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I hope none of you are recovering from a traumatic experience. But if that is the case, as an HSP, you need specialized advice. As it happens, I have a friend, Dr. Camille Wortman, who is an expert on trauma, as well as another friend who works with persons who have been in automobile accidents. So I was well prepared when an HSP friend of mine was in one recently. A trauma is defined as "experiencing, witnessing, or being confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others, or learning about an unexpected or violent death, serious harm, or threat of death or injury experienced by a family member or other close associate." "Trauma" is a word often used lightly, so it helps to begin with a definition, this one from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. It is part of the description of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD. If you want to know the symptoms of that you can find it in that book, or in some version based on it on the internet. Not every trauma leads to PTSD, but every trauma does lead to some symptoms like PTSD. It's the quantity and their duration that makes the difference. The problem with trauma for HSPs is that it takes less of an event to affect us because even a minor automobile accident can make us imagine vividly "actual or threatened death or serious injury." My friend was imagining automobile accidents for weeks afterwards—not only the emotional memory of it, but whenever he was driving, the possibility of it happening again. What Happens After a Trauma, Especially to an HSP Basically, after a trauma you will, to some degree, relive the event over and over, have distressing recurring dreams about it as well as intrusive thoughts about it during the day, want to avoid any place or activities that remind you of it, feel emotionally numb and unable to enjoy much, and have increased general arousal. You are jumpy all the time, cannot asleep, or wake in the middle of the night. To count as the actual disorder, at least some symptoms must go on for at least a month and impair your daily life. Whether you have the true disorder does not really matter very much, except perhaps when insurance companies want a diagnosis before they will pay for treatment. And a description of the possible symptoms helps in that you know that others have the same symptoms; you are not "going totally crazy." Although I have done no research on trauma and HSPs, I am certain that we are more vulnerable to being distressed by it, and possibly to the disorder. Even if your reaction does not reach that acute point, as an HSP you will relive the event more vividly than others would, think about it more, focus on how to avoid it happening again, have more vivid dreams about it (because you have more vivid dreams generally), feel more emotional about it, and become more over aroused by all of this. Those are the symptoms, and that's us on high alert, which we switch to more easily than others. Trauma can also lead to depression and anxiety, and we are more vulnerable to these as well, especially if we have had these in the past. My friend was prone to depression and went right into one after his accident. How to Make It Less Traumatic Treatments for PTSD emphasize talking about the experience, especially with others who have been through something similar. Some studies have found, as have I as a therapist, that it helps to talk about the event over and over, even if you do not want to. With my friend, I had to insist that he relive the whole event with me, several times. Each time he surprised himself by suddenly crying. All humans are social beings, who do better when we share feelings freely—cry, rage, have our fear. Our emotions are there mostly to signal our inner state to others. Journaling has also been found to help, although it works better if someone will be reading what you write. I think these expressive treatments work especially well for us because otherwise we will surely be reliving the experience in our heads anyway. But HSPs especially must have the right person listening to them—someone who does not decide after awhile that we are overreacting or now it's time to just get over it. For some the recovery is very slow, and for some it happens almost suddenly one day. Shame about the symptoms can only slow down your return to a sense of being safe enough in the world. That lost sense of safety was partly an illusion, of course, as every HSP knows. After a trauma we can feel that life has changed forever. The world seems full of dangers. How do you enjoy anything? Well, you relearn to, slowly. Theoretically at least, this can actually leave you better prepared to live through a future trauma. You know how it feels and that the emotions do fade. But it is important for you, an HSP, to do all you can to help yourself through the time after a trauma. Otherwise, your own intense HSP response can feel as traumatic as the event was itself. What can you do?
Again, I hope you will never need this advice. But as an HSP, you are more easily traumatized, and you like to be prepared, so remember to retrieve this article when you need it.
November 2007 Articles: A Letter from Elaine
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November 2007 Articles: HSP Living: Something We Do Well—Enjoying the Subtle Pleasures in Life Coping Corner: HSPs and the Accumulation of Birthdays Sensitive (Mental) Health: HSPs and Trauma A Letter from Elaine |
November 2007: Comfort Zone ONLINE