Trauma and the Brain

They have produced this animation to help you in your work with service users who have experienced GBV, and to help more professionals to understand the affects of abuse.

[kameliaamar]

I want you to pause and to thank yourself. You’re still here, you’re fighting and you’re trying to cope. You’re trying your best to resolve your trauma, so thank yourself for doing so. Don’t be mean to yourself, you’re trying your best ❤️ and I know not everybody understands your behaviors and your feelings, but that’s because they don’t have the same past as you ! You’re extremely courageous, never forget that !!! and I want you to be proud of yourself. Just know that I understand you and I love you, fellow human. Don’t you worry, just keep trying, everything will eventually fall in place and you’ll feel better soon. ❤️❤️❤️

[MargaretBrowngeekbytes]

It is like a living nightmare that you have to experience alone. You have to put on your everything's normal face and try to cope. It sucks and I hope this video makes people understand what it's like. It's not a light switch you can just turn on or off.

[ML-pnns]

As a child growing up witnessing my mother being beaten by my father, I was numb. So numb. It only took me 7 years later in university, to acknowledge that I was indeed traumatized. I was regaining memories; both positive and negative only as an adult that my childhood self had repressed. Watching videos like these videos to scientifically figure out about what had happened to me psychologically is REALLY difficult, because I just start crying no matter how many times I acknowledge that it has happened. Its emotionally draining as it leaves me thinking about it the whole day. But, this decision to study it as a self-learning path to recovery is worth it. That way I will finally understand why I am, me today.

[phanda]

Wow, this explains why memory is decreased in a traumatic event. Thank you for making such a complicated effect understandable, thus hopefully, leading to a more compassionate response in those of us working with people who have experienced trauma in their lives.

[elizabethstonem]

I believe complex ptsd is the most painful thing to live with, an unexplainable fear and pain.

[calliethewolfcat]

I have PTSD. I have triggers, and every time a trigger is set off I freeze; I'm sent back to those moments. It's honestly horrible.

[okamigekido]

Oh my god, this video is so important. I dealt with a lot of childhood trauma, and most of the time I isolate myself to keep from making others upset. Yet, I get called a terrible person for isolating myself. I try to tell people why but they don't understand. I'm going to share this because this is super important, thank you for making this video !!

[k.o.r]

I can't say how many times over the years I asked my partner not to yell my name in the house. It made me jump no matter how she tried to do it. I have had others "scare me" or jump out at me and I have asked them not to do that. Most people who have never experienced trauma like I have, are clueless. My startle response is off the charts and it sucks but luckily the people who love me listen. I left the one who wouldn't after 15 years, thank God.

[fsn]

"You have to engage with her feelings to get to the fact." Never push away your feelings!

[niniyb]

I was traumatized many times before age 9. But at age 9, I was driven to strangers home and never given back to my mother. I was a foster kid. The trauma of that first night in a strange home away from my mother is one of the major traumas, however, there are many more I somehow live with. I’ve become schizophrenic and PTSD is annoying. I cannot stop feeling fight or flight in every situation.

[dr.shawnapsy.d.]

Now this is really how you understand the science of the human behavior.

[ciciy]

Growing up with narcissistic parents ， I have been so traumatized to the point that I can’t function, can’t even walk or take a shower, and my father enjoys this so I am totally depend on him so he can do and say what ever he wants to me. He gets jealous of my achievements, he put me down, stop me from graduating stop me from making friend and work . I have so much trauma but the memories are fragmented, I don’t know how can I recover, and how long will it take while I am trying to hide from my father

[godswill]

My father was very abused and abused our family. He had substance abuse issues (massive drinker) and was verbally and physically abusive. I have no memories the first decade of my life. Found out he sexually abused my sister and tried to kill my mom. Later in my life, living in denial, I tried to have a relationship due to the emotional connection from said abuse. It's very confusing. Anyway my biological "father" completley intoxicated was bragging about how he use to sexaully abuse me and even said "that I liked it"
...I froze and glad i did. Today I am learning to trust and trying to balance the feelings and thought of what it would feel like to eradicate him and others like him.
~Enter God and forgivness.

[Shallop.]

I was in a bad car accident where my husband was driving. This was years ago, but to this day if we’re driving and I fall asleep in the passengers side and I feel him “brake, ” I without fail LEAP out of my seat and gasp for air. My whole body goes into flight mode and I feel like I’m about to die. This video is extremely helpful to learn about the science of trauma!

[BackroomsWater]

That explains a lot with reactions. I never understood why I froze that time, and it always made me feel horrible that I did instead of fighting, but now I feel relived to know it’s normal to freeze in a traumatic moment. Thank you.

[nqueen]

I can't remember the past much from blocking out so much abuse in life 😢 I am very forgetful and still have a lot of pain inside I pray everyday just to be healed from the pain

[VI.VIII.V]

I always had a sense that trauma changes how your brain works but I could never really explain it to someone I was talking to and I remember being told to just let go of my past and stop thinking about the incident years later (which I don't) and now I know why that didn't sit right with me. I know they were coming from a place of love but it just shows they lacked understanding.

I have major social anxiety and now I understand my brain has just been in constant survival mode and I know very well where it stems from. I also realized that I have anxiety of sleep or falling asleep, I've been trying to understand where that comes from. But going back I uncovered memories of people who hurt me and remembered why I distanced myself from them and how they made me suicidal

[danieladrianmordekai]

as someone whos had to survive psychosimatic trauma. this not only does the subject and the people suffering from trauma justice, but helps those who see it and dont recognize it to identify and assist the people in their lives. to the people who worked hard on this i say: thank you.

[Catinthecosmos]

As a victim of sexual assault through out my life staring at about the age 9, this video is very important. I wish schools would show more things like this maybe I wouldn’t have felt so alone and gross and helpless if someone was there to show me that my freeze response was normal and that it’s not my fault. I wish the world didn’t cover these things up because they are “inappropriate” or children to see you know what is inappropriate telling a child that if there bra strap is showing they are asking to be raped I was 10! I shouldn’t have been happy when I found out breast cancer runs in my family and that if I got it I would have to get my breasts removed I shouldn’t have had to worry about if my training bra fit right or if the strap slipped I shouldn’t have been scared when I stared to develop breast faster than the other girls. I shouldn’t have been scared of my own body

[montelo]

Living with cPTSD is damn hard, but there's hope and it's always there. It's called Neuroplasticity.