One of the saddest things about betrayal is that it doesn’t come from our enemies. It is the loved ones who inflict this emotional pain on us! And while the physical wounds often heal quickly, sadly, the same can’t be said about the scars of betrayal. Betrayal often maims caring souls in a manner that no words or phrases can describe entirely. Betrayal trauma can lead to several physiological & psychological issues. Primarily because of these reasons, it forms the subject matter of this discussion. We will look at how this traumatic experience can have a long-lasting impact on a person’s mind and body.

Psychological Impact Of Betrayal Trauma 

Our brain has an in-built response to stress, anxiety, and depression. The limbic and hippocampal regions constitute the emotional response centre in our brain. Critical events unfold in these regions, changing how our brain defines abstract concepts like trust, safety, and relations. In simple words, post-betrayal, the emotional response centre enters into the state of a survival mode. The limbic system now starts acting much like an alarm; its constant ringing makes the hippocampus scan and search for memories. That is when accuracy, trust, and confidence begin to fade away from one’s system. Doubt becomes your companion for most of your day; feelings of insecurity and unsafety tarnish your overall profile. Every little thought you once cherished now feels a tainted, dislocated memory.

Of course, this is a rather simplistic explanation of the effects of betrayal on the brain. In most cases, unfortunately, these changes are not short-term. Continuous exposure to stress can make the limbic system enter a prolonged state of hyper or hypo-arousal. The way your mind perceives changes and recalls memories post-betrayal is heartbreakingly contrasting to how it would typically process these events.

We have just overviewed the psychological reasons for betrayal trauma. Now, let us analyze the responses to betrayal trauma that we commonly observe in our communities and societies. Freezing at the spot is one of the widely spotted responses; fight or flight response is what many people come up with, often following an emotionally upsetting process. We mentioned hyperarousal of the limbic system earlier, leading to a fight or flight response. Feelings of intense anger, fear, and panic typically constitute the fight or flight response. We are sure that some of you might have experienced such feelings suddenly, regardless of betrayal trauma. The exact opposite of this psychological response happens when the limbic system is hypo-aroused. The disconnect between mind and body is visibly discernible during such an event. The disconnect is accompanied by mind fog, memory lapses of the worst degrees, and a lack of emotional relatability. Again, it is worth reiterating that once your emotional response centre enters either of these states, the effects on the brain’s overall ability are drastic. Processing feelings, creating memories, and sometimes, even being in the present becomes a daunting challenge.

Interestingly, there is a third type of response to betrayal trauma. It is what is described as appeasement or people-pleasing in the common lexicon. Once the sword of betrayal scars a person’s heart, it becomes anxious to hold on to whatever relations it still has got around. And so, validating and catering to other people’s needs becomes a must-do-it-at-all-costs event. While it looks like a lovely thing to do on its face, this appeasing approach can lead to an identity crisis in the long run. Result? More betrayals and the associated trauma in the future!

Physiological Impact Of Betrayal Trauma 

The psychological impact of betrayal trauma is not the only bad thing about the experience. Apart from the mind succumbing to the mounting emotional pressures, the human body can also fall prey to numerous physical complications. We talk about the physiological impact of betrayal trauma in this section.

Apart from becoming a home to many stress-induced diseases, the human body’s overall look can change significantly. Emotional disturbance can keep one in bed all day long, leading to issues like weight management. Some people try to find comfort in food and become too reliant on comfort food for their happiness. Obesity is the ultimate result of such an approach. Not everyone overeats, though; some heartbreaks can take away your appetite.

The terrible thoughts just don’t seem to leave the mind alone post-betrayal trauma—problems like hypertension and fluctuating heartbeat stem from this continuous overthinking. Things don’t stop here; matters can worsen as one starts feeling wary of intimacy. And it is perfectly understandable as well; trusting someone is not easy. It takes time, effort, and all of your heart before you can trust or give someone your trust.

Minor physical complications often ignored or attributed to other reasons can also stem from the seed of betrayal trauma. These physical complications include insomnia, nausea, vomiting, rapid hair loss, brain fog, etc. Remember, most of our bodies’ physical problems are a by-product of what goes up there in our minds. So, a road to recovery starts from there; one must cleanse their thoughts first. Only then can one hope to initiate betrayal trauma recovery.

