There are methods by which to unfreeze, to let those trapped feelings of the moment out.
All of them revolve around feeling what's there, but at an intensity you can handle. You may shake, cry, scream or even collapse. But with it comes freedom.
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There is nothing wrong with you for having traumas. You are not sick, crazy, weak or even abnormal.
Maybe you were raised abusively and taught to suppress key survival feelings (it me), maybe you were just actually powerless in the face of malice or misfortune. Not your fault.
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Either way, trigger warnings and struggle porn are cute and all, but that is NOT how to heal from trauma.
What you need is to regain a sense of agency in the face of something that left you feeling powerless & frozen. And there are healthy ways to do that!
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Also, there is often subtle fear of just living your life that builds around trauma.
A full range of feeling is triggering, so you stunt yourself to avoid those memories.
Healing from trauma isn't just about functioning at acceptable levels. It's a way to reclaim your aliveness.
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Hilariously, the most effective therapeutic methods are essentially straight rips from Yoga, with some scientific rigour added.
One of the ways in which yoga can be dangerous is that you can retraumatize yourself by misapplied teachings if you aren't careful. I did!
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If you keep on cutting through, you eventually come out in into a deep, abiding freedom.
You feel more clearly, and you learn how to take a trauma memory to pieces and free yourself of it.
But it involves a lot of "am I going completely crazy?" to get there. And you might, too!
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These methods are arduous, but that's why they work for some of us some of the time.
Those who were so thoroughly broken that we didn't know how to live without taking the whole engine apart first.
Consider therapy. With a therapist who understands how *embodied trauma* works.
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So. If you haven't already, you'd definitely want to read The Body Keeps The Score.
It's the most accessible book on somatic psychotherapy I know. In An Unspoken Voice also seems good, but I haven't finished it.
As for therapeutic modalities you may want to consider...
I don't know exactly where you're located, so can't give any concrete recommendations as you'd definitely want an in-person therapist.
One therapy I hear great things about is EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), so that's worth considering.
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Somatic Experiencing also seems effective, but is a bit underresearched AFAIK.
It's very close to the techniques from yoga I used to unblock emotions, though, but seems more robust and systematic (I almost broke my brain using the yogic techniques).
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