I am sitting with a patient and we are discussing how trauma and chronic pain disempowers us.

When we are faced with situations that we have no control over, we become systematically disempowered. This leads to shame. Shame leads to guilt. This can result in a person withdrawing from people around them and can lead to anxiety. The more anxious we are, the more we seek to control our environment. When our environment is not protective – as in chronic pain – especially nowadays where chronic pain is not being treated well and stigmatized – all this leads to shame and more trauma.

Consider a person who is in an abusive relationship. The first time you kind of take the abuse. Maybe you have no place to go or you don’t feel strong enough to leave. The more the abuse occurs, verbal or physical, the more disempowered we get and the more likely we are to develop shame. Vicious cycle.

The shame leads to poor self image and people feeling that they are not “worth it”.

How do we break the cycle. It’s bloody hard. I think first education is the key – to understand that the response is an automatic response in your Limbic system and not something you have control over. Then to say – okay – now we know where it came from – now we have to go to extra-ordinary measures to move to healing.

If you have a loved one – they need to be educated about what his happening. Calming the body – Qi Gong Daily Program is easy to do but also again very hard to get into a routine of actually doing the work. Try the daily program. The more we don’t do the program – the more shame we feel and the more stuck we feel.

Watch this space – I’m working on a PTSD Website.

Have a good day

Judy