Conclusion

We have painted a rather gloomy picture about betrayal trauma for most of this discussion. And we will be honest, battling the waves of depressions that hit one after going through a traumatic experience of this nature can be a daunting challenge. But betrayal trauma recovery is not an improbable thought. Several strategies can help you recover; finding empathetic support is one of the primary keys to unlocking the doors of betrayal trauma recovery. It might sound a little surprising, but today, betrayal trauma specialists provide their services globally. Seeking the help of one such specialist is an option you can consider. Support groups are another great way to share your sorrow and find solace by forging new relations. Remember, recovery demands patience, but it will give you peace! On that hopeful note, we bid you farewell from this space!

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It can be easy to run headlong into burnout when you live in a hustle culture where you’re told the answer to all of your financial problems is simply to work harder. The problem is that how hard you work may actually be part of what’s stifling your bank account.

In business, there will always be times when you’re working harder than others. All-nighters happen, and there are indeed times to hustle. But there needs to be a balance in order for you to maintain your health, to continue growing, and to enjoy your life.

For business owners and entrepreneurs around the world, mindset has been a great area of focus, and it’s been powerful to watch the industry step up to the plate to clear sabotaging beliefs that are holding people back. But what if there’s something else—something deeper—that needs to be addressed in order for you to be fully unleashed in your earning potential?

That’s where unresolved trauma work comes into play. Here are the four ways unresolved trauma can be sabotaging your bank account right now.

1. Trauma is often misunderstood

First, you must understand what trauma is and how it affects your mind, body, and energy. Trauma is any event that leaves a negative imprint that you weren’t able to fully process at the time, and as a result, has left the unprocessed emotions, thoughts, and belief systems in your mind or body that may be causing you to second guess yourself and the world around you.

It can be mental, emotional, or physical. Trauma can happen in many ways, anything from a statement made to you, a betrayal of your trust, a physical altercation, a sudden accident, or even a stressful moment. One of the biggest misconceptions around trauma is that it must be considered a big event.

Trauma doesn’t have to come from a chaotic, life-upending event. It can be much more simple than that, happening in a moment that’s easy to miss altogether, which is what can make it so insidious. Now that you know what trauma is, you can understand deeper what it does to your mind, body, and energy. 

When trauma is introduced to your system, it causes a fracture in your energy, shocks your nervous system, and can mark a moment in your mind where you weren’t safe. In order to course-correct the sabotage that can result from the initial trauma and subsequent fallout, you have to approach the trauma holistically. If you leave out any of these pieces (mind, body, energy), then it’s only a matter of time before you repeat the sabotage pattern and push money away from you.

2. Unresolved trauma compromises your self-worth

Money is connected to our relationship with who we are and our self-worth. Because trauma can compromise aspects of your confidence and can make you question your worth, it creates a barrier against money. Questioning your worth may not always look or sound like “I don’t feel worthy”. Sometimes it looks or sounds like: 

• “That’s not for people like me.”
• “Things don’t work out for me.”
• “Of course that happened to me!”
• “I haven’t earned that yet/I have to work hard to have this.”
• “I don’t deserve that.”
• “People like me don’t get that.”

Whenever there is a feeling of not being enough in any way, it can compromise the flow of money you receive.

“Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence.” – Peter A. Levine

3. Unresolved trauma creates unconscious blinders

Unresolved trauma results in unconscious blocks and patterns that keep you from what you want by creating blind spots in your mental, emotional, and creative vision. When unresolved trauma exists within the subconscious, it creates a consistent chain of events that keep you triggered just below your conscious awareness. 

Your subconscious mind remembers everything, so any part of life becomes the playground for triggers. Anything that resembles the thoughts, images, body sensations, and emotions you had during the traumatic experience, from walking down the street and going to the grocery store to working on your goals and having a conversation, can create a subconscious trigger. So throughout the day, without knowing it, you’re making micro-moves that keep you safe and also keep you from reaching the financial success that you’re after. 

By allowing unresolved trauma to fester, your decisions come from the past (the trauma or fear) instead of a place of choice and opportunity. Healing this, helps you to see more clearly. This happened with one business owner who was struggling to break her income ceiling beyond six-figures in revenue. When diving into her childhood, she discovered there was an unhealed trauma when she was yelled at because she asked for more. 

She developed a belief system around the idea that asking for more was selfish which carried over into her business. She was trying to uplevel her income, but nothing worked because her foundational belief system from the unresolved trauma was that “making more and asking for more was selfish”. Once she resolved the trauma and the belief system that went along with it, her glass ceiling toppled.

4. Unresolved trauma causes feelings of being unsafe

Unresolved trauma disrupts your body’s “root chakra” which is your identification of safety and belonging in this world. This energy center is directly connected to money. This often happens when you have unhealed trauma from your childhood that rocks the foundation of your safety both physically and emotionally. 

