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hey there everybody and welcome to this video on how trauma changes your thinking I'm your host Dr Donnelly Snipes
anytime you experience something your brain creates a memory that memory is used to
help you in the future predict what will happen think about stop lights for example
probably when you were two didn't know what a stoplight was but as you experienced interactions
with stop lights you saw your parents stop at a red light you started to recognize that the
stoplight means you need to stop you started to recognize that the light is going going to
go from Green to Yellow to red and you can anticipate what is getting ready to happen
plane crashes now this is one that can be taken out of context for example because there are
tens of thousands of flights that happen every single day and happen without incident people
arrive safely no problem at all but the ones we hear about are the crashes they are the outliers
so when we hear about it we think oh my gosh flying must be really dangerous and because
we don't have all of the facts we are basing our interpretation of what's going on on feelings not
facts so we may filter that in the back of our head or store that in the back of our head that
memory as planes are dangerous when in reality they're not they're they're actually quite safe
so it's important to think about experiences that you've had in the past and how they shape
your thinking about similar experiences in the future if you experience trauma at the hands of
someone you trusted then that can make you have difficulty trusting others in the future if you
experienced victimization violent crime when you were walking in the parking garage to go
to your car to go home then you're going to have a different perspective or a different
interpretation of your safety and parking garages than other people might so it's
important to recognize that your history impacts the way you interpret the world
your brain says okay been here before this is what I remember this is what we need to do
unfortunately events that are dangerous are or threatening are given more weight or what they
call salience so they seem more probable like the plane crashes or the person you hear about that
gets robbed in the parking garage or whatever now again parking garages thousands of people tens of
thousands of people go in and out of parking garages without incident every single day
but the ones we hear about are the traumatic ones so it's important to make sure that you
get all of the facts but it's also important to recognize if you're in a situation and you are
feeling anxious your brain is telling you that there might be a threat and that's when it's
important to get curious and say why am I thinking why do I believe that there might be a threat here
when you've experienced trauma it impacts how you perceive your safety it impacts who
you think is safe and a lot of people who've experienced trauma not only lose the ability
to feel safe around others but they also lose the ability to trust themselves they don't even
feel like they're safe anymore because their judgment in Prior situations was
such that they became a victim in some way now it's important to process that and recognize that
you know again think about the parking garage hundreds of thousands of people go in and out
of parking garages every day so there was no reason for you to expect that it was going
to be dangerous for you on that particular day so it's important to process using facts
what is and is not safe and your part in it
and most times most times it was not your fault you did not have a part in it
um you know if you're driving and texting at the same time and you get into a car accident okay in
that particular situation it may have been your fault but in most instances it's not your fault
if you were a child or even an adult and you trusted someone else you felt like you could
trust them for some reason and they betrayed you all right well based on all the facts and evidence
and information you had they were trustworthy you are not unsafe your understanding and your
information was inaccurate in that particular situation and needs to be adjusted a little bit
likewise trauma affects how you perceive your safety in places where is safe so not only who is
safe but where is safe are you safe in your home are you safe in your neighborhood are you safe
driving to work are you safe on the bus you know I can go on but it depending on your experiences
you're going to have different perceptions and these traumas don't necessarily need to
be personal traumas you can see things that are happening on TV you can see the news and you
can see the upsurgence of violence in stores and different places and start thinking to yourself
hey maybe it's not safe to be in these places but it's important to back that up with facts again
you may have a bank that gets robbed unfortunately you know it happens occasionally but how many tens
of thousands of banks never get robbed how many people went in and out of the bank without problem
so yes on that particular day it was and that particular context it was unsafe so what can
you do in the future so you feel safe going into a bank for example um what can you do so you feel
safe with your new knowledge you don't want to throw out all the old knowledge and say no bank
is ever safe or no store is ever safe because that is a feeling that's a decision based on a
Feeling not on facts so it's important to get the facts and then adjust it saying okay well
I can't say that this is always safe but I can't say that it's never safe so what can
I do so when I go to the store when I go to the bank when I'm driving to work so I can feel safe
it's important to recognize that our memories shape how we interpret things and a lot of times
trauma memories because they involved a threat are Global stable and internal so you may start
thinking all people everywhere are unsafe so Global is all and everywhere stable is this
is the way it is this is the way it always will be not this was a unfortunate Moment In Time an
internal says that it pertains to the person you know all people are unsafe or all environments are
unsafe all banks are unsafe and that's not true so you want to look at your attributions or the
way you're thinking about somebody something and see if you can make it more specific changeable
and external so specific in this situation at this time or this person or place is unsafe
right now now maybe in the future let's stick with the bank as long as we're vilifying Banks
maybe in this situation at this time the bank was unsafe well banks are going to react they don't
want that to happen again because they don't want to lose business and they don't want to lose money
so they are probably going to react to that situation by increasing security
so while that bank was not safe on that particular day in the future
