody was allowed to be - Silicon Canals

Independence can often mask fear, leading to a reluctance to ask for help and a belief that needing assistance is a weakness.

7 hours ago

Psychology says people who describe themselves as self-sufficient aren't always describing a strength. Sometimes they're describing the scar tissue that formed where the need for other people used to be, and they've carried it so long they genuinely mistake the numbness for peace. - Silicon Canals

Self-reliance is often mistaken for strength, but true strength includes the ability to seek help and share vulnerabilities.

18 hours ago

I'm 66 and I recently understood that the reason I find it so hard to ask for help is not independence - it is the very specific and very old belief that needing something from another person is the first step toward becoming a burden, and a burden, in the house I grew up in, was the one thing nobody was allowed to be - Silicon Canals

Independence can often mask fear, leading to a reluctance to ask for help and a belief that needing assistance is a weakness.

People who go quiet when they're angry and then resolve it internally without ever bringing it up aren't emotionally mature. They've done the math on every confrontation and concluded that the cost of being heard has never once been lower than the cost of absorbing it alone. - Silicon Canals

Emotional maturity often misinterprets silence as resolution, overlooking the cost of expressing anger versus the cost of internalizing it.

The Quiet War on Your Happiness, and How to Win It

A quiet war on happiness is fought through distractions that pull attention away from the present moment.

Careers

fromEntrepreneur

17 hours ago

3 Hard Lessons I Learned From Saying 'Yes' Before I Felt Ready

Effort is often the only qualification needed for opportunities.

Medicine

fromTODAY.com

After a Traumatic Brain Injury, One Family Found Hope in a Pair of Lululemon Pants

A mother faced her son's traumatic brain injury after a car accident, refusing to give up hope despite grim medical recommendations.

Philosophy

When Leaders Go to War, Their Psychology Goes With Them

Narcissistic leaders often emerge due to fragile egos, leading to decisions that prioritize self-preservation over the well-being of others.

Why We Stay in Relationships That Subtly Erode Us

Incrementally diminishing relationships persist due to human attachment to unpredictability and familiarity, despite emotional neglect and pain.

fromSlate Magazine

My Wife Is Struggling With a Very Basic Part of Parenting. I Can't Keep Swooping In to Save Her!

Managing emotional responses in parenting is crucial for effective problem-solving with young children.

Education

Using Human Kindness as a Shield Against School Violence

Billions are wasted on ineffective security measures for schools instead of investing in mental health resources and social support systems.

13 hours ago

The person who thrives during a crisis and falls apart during ordinary weeks isn't broken. Their entire operating system was built for emergencies, and peace registers as a system error because they never learned what competence feels like without urgency underneath it. - Silicon Canals

Crisis-thrivers are often dysregulated, struggling with normalcy after emergencies, revealing a deeper issue with their nervous system's response to stress.

17 hours ago

Psychology says people who grew up in the 1960s and 70s don't handle hardship better than everyone else because they are stronger - they handle it better because they were never offered the alternative, and a person who was never offered the alternative develops a relationship with difficulty that people who were offered it spend their whole lives trying to build in a gym - Silicon Canals

Struggling is a norm for my generation because we never knew life could be comfortable.

10 hours ago

The people who forgive quickly and the people who forgive slowly are not experiencing the same emotion. Quick forgiveness is often a nervous system releasing a threat. Slow forgiveness is a mind rebuilding a model of someone it can no longer predict. - Silicon Canals

Forgiveness is a complex process influenced by biological and psychological factors, not simply a choice between letting go or holding grudges.

Are You Betraying Your Future Self?

Future self feels like a stranger, leading to overcommitment and lack of fulfillment in life choices.

Philosophy

The Radical Act of Listening to Understand

Listening to understand fosters connection and reveals shared experiences, bridging divides in communication.

The people who become the calmest adults are almost never the ones who had calm childhoods. They're the ones who grew up in houses where someone else's mood was the weather, and they learned to regulate the entire room before they ever learned to regulate themselves. - Silicon Canals

Children from chaotic homes can develop heightened emotional awareness and calmness, contrary to the belief that such environments only produce turbulence.

