AIM to Get Better Blogs

  AIM TO GET BETTER BLOG #2:   LEARNING TO MANAGE TRAUMATIC MEMORIES / FLASHBACKS   1. Quickly identify when you have been triggered We all experience triggering in different ways. Some people may experience severe anxiety or a panic attack. Some may have a compulsion to run away. Others may suddenly display seemingly uncontrollable anger. For me, a single interaction could cause me to change in an instant from feeling OK and in control to feeling completely overwhelmed, unable to stop crying and having a very strong compulsion to self-harm, or even have suicidal thoughts. At other times, I can go into “freeze” mode – I feel as if I am going under a general anaesthetic; I can still hear voices around me, but I feel so detached I am unable to respond.   Some people may start reliving a memory from the past as if it is actually happening now. The first step in learning to take back control of these situations is to identify how you respond when you h...

  UNDERSTANDING TRAUMATIC MEMORY AND WHY PEOPLE GET “TRIGGERED” There are two bits of our brain that are responsible for memory.   First, the hippocampus, which is in the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is the most advanced part of our brain and the most recent to evolve. It is the thinking, logical bit, that enables us to calculate, problem solve, organise incoming information, process it and create new information and ideas from it. It is the part of our brain that enables us to function in complex social groups, by learning that, if I behave in one way, it will initiate one kind of response from another person (for example, if I smile at someone they are likely to smile back), but if I behave in a different way, I am likely to get a different response (for example, if I am aggressive towards someone, they may behave aggressively towards me, or retreat from me). It is where my “impulse control switch” stops me from behaving in ways that could have severe consequen...