What Is Trauma Dumping & Why Do We Do It with Dr. Kate Truitt

In this psychoeducation video, Dr. Kate Truitt begins by explaining that Trauma Dumping when someone overshares about a difficult painful or traumatic experience. It may come up in a conversation, or it may come up in a moment of despairing loneliness.

She reminds us that the compulsion to Trauma Dump is natural. Often when we survive trauma, there’s no one there to witness our stories, especially if it is childhood or developmental trauma. Trauma dumping is a way for our mind and body to say please see me. Unfortunately this invites our mind and body to revisit this story. Those sensory details will cause us to think even more about what happened.

Then Dr. Kate explains that a Vulnerability Hangover happens when the system comes back to balance, and the mind and body ask what did i just share? We will ruminate on the over-expression and discussion of the trauma, thinking about the social ramifications and feeling triggered from the discussion.

Trauma dumping is our mind and body saying I need my story to be heard. This can be dangerous if it’s not done in a healthy, safe environment, where trained professionals can help coregulate. It also allows us to have the opportunity to process through the after effects.

Dr. Kate reminds us that it’s natural to want to be heard. When we go back to the past, it’s important to take that journey with safe people.

#therapythursday #neuroscienceoftrauma #askapsychologist

Dr. Kate Truitt is a clinical psychologist, neuroscientist, as well as holds a MBA in Healthcare Administration. She is the CEO of the Trauma Counseling Center of Los Angeles, Chairman of the Board of the Amy Research Foundation, and leads her flagship organization Dr. Kate Truitt & Associates located in Pasadena, CA. Her teams of expert psychologists and psychotherapists provide individual therapy, group therapy, executive coaching, and neurofeedback throughout California via telehealth.

© 2023 by Dr. Kate Truitt All rights reserved. No part of this video may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the copyright holder.

[CaliberDawn]

Traumatizing having a mom that has trauma dumped my sister and me our entire lives. Literally see her reliving every detail and even if we didn’t experience it we now hold the trauma. 😢

[princessroyal]

I know someone who recently started doing this. She’ll go on a lengthy tirade about something in her life and me and my friend end up just sitting in silence waiting for her to finish. I’ve tried interjecting but she either starts talking louder or snaps at us to be quiet because she’s not done.

On one hand I feel bad for her but I’m getting really tired of being a receptacle for all her problems.

[troyhofmann]

Thank you for this message. You have opened my eyes and helped me to become aware and begin to heal. Your message is so powerful! Thank you🙏

[b_radbrad]

This clears it up for me. I was confused for a while what this meant as its usually in stream rules. Never broke those rules but wanted clarification

[bubullibooooo]

This is some life saving information for me 🙏

[mikewazowski]

I have noticed a sick trend of Comment section on youtube being full of this. I sincerely wish there was a way to turn off comments some time for myself. Ill be watching some cute animal videos and than randomly some 1 starts trauma dumping some sad story and it just totally kills my mood, it would be like going to some random cute animal vid and talking about my experience in child hospitals why the F would i do that? for Likes? its so gross. TY for the video.

[desertangelfish]

My mother did this while being extremely abusive towards me. Complaining about her pain while scapegoating and abusing me.

[alexaarrah]

Between having a traumatic upbringing and having Inattentive ADD. I try to be careful. It's hard.