When Trauma Awareness Stops at the Hospital Door

Chronic health conditions significantly impact psychological well-being, yet healthcare providers often neglect this aspect for both patients and themselves.

8 hours ago

The Courage to Not Know Yet

Fast decisions driven by fear limit perspective; slowing down reveals values and leads to better long-term choices.

18 hours ago

Psychology says the people who age most visibly aren't the ones with the hardest lives - they're the ones who never learned to put things down, who carried every disappointment and every grievance and every unfairness forward into the next decade, and the carrying shows, eventually, in ways that no amount of sleep or skincare has ever been shown to address - Silicon Canals

Chronic psychological stress and the inability to release emotional burdens accelerate aging and impact physical appearance.

#relationship-dynamics

The Surprising Truth About Partners Who Never Argue

Conflict-free relationships may indicate underlying issues rather than compatibility, as open discussions about differences strengthen bonds.

Too Sensitive-Or Just Right?

Push-pull cycles in relationships can be intensified by trauma, requiring both partners to recognize and take responsibility for change.

The Surprising Truth About Partners Who Never Argue

Conflict-free relationships may indicate underlying issues rather than compatibility, as open discussions about differences strengthen bonds.

more#relationship-dynamics

Too Sensitive-Or Just Right?

Push-pull cycles in relationships can be intensified by trauma, requiring both partners to recognize and take responsibility for change.

Why You Are Harder on Yourself Than Anyone Else

Accountability involves recognizing mistakes without self-blame or harsh judgment.

Coping With Climate Change Anxiety

Anxiety is a normal response to real threats like climate change, serving a protective function.

Why High-Functioning Adults Often Feel Anxious

High-functioning individuals often experience anxiety despite external success and competence, struggling to relax and feel regulated.

Mental health

Conquering Social Anxiety: The Courage to Reach Out

9 hours ago

Coping With Climate Change Anxiety

Anxiety is a normal response to real threats like climate change, serving a protective function.

Why High-Functioning Adults Often Feel Anxious

High-functioning individuals often experience anxiety despite external success and competence, struggling to relax and feel regulated.

Conquering Social Anxiety: The Courage to Reach Out

Power and wealth do not shield individuals from anxiety or shame; honesty can lead to healing.

Bridging the Gap From Here to Your Future Self

Imagining a future self strengthens connections to values and enhances life choices by tracing continuity from past to future.

EMDR in a World HyperFocused on Healing

EMDR is an evidence-based trauma therapy that helps reorganize fragmented experiences, leading to significant reductions in trauma symptoms.

Healing From Our Trauma Helps Shape Future Generations

Healing breaks generational trauma patterns and transforms relational dynamics and biology.

When Should We Be Over Our Trauma?

Healing from trauma is a complex process influenced by support, safety, and resources, not merely time.

Why Shame Is Central in Trauma

Shame is a central emotion in trauma, particularly interpersonal trauma, affecting healing and self-worth.

Mental health

How Trauma Hijacks Your Brain (and How EMDR Can Help)

3 weeks ago

Mental health

The Lie Trauma Tells: 'No One Understands You'

Mental health

Stop Playing Whac-A-Mole With Trauma

Healing From Our Trauma Helps Shape Future Generations

Healing breaks generational trauma patterns and transforms relational dynamics and biology.

When Should We Be Over Our Trauma?

Healing from trauma is a complex process influenced by support, safety, and resources, not merely time.

Why Shame Is Central in Trauma

Shame is a central emotion in trauma, particularly interpersonal trauma, affecting healing and self-worth.

How Trauma Hijacks Your Brain (and How EMDR Can Help)

Trauma rewires key brain regions, affecting emotional responses and treatment effectiveness for survivors.

3 weeks ago

The Lie Trauma Tells: 'No One Understands You'

Terminal uniqueness can hinder trauma survivors from seeking support, making connection with empathetic individuals essential for healing.

