How Trauma Changes Your Perceptions
Trauma changes Perception
My father passed away in November.
He had suffered a significant stroke in 2003, and lived an additional 21 years. Many know that a stroke is called a Traumatic Brain Injury, because - although the injury isn’t caused due to an outside cause (such as a car accident, being hit by a heavy object, etc), it does cause damage to the brain tissue.
Trauma to Dad’s brain changed everything. His abilities in communicating, moving, walking, and perceiving were all negatively altered. He experienced painful headaches frequently.
When we experience psychological trauma, we are altered, as well.
We may not communicate well because we’re triggered into a fight or flight mode. Our engagement with the outside world, our friends and/or family might be hindered. We may not ‘move’ among those in our circles well.
But I think the most appropriate connection between my father’s TBI and psychological trauma is that of altered perception.
PTSD and psychological trauma fundamentally alters the way we see the world for a time.
Sometimes, depending on how damaging the trauma is, it can alter our perceptions permanently, or so significantly that we don’t recover quickly - or much at all.
After a psychologically traumatic event, we are more sensitive to threats around us.
Often, the PTSD we experience is because our brain (and therefore our body) is translating a situation that is not threatening as dangerous. We’re then flooded with fight-flight-freeze hormones.
The sensitivity to threats around us can also create in us a paranoia - a fear - of how others might be working against us or trying to take advantage of us. If the psychological trauma was caused by abuse, it’s sensible to suspect and be wary of the abuser. However, we sometimes apply that suspicion to others who haven’t abused or harmed us.
Trauma changes us. Dad was changed by his stroke, which was not his fault. But the ramifications of the stroke on our relationships and his behavior were challenging, none the less. We had to learn how to interact with him in a new way, and he had to learn to trust us, despite his perceptions.
So how does this apply to financial trauma?
Well, the first is to examine the trauma reactions you’re having and slow down.
Slowing down when triggered is always the first step in healing from psychological trauma - too often everything feels like it’s happening too fast and we’re being cascaded by emotions. A frequent reaction to pain and confusion is then to spend money to make ourselves feel better.
If you’re triggered into fight-flight because of financial past harms, understanding your experience, your perceptions, and immediate reactions and responses is paramount.
It’s work to slow down and make clear and balanced decisions.
Even if you know this, it's easier said than done. Often you’ll need someone with training and experience to help you. Do you need help working through how your trauma impacts your financial and daily life?
