The trouble with trauma is that it's difficult to detect.

Acute trauma is usually obvious and abrupt (like a car crash or medical emergency), but chronic trauma is different and it’s most commonly defined by feelings of uncertainty, unsafety and prolonged states of emotional dysregulation.

Repression, dissociation and complex PTSD have their roots in the low-grade agonies we often try to cover up and forget. The kinds of things we consider ‘normal’ until we realise they aren’t.

Remember that not all trauma is obvious.

The hidden trauma of childhood, including financial instability or emotionally distant parents, are often responsible for the subtle wounds in our nervous system.

If you're struggling with mental health challenges, take the time to look beneath your ‘normal stress responses’ and consider if the origins of your present pain go back to older patterns which were established when you were much younger.

Don’t forget that you can learn how to release the past, and chronic doesn’t mean forever and always.

Jordan