Mental health

Stop Playing Whac-A-Mole With Trauma

Respect Is a Gift, Never a Demand

Respect is a response to ethical behavior, not an entitlement that can be demanded or claimed.

The friend who always checks in on everyone but never tells anyone when they're struggling isn't hiding. They've simply never had the experience of someone noticing without being told, and after long enough, the idea of being spontaneously seen starts to feel like something that happens to other people. - Silicon Canals

Being the emotional caretaker in friendships can lead to neglecting one's own emotional needs and feelings.

Psychology says people who've mastered not caring aren't detached - they went through a period of caring so much it nearly broke them, and came out the other side with a much shorter list - Silicon Canals

Mastering the art of not caring comes from exhaustion, not indifference, after deeply caring and learning what deserves emotional energy.

The friend who always checks in on everyone but never tells anyone when they're struggling isn't hiding. They've simply never had the experience of someone noticing without being told, and after long enough, the idea of being spontaneously seen starts to feel like something that happens to other people. - Silicon Canals

Being the emotional caretaker in friendships can lead to neglecting one's own emotional needs and feelings.

Psychology says people who've mastered not caring aren't detached - they went through a period of caring so much it nearly broke them, and came out the other side with a much shorter list - Silicon Canals

Mastering the art of not caring comes from exhaustion, not indifference, after deeply caring and learning what deserves emotional energy.

more#emotional-health

Psychology says the adults most likely to end up in therapy aren't the ones who had dramatic or obviously painful childhoods - they're the ones who grew up in households where everything was technically fine, nobody was cruel, and something essential was quietly missing in a way that took decades to find the words for - Silicon Canals

Emotional neglect in seemingly fine childhoods can have profound effects, leaving individuals feeling their inner world doesn't matter.

Positive Beliefs About Aging Can Influence Wellness

Recent discoveries reveal that positive beliefs about aging can improve cognitive and physical functions in older adults.

17 hours ago

The underrated value of rest - Silicon Canals

Prioritizing rest can significantly enhance creativity, patience, and overall well-being, challenging the misconception that rest is for the lazy.

13 hours ago

Science Confirms How to Connect to Something Greater at Work

Spirituality in the workplace fosters connection and fulfillment, addressing disconnection and burnout among workers.

Becoming Comfortable With Discomfort

Comfort can hinder personal growth by creating avoidance of necessary discomfort and challenges.

The person in your life who never complains and handles everything isn't at peace - they learned so early that expressing a need cost them something that they stopped expressing needs entirely - Silicon Canals

Being perceived as 'low maintenance' can lead to neglecting personal needs and emotional struggles.

Neuroscience reveals that the calmest person in any crisis isn't naturally fearless - their brain learned to delay panic because their childhood required them to be functional before they were allowed to be afraid - Silicon Canals

Calmness under pressure is a learned response, not merely a personality trait or temperament.

You Are Not a Project to Be Improved

Self-improvement can lead to anxiety and disconnection from genuine human connection.

Developing True Resilience: Think Like a Scientist

Resilience is a set of skills developed over time through encountering difficulties, not a static trait.

2 months ago

Mindfulness

Like Water, We Heal

Developing True Resilience: Think Like a Scientist

Resilience is a set of skills developed over time through encountering difficulties, not a static trait.

2 months ago

Mindfulness

Like Water, We Heal

Is Believing You're Burned Out Burning You Out?

Burnout is often misdiagnosed and may be more preventable than perceived.

Resentment Resolution: Free Yourself From Emotional Burdens

Resentment is a persistent feeling of unfair treatment that links past offenses, leading to a degenerative emotional state.

fromMindful

Being Courageous About Change: Mindful Guidance on the Proactive Pivot

Proactive pivoting involves making changes before they are necessary, requiring courage and strength to overcome resistance to change.

Psychology says adults who have no close friends aren't necessarily antisocial or unlikable. Many of them learned in childhood that being vulnerable leads to pain, and they grew up assuming that keeping people at a distance is safer - Silicon Canals

Many people appear self-sufficient but struggle with deep-seated fears of vulnerability due to early attachment experiences.