they the bank can adapt the bank can change same thing with people people who are in active
addiction are often not safe to be around they are not safe to trust however when they're in
recovery they are often uh changed in the way they think and they often are much safer to be around
trauma also impacts our ability to see goodness in people and the world you may it may impact
your ability to think you are a good person you may look at what happened whether it was
a trauma you caused a car accident because you were texting and driving for example or
something happened to you and now you feel like you are broken or damaged goods and that impacts
how you feel about your goodness as a person so it's important to look at that and separate
behaviors from who you are you're a good person who made a mistake if you caused the car accident
and separate things that are out of your control like being a victim from things that are in your
control being a good person um is within your control that situation was out of your control
and your perception about whether other people are essentially good
do you look out your window do you go to the store do you look around and see people and assume
that you know generally people are good they can make bad choices really bad choices but
generally they are good or do you look at other people and you just see danger everywhere
after a trauma you may experience a lot of anger shame and distrust of others and yourselves and
that kind of goes back to safety like we were talking about but you feel unsafe when you think
people are evil when you think situations are evil or bad and so it's important to recognize
that part of feeling safe may involve recognizing the goodness in some people so we're talking about
that attribution again it's not Global you can't say that everyone everywhere is always a good
person that's not accurate we'd love it to be but it's not in order to start feeling safer in order
to start recognizing the goodness in yourself and other people it's important to explore what is
motivating or continuing to cause feelings of anger shame and distrust you want to start working
on developing love and compassion self-esteem you know feeling that you're a good person
and trust in yourself and others and you're not just going to Dole out trust like candy people
have to earn your trust but it is possible so developing those skills so you can allow people
the opportunity to prove to you that they are good is going to be helpful in the recovery process
predictability is also thrown out the window in trauma you don't ever predict or anticipate that
something bad is going to happen um I shouldn't say you don't ever you may but predictability is
important for a lot of people we like to have some element of control like when a tornadoes
are coming through Tennessee we have them a lot and it's predictably unpredictable I know there
are certain times a year we're probably going to have more bad storms but I never know whether that
tornado is going to come to my neighborhood or not and that is really anxiety provoking that
involves a lot of unpredictability which causes distress it's important to remember that life
and and Trauma are unpredictable but when you've experienced trauma a lot of times you say well
it's safer or I can pretty much count on the worst thing happening and that
sets you into a negative spiral where you're regularly nearly always expecting the worst
it's important to think about how lack of predictability or unpredictability impacts
your feelings a lot of times it causes anxiety for people they're living in the future we'll stick
with the tornadoes for the minute when we start coming to tornado season in Tennessee or heck any
time there's inclement weather um expected my anxiety goes up a little bit and that's
me thinking in the future what if what if this happens and it's important for me to rein that in
and say what do I know what are the facts in this context at this time there might be a possibility
of a tornado okay that's a fact can't control that it could come through this way can't control that
either but I don't know that it will so getting all worked up assuming that bad things are going
to happen is going to be counterproductive what I want to do is use that energy to be mindful and
prepared based on the facts in the current context and the probability of bad things happening so FCP
facts context probability what are the facts in this situation given the current context
and what's the probability that the worst case scenario is actually going to happen
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after a trauma people's sense of personal power is also impacted and I know a lot
of these seem similar and they are but they're also slightly different
trauma causes a temporary loss of personal power it happened you can't change it and
you couldn't stop it so people start feeling vulnerable and Powerless remember we've talked
in other videos about how the key aspects of trauma are feeling unsafe and Powerless
regaining your sense of personal power is going to be important but after you're
knocked down by whatever that trauma is you may feel like you got the wind knocked out if
you you may it may take you a minute to get your power back to get back up on your feet
you need to end up choosing are you going to embrace powerlessness and stay down on the mat
or are you going to be resilient to and change the things you can
and cope with the things you cannot change and that's really difficult but recognizing personal
power doesn't mean controlling everything all the time it means recognizing what you can't control
and then figuring out how you can cope with or accept those things that are out of your control
your brain changes the way you think after a trauma it takes that experience
and encodes it it writes a chapter in your in your history that says okay this is what
happened and these were the consequences and we don't ever want to do that again
unfortunately those that information that chapter continues to influence your future thinking
until you start addressing it until you start recognizing how the present is different than the
past how you're different now than you were in the past and addressing some of those thinking errors
to help yourself feel safe and empowered until you regain that sense of safety and empowerment you're
likely going to continue to use trauma thinking that fear-based anxiety-based state of mind
likewise the longer you use trauma thinking the longer you will continue feeling unsafe
and Powerless and that really drains your stress response and actually causes inflammation and
stress related problems it's no good it's important to recognize the function of your
autopilot the function of those memories that your brain stores for you is to help you survive then
become mindful of your thoughts and evaluate their accuracy based on the facts in the current context