Articles written by RHers

 

Articles written by RHers Anxiety (by?) Anxiety is normal... Anxiety can become a problem What Causes Anxiety to become a problem Test your anxiety level Some common manifestations of anxiety Suggested Reading Self Injury (by?) Why do we use self injury? The Control Issue

Anxiety (by?)

Anxiety is one of the cornerstones of many survivors' reality. More then simple fear, which is an emotion (brief and sudden), anxiety, while not necessarily a stronger feeling, can be long lasting and pervasive.

 

Anxiety is normal...

 

Everybody knows what it's like to feel anxious -- the butterflies in your stomach before a first date, the tension you may feel at work when a big event is about to take place... Anxiety rouses us to action. It gears us to face a threatening situation. It makes us study harder for that exam, and keeps us on our toes when we're making a speech. In general, it helps us cope. That is, as long as it remains within a reasonable range.

 

Anxiety can become a problem

 

When someone has been through a traumatic experience, anxiety is a very common consequence and it can sometimes be very high. It can keep you from living and disrupt your daily life in many ways. There are several types of anxiety disorders that survivors sometimes are diagnosed with, each with its own distinct diagnostical features. But what is important to remember is that when you have been through violence, anxiety is a normal reaction to that abnormal situation.

 

What Causes Anxiety to become a problem

 

As survivors, we felt anxiety that was adapted, sometimes for many years at the time. Anxiety kept us as safe as possible by keeping us on our toes, by steering us to protect ourselves or flee when necessary. In a very real way, anxiety has been part of what enabled us to get through.

 

Anxiety often becomes a problem when the "anxiety mode" doesn't stop after violence does. And that is extremely common. It is like our bodies have relied on anxiety so much over the course of days, months and sometimes even years, that we continue to "sound the alarm" constantly. It's become a way of being instead of a coping mechanism.

 

For example, strong anxiety is adapted in the cases where the potential for violence is present or when escaping a fire or living in times of war for instance. It becomes a problem for the person when the violence or fire, or war is over and we still feel high levels of anxiety for everyday situations. It is very common for survivors of traumatic events to retain their "anxiety" reaction at least for a certain period of time. It is an important part of the intrusion symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It can take time to convince our bodies and inner selves that the danger has indeed passed and that we are now safe and sound, on the other side of turmoil.

 

Test your anxiety level

 

Here is an anxiety test which may help you assess your own anxiety levels. As for any other tests, remember that they DO NOT give a diagnosis that has any real validity. Remember that these sites don't take what you have been through into account and that the "diagnosis" they suggest only take into account the symptoms (which is the greatest source of misdiagnosis in the mental health field). These tests can nonetheless be useful to help us understand ourselves and how we feel a little better.

 

Do You Suffer from Anxiety?

Some common manifestations of anxiety

 

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

 

PTSD is a set of normal reactions that humans have to traumatic events. As such, it has its own page that we hope you will visit.

see our PTSD page

 

 

Panic Attacks

 

Panic attacks are events in which anxiety becomes extremely high. Panic attacks can be so intense that they sometimes can be mistaken for heart attacks. Here are some symptoms you may experience during a panic attack.

 

Racing heart

Stomach cramps

Faint feelings

Sweatiness

Shaking

Poor concentration

Dizziness

Feeling unreal

Blurred vision

Weak feeling

Nausea

Tingling in limbs

Hot/cold flash

Light-headedness

Tightness in the throat, chest

 

As you may notice, a lot of those symptoms are somewhat similar to what many survivors call "being triggered".

 

Panic attacks usually resolve on their own but it can help to learn relaxation and grounding techniques, they may help you calm down faster in times of intense anxiety.

 

Social Anxiety and Agoraphobia

 

Social phobia is the fear of social situations that involve interaction with other people. Put another way, social phobia is the fear of being judged and evaluated by other people. The feelings that accompany social anxiety include anxiety, intense fear, nervousness, automatic negative thinking cycles, racing heart, blushing, dry throat and mouth, trembling, and muscle twitches

 

Suggested Reading

The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook by Edmund J. Bourne

$13.57

 

Healing Fear: New Approaches to Overcoming Anxiety by Edmund J. Bourne

available used

 

 

Self Injury (by?)

Why do we use self injury?

Many authors have tried to identify possible reasons why we use Self Injury. The following are reasons that have been given by people who use SI as to "why" they do it, what their motivations are.

 

-Escape from emptiness, depression, and feelings of unreality

-In order to ease tension

-Relief: when intense feelings build, self-injurers are overwhelmed and unable to cope. By causing pain, they reduce the level of emotional and physiological arousal to a bearable one

-Expression of emotional pain

-Escaping numbness: many of those who self injure say they do it in order to feel something, to know that they're still alive

-Obtaining a feeling of euphoria

-Continuing abusive patterns: self-injurers tend to have been abused as children.

-Sometimes self mutilation is a way of punishing oneself for being "bad"

-Relief of anger: many self-injurers have enormous amounts of rage within. Afraid to express it outwardly, they injure themselves as a way of venting these feelings

-Biochemical relief: there is some thought that adults who were repeatedly traumatized as children have a hard time returning to a "normal" baseline level of arousal and are, in some sense, addicted to crisis behavior

-Obtaining or maintaining influence over the behavior of others

-Exerting a sense of control over one's body

-Grounding in reality, as a way of dealing with feelings of depersonalization and dissociation

-Maintaining a sense of security or feeling of uniqueness

-Expressing or repressing sexuality

-Expressing or coping with feeling of alienation

 

Source: Miller(1994) and Favazza (1986, 1996)

 

 

But the thing is that SI, even if it does bring relief at times, is a negative coping mechanism in the sense that it is an act of destruction towards ourselves. Some see it as almost an "addiction" but I prefer to see it as a way to gain control or to ground ourselves. The problem with SI is that we destruct ourselves. Whereas most SI behaviors are not lethal or dangerous in themselves, in accumulation and with poor first aid, even the tiniest cut could become infected and lead to sickness and even death.

 

The Control Issue

I strongly believe that for a lot of us, SI can become a way to ground ourselves in reality. When memories of the abuse become too pervasive or too much to bear, a lot of us use SI in order to make "the present feel stronger" and thus be able to "focus" on it to stop the flashback. Grounding is an excellent idea to get rid of flashbacks and the likes... but you have to know that there are other, as effective and less damaging, ways to do that.

 

Here are alternative ways to use strong physical sensations to ground but that are not harmful, in a long term, to your body:

 

- Hold a cube of ice till it is completely dissolves

- Take a cold bath or cold shower

- Rub your feet on a floor

- Bite into a hot pepper or chew a piece of ginger root.

- Rub vicks under your nose.

- Rub those "muscles freeze" creams on your arms and legs

 

 

Also you might want to try the 15 minutes rule. If you want to self injure, give yourself a 15 minutes waiting time, and tell yourself that if in 15 minutes you still want to, you can. Then after try to do another 15 minutes.

 

 

Just remember that SI doesn't make you weird or freaky or bad. SI is a way of coping, a defense mechanism and a lot of us make us of it almost by reflex at first. There is still a lot to be understood about how it works and why and how to stop it. But the main thing to remember is that you CAN take control over it and take better care of you and your body. If there is one time where you wanted to self injure and stopped yourself and used an alternate method for grounding or gaining control, you are already a winner in my book.