Psychology
fromPsychology Today
5 hours agoWhy Avoiding Your Emotions Makes Them Stronger
Avoiding thoughts and emotions often intensifies them, while small shifts in response can help manage emotions effectively.
#trauma-memories
#trauma-memories
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#trauma
Mental health
fromPsychology Today
17 hours agoHow to Talk About Childhood Issues Without Blaming the Parents
Unresolved parental trauma can manifest in children's psychiatric symptoms, perpetuating trauma across generations unless actively addressed.
Parenting
fromPsychology Today
2 weeks agoHealing From Our Trauma Helps Shape Future Generations
Healing breaks generational trauma patterns and transforms relational dynamics and biology.
Mental health
fromPsychology Today
1 week agoWhen Should We Be Over Our Trauma?
Healing from trauma is a complex process influenced by support, safety, and resources, not merely time.
Mental health
fromPsychology Today
2 weeks agoWhy Shame Is Central in Trauma
Shame is a central emotion in trauma, particularly interpersonal trauma, affecting healing and self-worth.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
2 weeks agoPsychology suggests the most reliable sign that someone had a difficult childhood isn't what they tell you about it - it's how startled they look when you are simply kind to them without a reason, as though kindness without a transaction attached is something the body recognizes as unusual before the mind has finished deciding what to do with it - Silicon Canals
Kindness can trigger confusion in those with a history of trauma due to learned survival responses from past experiences.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
2 weeks agoPsychology suggests the most reliable sign that someone had a difficult childhood isn't what they tell you about it - it's how startled they look when you are simply kind to them without a reason, as though kindness without a transaction attached is something the body recognizes as unusual before the mind has finished deciding what to do with it - Silicon Canals
Kindness can trigger confusion in those with a history of trauma due to learned survival responses from past experiences.
Writing
fromSilicon Canals
1 hour agoNobody talks about why people who grew up writing everything down by hand often struggle with processing their own feelings, and it's because writing things down by hand was how they metabolized emotion, and nobody told them that typing doesn't do the same thing - Silicon Canals
Handwriting engages the brain more deeply than typing, facilitating emotional processing and cognitive engagement.
Relationships
fromSilicon Canals
8 hours agoI'm 37 and I just realized that the reason I have no close friends isn't because I'm hard to love - it's because I learned young that needing people was dangerous - Silicon Canals
Recognizing patterns in friendships reveals a fear of vulnerability and a tendency to withdraw as relationships deepen.
Humor
fromSilicon Canals
2 days agoPeople who laugh before they finish telling a painful story aren't handling it well. They're releasing the listener from having to respond to it seriously, which is a skill they learned from people who couldn't. - Silicon Canals
Laughter during painful stories often serves as a social cue to ease discomfort rather than indicating healing.
#emotional-intelligence
Mindfulness
fromSilicon Canals
6 days agoPsychology says people who stay calm under pressure aren't suppressing their emotions - they've built a relationship with discomfort that most people spend their whole lives avoiding - Silicon Canals
Calm individuals process emotions differently, using reappraisal instead of suppression to manage stress and discomfort.
fromPsychology Today
1 day agoWhen Anger Waits: The Turtle Technique Beyond Childhood
The turtle technique is often introduced to children to help them manage strong emotions, guiding them to pause, breathe, and step back before reacting. It sounds simple, yet it carries depth when practiced with intention.
Mindfulness
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
9 hours agoPsychology suggests there's a certain type of anger that lives inside the most agreeable people - it's the anger of swallowing every small injustice, every dismissive comment, every overlooked contribution for decades, and the reason the calmest person in your family might one day explode over something trivial isn't the trivial thing, it's the fifty years of larger things they never allowed themselves to react to - Silicon Canals
Agreeableness can lead to emotional accumulation, resulting in explosive reactions over seemingly trivial matters due to suppressed feelings.
#child-development
Parenting
fromSilicon Canals
9 hours agoThe people who were praised for being mature as children and punished for being needy as adults, and the decades it takes to untangle which one was actually true - Silicon Canals
Maturity in children often reflects adult expectations, leading to long-term consequences for the child's emotional development.
#flashbulb-memories
Writing
fromSilicon Canals
2 days agoPsychology says people who still remember exactly where they were when JFK was shot or 9/11 happened aren't clinging to a date on the calendar - they're carrying the exact coordinates of the moment their understanding of the world was permanently rewritten, and the reason those details never fade is because your brain wasn't recording the tragedy, it was recording the last version of you that existed before you knew the world could break like that - Silicon Canals
Flashbulb memories are vivid recollections tied to emotional events, capturing details that ordinary memories do not.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
1 month agoPsychology says the people who remember exact dates, what someone was wearing, and the precise words used during painful moments aren't holding grudges. Their memory encoded the detail because their nervous system classified that moment as a survival event - Silicon Canals
Emotionally significant events create vivid 'flashbulb memories' through amygdala activation and stress hormones, prioritizing survival-relevant information over mundane details.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
1 day agoThere's a specific kind of adult who apologizes for crying even when they're alone, and it isn't sensitivity, it's the residue of a childhood where emotion was something you were expected to clean up before anyone saw the mess - Silicon Canals
Adults who were invalidated in childhood often apologize for their emotions, reflecting deep-seated patterns of emotional suppression.