When this happens, it can prevent you from feeling secure in your life and causes you to have challenges with receiving money. When you’re used to feeling unsafe, there’s a comfort in that feeling and your subconscious will fight to keep things status quo. That’s why you’ll resist making more money.

The second way that this particular red flag shows up is when you receive money and quickly spend it or it goes out the door soon after you get it. There’s an underlying issue of feeling undeserving when this scenario happens.

There are all kinds of ways trauma can create tough money situations for you, but now you know the red flags to look for so that you can address the underlying trauma. The after-effects of trauma aren’t things you have to suffer through or live with for the rest of your life. That’s not how things have to be. If you can identify where trauma is creating an issue, you can get the support you need in healing. Heal the trauma, and you can heal the cycles the trauma created.

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For millennia, people have written about the joys of being in nature. Now that nature is no longer as much a part of our lives as it was for our forebears, it’s become clear that humans are, in a way, meant to be in touch with the wild and that our modern lifestyles are, to put it mildly, wreaking havoc on our mental health.

Today, it is fully understood by urban planners that views of green spaces, bodies of water, and other natural features do a lot to help improve the ambiance and “feel” of a space. However, there is now growing evidence that being in nature and doing activities in a natural setting can also help our minds heal.

For instance, it’s been found that patients with post-traumatic stress (PTS) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are likely to benefit from regular outdoor exposure, either through nature hikes or by doing regular therapy sessions outdoors.

Because PTS and PTSD often contribute to substance use disorder (SUD) and other mental health issues like generalized anxiety disorder, this kind of intervention has the potential to dramatically reduce the load on our overburdened mental healthcare system.

Below are some of the ways nature therapy may be beneficial for trauma. If you’re in North Texas and need to learn about rehabs that offer regular outdoor and nature therapy, check out this resource on inpatient drug rehabs in Dallas, TX.

1. It Gives Opportunities For Enjoyable Exercise

People with trauma and other mental health conditions will often benefit from some form of regular exercise. Exercise can help burn off anxious energy which is often common in people who have experienced trauma. It also makes your body release natural hormones that could help stabilize your mood and improve sleep — a problem often encountered by people with PTS and PTSD.

While exercise in urban areas is certainly a good option, nature also offers other perks that we’ll discuss later. If one has access to the beach, safe forest or desert trails, or other suitable natural features, chances are these offer enjoyable exercise opportunities for people of all ages.

Hiking, swimming, kayaking, and cycling are just some of the more common moderate impact outdoor activities that could help recovering individuals get the exercise they need. If one is up to the challenge, they can also try out more strenuous activities like rock climbing, cross-country skiing, surfing, and trail running.

Apart from their stress and anxiety-busting benefits, many of these exercises allow participants to be in a focused, meditative state, which in itself has direct benefits for reducing the effects of mental trauma.

2. Enjoying Nature May Help Build And Improve Emotional Resilience

While it takes much more than a nature trip to heal people who’ve had serious traumas, there is growing evidence that outdoor therapy can build emotional resilience in both children and adults. Some studies seem to suggest that activities held in the elements can help build a sense of control that influences other aspects of our lives.

Emotional resilience is usually defined as the ability to continue normal functioning after experiencing trauma. It is our ability to adapt and overcome when we’re faced with a particularly serious event.

Resilience, however, is not an all-or-nothing quality. Unfortunately, trauma has a way of expressing itself in ways that are not obvious to either the victim or outside observers. Trauma survivors could be functional or superficially productive while also engaging in self-destructive behaviors like using drugs, stress eating, gambling, or impulse buying. Having better resilience may help prevent these negative behaviors from happening.

Outdoor activities in small groups are especially beneficial for improving emotional resilience for people of all ages. These group activities can build a sense of “relatedness” that can prevent recovering individuals from reaching for unhealthy coping strategies.

3. We Tend To Be Happier And Less Anxious When Close To Nature

Studies on groups of people with PTSD (particularly combat veterans and other people who encounter continuous traumatic experiences) seem to show that being in nature or in places that mimic nature like parks and gardens can significantly improve PTS and PTSD symptoms. Engaging in exercise and mindfulness practices in these settings further improves this effect.

Why this is the case is not entirely clear. However, given the benefits, natural settings may eventually be key to cost-effective trauma interventions in an increasingly overburdened healthcare system.

