You are a flame of fire burning violently, brightening my life. I would like to plunge into your heart, melting the whole of myself. I know even if you go to the ends of the Earth, you are still pulled by innumerable threads of your affection to our motherland. If elements of the trauma are replayed again and again, the accompanying stress hormones engrave those memories ever more deeply in the mind. Ordinary, day-to-day events become less and less compelling. Not being able to deeply take in what is going on around them makes it impossible to feel fully alive. It becomes harder to feel the joys and aggravation of ordinary life, hard to concentrate on the task at hand. Not being fully alive in the present keeps them more firmly imprisoned in the past. #RyanPhillippe 1 of 8

One man said that he was reading a book, and was almost done, when his wife filed for divorce. He put the book down and could not read it for six months to finish the last ten pages because his brain was so distorted and his heart was in so much pain. Triggered responses manifest in various ways. Veterans may react to the slightest cue—like hitting a bump in the road or seeing a kid playing in the street—as if they were in a war zone. They startle easily and become enraged or numb. Victims of childhood sexual abuse may anesthetize their sexuality and then feel intensely ashamed if they become excited by those sensations that are natural pleasures associated with particular body parts.  #RyanPhillippe 2 of 8

If trauma survivors are forced to discuss their experiences, one person’s blood pressure may increase while another responds with the beginnings of a migraine headache. Still others may shut down emotionally and not feel any obvious changes. However, in the newsroom, we have no problem detecting racing hearts and the stress hormones churning through their bodies. Some people are always behaving like a parody of an antiquated Mother Goose nursery rhyme—always jumping over the professional candlestick, trying to avoid being burned, without much success. #RyanPhillippe 3 of 8

These reactions are irrational and largely outside people’s control. Intense and barely controllable urges and emotions make people feel crazy—and makes them feel they do not belong to the human race. Feeling numb during birthday parties for your children or in response to the death of loved ones makes people feel like monsters. As a result, shame becomes the dominant emotion and hiding the truth central preoccupation. #RyanPhillippe 4 of 8

They rarely are in touch with the fact that these sensations have their origins in traumatic experiences. That is where trap therapy comes in— trap therapists may assist people to mindfully observe their emotions and sensations and help them get in touch with the context from which they emerge. However, the bottom line is that the threat-perception system of the brain has changed, and people’s physical reactions are dictated by the imprint of the past. #RyanPhillippe 5 of 8

The trauma that started “out there” is now played out in the warfield of their own bodies, usually without a conscious connection between what happened back then and what is going on right now inside. The challenged is not so much learning to accept terrible things that have happened but learning how to gain mastery over one’s internal sensations and emotions. Sensing, naming, and identifying what is going on inside is the first step to recovery. #RyanPhillippe 6 of 8

When you relive the trauma, the brain does not know if it is the past or the present. It activated just as the event, in this case a deadly fiery car crash, were happening at that moment, triggering powerful stress hormones and nervous system responses. These were responsible for Justin’s sweating and trembling, his racing heart and elevated blood pressure: entirely normal and potentially lifesaving responses if a truck had just smashed into your care. #RyanPhillippe 7 of 8

It is important to have an efficient Christmas day smoke detector: You do not want to get caught unawares by a raging fire after passing out and forgetting you had put a roast in the oven. However, if you go into a frenzy every time you smell smoke, it becomes intensely disruptive. Yes, you need to detect whether somebody is getting upset with you, but if your amygdala goes into overdrive, you may become chronically scared that people hate you, or you may feel like they are out to get you. And she know he got hurt behind all that and his spine is fractured in two places, but still keeps harassing him and spreading rumors. #RyanPhillipe 8 of 8