Abuse, trauma and mental health (18+)
Abuse, whether physical, emotional, verbal, or sexual, can have long-term effects on your mental health. Trauma can affect how you feel about yourself and how you relate to others. Women who have gone through abuse or other trauma have a higher risk of developing a mental health condition, such as depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Trauma and abuse are never your fault. You can get help to heal the physical, mental, and emotional scars of trauma and abuse.
While trauma is a terrible thing for someone to go through, that doesn’t mean that you have to live with it for the rest of your life. Recovering from abuse-related trauma can be incredibly challenging, but it is possible. Here are six tips you can do to help you in the healing process.
1. Recognize the Effects of Trauma
Many effects of trauma stem from abuse. Common effects include:
Trouble sleeping
Panic attacks and anxiety
Substance use
Eating disorders
Flashbacks of sexual/physical violence
Feelings of self-hate and low self-esteem
Fearing people and relationships
Suicidal thoughts
If you notice any of these warning signs, it is important to address your trauma and seek professional help.
2. Understand the Importance of Healing
It’s important to know that healing is key to overcoming trauma. Healing is different for everyone, but for any person, requires the intention to release past traumas and recover. This intention can:
Allows survivors to focus on themselves. Negative thoughts and feelings can be overwhelming at times. But with healing, survivors can take their attention away from the negativity and focus on what their needs are.
Allows survivors to develop closer relationships with other people. It’s important to allow your friends and family to serve as your support system as you take part in the healing process.
Helps survivors relieve their pain by finding different avenues to cope, such as taking up a new hobby, returning to once-abandoned hobbies, getting out more, etc.
Helps survivors experience their feelings again after releasing all the emotion trapped within from past traumatic events.
3. Embrace Positive Affirmations
Refocusing the subconscious mind starts with “forcing” positivity. The negativity — or the inner critic — can stir self-sabotage and hold you back from embracing positive things.
Refocus the inner critical voice by putting in place a system of positive affirmations that you can use daily. Positive affirmations can interrupt those disruptive and unwelcome thoughts and turn them into something better.
Here are some positive affirmations that you can try:
4. Exercise
You can also heal the mind through your body. Find at least one form of exercise that you can easily get into that helps you release the grief, rage and hurt that can stem from the aftermath of abuse and trauma.
Here are some great exercises to get into:
The best part is that while you’re exercising, you can listen to empowering music or positive affirmations. Just remember: Exercise is supposed to be beneficial, not self-destructing.
5. Embrace Creativity
Art therapy has proven to help survivors of PTSD by having them create and integrate. In 2018, the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) had conducted a study where they had a group of participants take part in eight 75-minute sessions, where they were told to create artwork based on a certain theme (i.e., nature, religion, colours). Through this form of art therapy, NCBI reported that most participants in the study “showed regression in their drawings of the trauma or the aftermath.” As a result, creating something can help you to express yourself in a transformative way, thus helping you release the trauma and its negative effects on you.
Here are some great activities that you can do as part of art therapy:
By creating something, you have the option of sharing it with the world or saving it as a reminder that you can overcome anything in life.
6. Don’t Be Afraid to Seek Help
Finally, ask for help. It doesn’t make you helpless or powerless. It shows how brave you are to seek help and be open to receiving it. Find a validating mental health professional who specialises in trauma and understands the symptoms. You can also find a support group of fellow survivors who understand you. If you need more support you can Contact the Domestic Support helpline on 08 08 16 89 111 or start a live chat any time.
Although the road to recovery is rarely short or easy, it’s always worth the effort. Plus, there’s no time limit to learn and heal; just take one small step at a time.