Trauma and PTSD Therapy and Counseling in Boise, Idaho
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Life can be very challenging and I half kiddingly say to clients, “No one gets out of childhood unscathed.” Most of us have had some form of trauma in the past that has adversely impacted our lives and has continued to impact us. It is quite common for many of the problem issues in peoples’ lives (depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, chaotic relationships, substance abuse, depression, anxiety, impulsivity, etc.) to be the result of traumatic experiences earlier in their lives. Many of these issues are either reactions to the trauma or attempts to cope with or avoid the trauma. Even though most of the time the danger no longer exists, when our primitive mind continues to read our memory of the traumatic event as still happening or may happen again in the near future, it spends a lot of time, thought, and emotion working to keep you safe. However, these safety mechanisms keep the person on guard, having nightmares, avoiding people, places, and things, feeling anxious and depressed, etc. This tends to create a lot of confusion for people because they will “know” that they are safe and that it is in the past, but if the primitive mind doesn’t realize this then it will keep responding in a defensive manner. If a person “knows'' one thing, but the primitive mind believes another, the primitive mind always wins. Once the primitive mind understands that you are truly safe then what you know and what you feel align resulting in peace and calm.