I'm 37 and I've already learned the hard way that self-worth takes time, healing isn't linear, and letting go is painful while you're learning to move forward - Silicon Canals

Carrying emotional weight from the past hinders self-worth; true self-worth is built internally, not through external validation.

fromwww.theguardian.com

After her remission from cancer, Christine's friends abandoned her just when she needed them most | Bianca Denny

Support often diminishes after cancer remission, leaving survivors like Christine feeling abandoned and struggling with their psychological wellbeing.

Time-Outs Work, if We Can Learn to Do Them Right

Well-implemented time-outs lead to positive outcomes and healthier relationships in adults who experienced them as children.

Brain Injury May Reverse Pre-Injury Trauma Work

Brain injury often reactivates unresolved traumas, necessitating neurostimulation therapies and cognitive empathy for healing.

Grief, Loss, Abundance, Joy: Finding Refuge in Harsh Times

Acceptance of loss is essential for emotional balance and finding solace in nature can help mitigate distress.

When Therapy Explains Before It Understands

Therapists may misinterpret clients' experiences by relying on familiar frameworks, potentially overlooking genuine feelings and differences.

Do You Have to Be Healed to Be Whole?

Childhood trauma leaves lasting imprints; healing involves integration and acknowledging the past as an act of self-compassion.

Why Hypersensitivity Is an Emotional Superpower

Highly sensitive individuals process emotions deeply, which can be a strength in understanding social cues and empathy.

Psychology says people who apologize constantly without realizing it are more damaged than they appear - because they internalize blame and absorb conflict, a survival response from childhood, which never switches off even when they're safe - Silicon Canals

Excessive apologizing often stems from childhood experiences of mistreatment and can lead to chronic self-blame in adulthood.

Why Healing Yourself Can Trigger Survivor's Guilt

Healing can create survivor's guilt when it distances individuals from dysfunctional loved ones.

The Impact of Detached Reactions to Tragedy

Detached responses to tragedy lower accountability and hinder empathy, while specific, caring responses promote genuine concern and action.

Is Searching for Memories of Childhood Trauma Helpful?

Understanding suffering through trauma is appealing but can distract from the need for compassion and treatment regardless of its cause.

People who go quiet when they're hurt instead of raising their voice learned somewhere very early that their anger wasn't received as information. It was received as an inconvenience. So they stopped sending the signal and started absorbing the damage, and they've been doing it so long they sometimes mistake silence for calm - Silicon Canals

Silence during conflict often indicates deeper emotional pain rather than composure or passive aggression.

fromwww.theguardian.com

I'm seeing more people in therapy struggling with war-related anxiety. Here's what helps | Ahona Guha

Global events have led to widespread feelings of doom and a sense of globalized trauma affecting societal perceptions of safety and predictability.

Still Waiting to Hear "You Were Right"?

The desire for validation stems from past neglect and devaluation, creating a painful emotional wound that seeks recognition and worth.

Remembering an Angel With a Traumatic Brain Injury

Laura, despite severe brain damage, radiated joy and built meaningful connections with caregivers, enriching their lives through her infectious spirit.

3 weeks ago

How to Let Go of the Need to Say "I Told You So"

The urge to say 'I told you so' stems from unmet validation needs rather than genuine helpfulness, and resisting this impulse through the observing self demonstrates psychological maturity and protects relationships.

4 weeks ago

When Trauma Still Hurts: Memory Rescripting

Memory rescripting, a trauma-focused technique developed in the 1990s, enabled successful treatment of agoraphobia in a patient who refused traditional exposure therapy despite being an ideal CBT candidate.

The hardest part of healing isn't facing what happened to you. It's grieving the version of yourself that had to exist because of it. - Silicon Canals

Therapy's hardest work involves grieving the adaptive self—the survival identity you constructed—rather than confronting initial trauma, requiring surrender rather than courage.