Mental health
fromSilicon Canals
2 days agoPsychology explains people who forgive easily aren't weak or naive - they've simply done the math on what resentment actually costs the person carrying it and decided the debt isn't worth collecting, because forgiveness isn't about the other person deserving peace, it's about refusing to let someone who already hurt you once continue to take up space in a body they no longer have any right to occupy - Silicon Canals
Forgiveness is essential for personal well-being and mental health, freeing individuals from the burden of resentment.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
1 day agoBehavioral scientists have found that how old you feel inside predicts cognitive health in later life - independent of your actual age - Silicon Canals
Subjective age significantly influences brain health, with younger feelings correlating to healthier brain structures.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
1 day agoPsychology says people who keep adjusting their personality to suit the room aren't socially skilled - they're exhausted, and they've been exhausted since childhood - Silicon Canals
Constantly adapting one's personality can lead to exhaustion and loss of personal identity, rather than being a sign of social skill.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
2 days agoPsychology says adult children don't grieve their aging parents all at once - they grieve them in a thousand tiny deaths, like the first time your mother forgets she told you the same story twice, or the afternoon you notice your father's hands shaking when he signs his name - Silicon Canals
Anticipatory grief involves mourning the gradual changes in living parents, representing incremental losses rather than just preparing for death.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
2 days agoThe people who seem to have endless patience with difficult family members aren't necessarily more forgiving. Many of them long ago concluded that the emotional cost of asking for change was higher than the cost of absorbing the behavior, and they've been paying the cheaper price for so long they forgot there was ever a choice. - Silicon Canals
Conflict avoidance is often mistaken for patience, but it can lead to relationship breakdown and is linked to anxiety and attachment insecurity.
#nervous-system
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
3 days agoPsychology suggests people who dislike surprises, even good ones, are running a system that values safety over delight - not because they don't want to feel joy but because joy that arrives without warning feels almost identical to danger in a body that was trained to treat the two as the same thing - Silicon Canals
Unexpected surprises can trigger a fight-or-flight response due to a nervous system trained to perceive unpredictability as a threat.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
3 days agoPsychology suggests people who dislike surprises, even good ones, are running a system that values safety over delight - not because they don't want to feel joy but because joy that arrives without warning feels almost identical to danger in a body that was trained to treat the two as the same thing - Silicon Canals
Unexpected surprises can trigger a fight-or-flight response due to a nervous system trained to perceive unpredictability as a threat.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
5 days agoThe people who talk about their childhood like it was fine but can't remember most of it aren't lying. The absence of memory and the absence of trauma feel identical from the inside until something cracks the seal, and by then the person has built an entire adult identity on the version where nothing happened. - Silicon Canals
Childhood amnesia affects memory retention, leading to a lack of vivid recollections from early years despite having a normal upbringing.
Miscellaneous
fromPsychology Today
1 month agoHow Non-Traumatic Events Trigger Trauma Responses
Emotional dysregulation causes some individuals to experience trauma responses to non-traumatic events, leading to chronic nervous system overstimulation and impaired daily functioning that improves through desensitization and exposure.
fromPsychology Today
2 months agoCellular Memory, Trauma, and Fear
They are known, as it were, from the neck up. The cellular memory of facts and experiences, however, connects mind and body: My body recalls that showing my true feelings in childhood led to a put-down. A slammed door meant that Dad was home and drunk. The specific fact/event may be forgotten, but the bodily reaction remains: Any slamming noise may induce terror.
Mindfulness
fromPsychology Today
2 months agoWhat Happens When We Are Triggered
Someone says something to us, and we are suddenly struck with a sinking feeling in our stomach. Someone does something, and instantly we become enraged or alarmed. Someone comes at us with a certain attitude, and we go to pieces. We hear mention of a person, place, or thing that is associated with an unresolved issue or a past trauma, and we immediately feel ourselves seize up with sadness, anger, fear, or shame.
Mindfulness
Psychology
fromPsychology Today
1 month agoWhen Everything Becomes "Trauma"
Psychological trauma, originating from the Greek word for 'wound,' evolved from describing physical injuries to mental wounds in the late 19th century, with usage tripling since the 1970s as the term expanded to encompass various difficult life experiences.
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