Anxiety, Trauma and Grounding

We are in a time of collective trauma. It has been important for me to name this as I process my own responses to what is happening during this historical season we are living through together. 

Global pandemic. Skyrocketing unemployment rates. Political tension. And a reservoir of pain and protests that have been unleashed as a string of unjust murders brought systemic racism to a boiling (and hopefully tipping) point.

Nightmares, difficulty sleeping and heart palpitations have served as a nudging reminder that what we are experiencing is, in fact, trauma.  

Like many of you, I am learning and unlearning, and doing my best to find my place in everything. What I hope to offer you today is an opportunity to identify some of the trauma responses you may be having, as well as tools to help you cope with those responses in healthy ways.

HOW TRAUMA AFFECTS US

Based on Self-Care for Social Workers Class and Trauma Stewardship by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky

I encourage you to check in with yourself as you read through the list of common trauma responses below.  Have you experienced any of these recently? 

1. Feeling helpless and hopeless. Believing nothing you do matters or isn’t causing any change. Taking care of yourself isn’t even on the radar. It’s not worth it, and nothing feels worth it.
2. A sense that you can never do enough. There is always more to do and not time to do it. It feels overwhelming and easy to feel what you’re doing is inadequate.
3. Hyper-vigilance. Feeling a lot of anxiety caused by trauma, that shows through increased sensitivity to certain stimulus (noise, smell, etc), always examining your environment for threats, always thinking about your job, and experiencing a high level of stress in your body. “In this state of hyperarousal, which is the first cardinal symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder, the traumatized person startles easily, reacts irritably to small provocations, and sleeps poorly.”^[1]
4. Diminished creativity. Trauma affects the brain’s capacity to be creative. In addition, if you don’t have time or space, you won’t have any time or energy to be creative. Creativity is very important to move forward and create new answers to the same challenges.
5. Inability to embrace complexity. Trauma also affects the brain’s capacity to hold complexity and instead see things as black and white.
6. Minimizing. Diminishing the importance of things and how work is affecting you. Thinking: ’I’m fine, not affected, can handle it’.
7. Chronic exhaustion/physical ailments. Feeling completely and consistently exhausted. May notice physical consequences of stress such as stomach pains, headaches, teeth grinding, jaw pain, etc. May be accustomed to being overwhelmed with work every week. This is a sign that you have to make changes.
8. Inability to listen/deliberate avoidance. Feeling saturated and avoidant—thinking that the best part of your job is when you are not there. Being physically at work but communicating with your whole body: ‘don’t talk to me’.
9. Dissociative moments. Checking out can be a coping method that was helpful when you were young but it is not helpful or sustainable long-term. It may look like day-dreaming, or being somewhere but your mind is elsewhere.
10. Sense of persecution. Thinking that everyone (employer, boss, clients) is against you. Lacking the agency to do anything about your situation.
11. Guilt. Feeling guilty in the face of other’s situations and suffering. Feeling guilty for making mistakes or taking time off.
12. Fear. Fear for yourself, for your safety, for your well-being.
13. Anger and cynicism.Feeling angry—could be anger at injustice, ‘the system’, at coworkers, clients, at yourself. Sometimes anger might look like cynicism, which is all too prevalent among people who experience secondary trauma.
14. Inability to empathize/numbing.Feeling numb. If you are numb, you won’t be present with people, bringing your full capacity and love for another. You also won’t be able to see if you are doing harm.
15. Addictions. Being addicted to harmful behaviors, substances and ways of living. Some addictions are culturally and organizationally accepted, like addiction to work, to pessimism, to criticism, or to adrenaline.
16. Grandiosity. Thinking that it’s all up to you, that you are indispensable. Your identity has become completely consumed with work, believing that everything depends on you (even if it doesn’t).

^[1]Herman, Judith. Trauma and Recovery: The aftermath of violence—from domestic abuse to political terror.(New York: Basic Books, 1997), 35.

HOW WE CAN RESPOND TO TRAUMA

1. GROUNDING

Grounding is widely recognized as one of the most helpful ways of coping with trauma and anxiety. In fact, Navy seals are trained in the breathing technique below in order to stay calm in high-stress situations.

GROUNDING TECHNIQUES

Breathing (Inhale for 4 seconds, hold 4, exhale 4, repeat)

5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique 

• • • Sit comfortably
    • Breathe Deeply
    • Name 5 things you can see
    • 4 things you can feel
    • 3 things you can hear
    • 2 things you can smell
    • 1 thing you can taste

2. SELF-CARE

In a time when many of us are working from home with no childcare, self-care might sound like a pipe dream! And for those of us who are spending ourselves learning, researching, protesting and staying engaged in important justice work, it can be hard to remember to pause long enough to check in with ourselves, let alone take care of ourselves. If there is one thing I know from nearly two decades working in anti-trafficking, it’s that self-care is what makes justice work sustainable.

SELF-CARE PRACTICES THAT DON’T COST A DIME

•     Meditation and Prayer
•     Journaling
•     Laughing
•     Singing
•     Puzzling, coloring, and reading
•     Create a gratitude list (Gratitude shifts our perspective and releases dopamine)
•     Exercise (releases dopamine and reduce stress)
•      Go for a drive and crank up the tunes! Or the podcast or audiobook…
• Reduce/limit media exposure
• Hydrate, rest and nourish your body

3. STAY CONNECTED

I believe that healthy, reciprocal relationships are one of the most life-giving, healing agents in existence.

This meme started going around at the beginning of the pandemic.

I think the reason it has been so popular is that it speaks to the ways in which we cope with pain and trauma. Some might drink their feelings and others might eat their feelings (See me raising hand). Some might use exercise to cope, while others might build their faith and press into God. Some of our coping mechanisms are more helpful than others.

In his TED Talk, addiction expert, Johann Hari, makes a powerful statement…

“The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection.’’

As we navigate collective trauma and try to respond with healthy coping mechanisms rather than maladaptive ones, I truly believe that fostering authentic connections with safe people is vital. Our best way through this is together.

   @harmonygrillo

HOPEFULLY HELPFUL RESOURCES 

•     Spiritual Grounding: I am LOVING the One Minute Pause App by John Eldredge.
•    The Youversion Bible App has some great, free devotionals 
•     PTSD Assessment, Support and Tools: PTSD COACH App
•     My favorite soothing music
•      Isolation to Invitation: A 2-week guide for retreat in a time of quarantine.