4. It Offers Opportunities For Social Bonding And Peer Support

The growing evidence in favor of outdoor therapy has also made it an increasingly popular supplemental intervention for all kinds of mental health issues, including PTSD, depression, anxiety, and even substance use disorder. In the context of trauma recovery, outdoor and nature therapy is often done in a group setting, which offers a variety of benefits for recovering individuals.

Because participants in group therapy sessions tend to have similar or at least relatable experiences, recovering individuals are better able to let their guard down, without fear of being misunderstood. Group therapy is also a source of new friendships and bonds, which may remain important throughout one’s life.

One may not even have to join these types of outdoor group therapy sessions to benefit. Simply bonding with other people over common interests can already help recovering individuals to heal and move on.

It seems that being in nature doesn’t only feel good, it may help us heal from invisible mental scars as well. For people with serious psychological trauma, exposure to nature can be key to allowing conventional therapy like cognitive-behavioral therapy and medication-assisted therapy to do its work.

As with any supplemental approach, nature therapy is not a substitute for conventional psychiatric intervention. However, because nature therapy is flexible and relatively easy to implement, it could be tried out by virtually anybody, with nothing to lose and much more to gain.

*collaborative post

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It’s said that time heals all wounds. But if you love someone who has experienced trauma, you know that time, by itself, doesn’t necessarily cure everything. Psychological wounds that were inflicted decades ago can cause just as much pain as if they occurred yesterday.

However, a traumatic background doesn’t doom your loved one to a lifetime of unhappiness. It also doesn’t mean you are powerless in their healing process. There are many things that you can do to help them cope with their traumatic path and move forward into the peaceful life they deserve.

Get Informed

One of the most challenging aspects of supporting a loved one through their trauma recovery is simply understanding the condition itself. Trauma is notoriously difficult to define because it takes so many different forms.

Trauma can arise from a single life-altering event, such as the unexpected death of someone they care about, a serious accident or injury, the experience of a natural disaster, or some form of assault. Even prolonged stress can be traumatizing. If your loved one has experienced chronic illness, significant financial stress, or community-based violence, they’re likely experiencing trauma.

A person can only be strong for so long. The mind and body can only endure the fight or flight response that accompanies stress for a finite amount of time before unhealthy coping responses begin to emerge.

For example, people who have experienced ongoing domestic violence may develop what psychologists have identified as Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS). BWS is characterized by a feeling of “learned helplessness” in the victim, who may develop a coping strategy of passivity simply because they feel they have no other choice but to submit and hope the abuse will end.

If you love someone who is a victim of abuse, it’s important to understand that although this may look like an infuriating acceptance of violence to you, it is actually a trauma response. Remember that you cannot force them to seek help or escape their situation unless they are ready.

Until that time, all you can do is be there. Love them. Let them know there is a way out, and make sure they have the means to reach out to the authorities if there is an emergency, such as a secret cell phone programmed to call 911.

Safety should be your number one priority if your loved one is experiencing abuse. Encourage, educate, and equip them with the tools for a safe departure from a traumatizing situation.

Recognizing Triggers

Once they’re safe from a traumatizing or potentially abusive situation, the waters ahead may seem smooth. However, there may be more storms for them to bear. Healing from past traumas has its own set of challenges. One challenge is that they may not even realize how their past experiences are affecting them, and are unable to articulate these effects to you.

It’s important to encourage your loved one to resist the urge to hide from or deny their past. Addressing their trauma can help them learn to understand it and, above all, to take control over it. Through that process, they’re going to begin recognizing traumatic events and acknowledging the pain, grief, and anger those events caused them. They will be better able to recognize the emotional, physical, and psychological triggers that call those traumas to life.

However, it isn’t enough for them to just be able to identify their triggers. It’s also important that they recognize their responses to triggers and replace unhealthy coping mechanisms with healthy ones. This is where you come in: when you recognize that your loved one is being triggered, you can encourage them to choose self-healing responses. This could be anything from offering to listen when they need to talk to pampering them with a warm bubble bath.

Another important strategy for helping them cope with trauma is to create an environment that supports their sense of peace and calm. A cluttered space, for instance, is extremely stressful. Clutter also increases the likelihood of running into potentially triggering objects. Helping them declutter those items that don’t contribute to their peace and happiness is the perfect way to support them in moving on to a healthy and hopeful future, free of their trauma.

The Takeaway

When you love someone, you want nothing more than for them to be happy, to protect them from pain. When your loved one has experienced trauma though, it takes work to reach the happy future you both deserve. With love, patience, and understanding,  however, it can happen — one day at a time.

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