3 Ways our Mind Handles Early Traumatic Emotions by Life Coach Dr. M
Early childhood trauma can have a lasting impact on an individual's performance and well-being. As a life coach and psychologist, I have seen firsthand the importance of addressing how our minds cope with traumatic experiences. In this article, we will explore three ways in which our minds can deal with early childhood trauma and the importance of acknowledging and addressing these experiences for long-term, sustainable change.
1) Suppression and repression: These are two different methods of coping with emotions that involve trying to keep them hidden or push them out of our conscious awareness. Suppression involves actively trying to keep emotions from coming to mind, while repression involves unconsciously pushing emotions out of awareness. They may seem similar initially but as you digest this information you will realize the difference. Suppression involves awareness and willfully controlling the traumatic emotion but with repression you do not even know or are aware that the traumatic emotions are still there and they have been hidden some where so deep in the recesses of the mind. These strategies can be helpful in the short term as they allow a person to maintain control and avoid uncomfortable emotions, but rest assured they are very much there and influence your day to day behavior and thought processes; let alone responsible for your values and believes that influence your decision making. They can also be harmful in the long term as they may prevent a person from fully processing and letting go of the past and not allowing it influence their current and present life with positive or enthusiasm.
2) Expression: This involves openly expressing emotions through words or actions. This can be helpful in the sense that it allows a person to communicate how they are feeling and can provide a sense of relief. However, it is important to express emotions in a healthy and appropriate way so as not to harm oneself or others. Often when not addressed the person is prone to anger tantrums, bullying, gaslighting, and other toxic behavior.
One reason why we need to be aware of this aspect of the mind is because our expression of our childhood trauma manifests as behavior and more often then not, its unproductive to us as well as our interaction and relationship with others around us. Especially our loved ones and our colleagues at work.
3) Escapism: This involves distracting oneself from difficult emotions or seeking out activities or substances that provide temporary relief from emotional discomfort. This only provides temporary relief, it does not address the underlying causes of the emotions and may ultimately be unhelpful in the long term. Often this leads to varying levels of addiction and habits e.g. Drugs, alcohol, scrolling, etc.
Escapism takes many forms, some of which might seem positive or even admirable at first glance. For example, a person might throw themselves into their work or hobbies, such as charity work, painting or physical fitness, as a way of coping with trauma. The workaholic is a common example of this type of "positive" escapism in the workplace. However, even seemingly positive forms of escapism can have negative consequences, such as negative impacts on an individual's health and relationships. It's important to recognize that while escapism may provide temporary relief, it ultimately takes a toll on other aspects of a person's life.
In conclusion what is important is to be aware how the mind deals with early life trauma and in the process find healthy ways to process the trauma and let it go rather than coping with it. Life Coaches and Psychologist can help with this awareness and in the workplace an Executive Coach with Psychology or Mental Health training can help too.
Escapism can be seemingly positive too as in throwing oneself into work or hobbies> common examples are passionately doing charity work, painting or obsessively pursuing physical fitness. Perhaps the most common form of positive escapism in the workplace is the workaholic. Seemingly positive, at least to the management but this form of escapism takes it toll too on health and relationships of the individual in question. While it is seemingly positive escapism, in truth there is no escapism that is totally positive or beneficial to the individual as it ultimately exacts its toll in other aspects of the individuals life.
