Living with anxiety after trauma

[JustCheckingItsThem]

Sorry in advance, I think this might be a head emptying sort of post.
This year has contained a lot of trauma, the most recent event being Friday, and I feel like my capacity is just diminished. The huge events happened and I think the the outside I ‘rose’ to it, but my trauma I’m carrying is really really big. Then when small things happen it’s like my brain catastrophises and I feel like I’m having a break down.
I don’t know how to put the hinge behind me and move on…. Do people really successfully do that? Did you? What did you do?
I feel like my brain is always on edge for the next trauma.

If you don't mind me asking what was the trauma? I think trauma is different for different people .

I see the trauma as the response to situations that overwhelm our ability to cope, not the incident itself.

Like a head trauma is the consequences of the event, not the tree that fell on your head or whatever else happened.

OP, it sounds like your body and mind are on constant high alert. I don't have much time to respond but imvhe yes you can learn to live with it but it takes time and a lot of work.

In the short term, focus on the basics of sleep, exercise, daylight, good food, small tasks that occupy but not overwhelm your focus and concentration.

And get as much support from those around you as you can.

Take care

When a traumatic event happens, or a series of them as in your case, your mind recognises it as a threat to your happiness and safety. It will therefore 'assign' a part of your subconscious to figure out what happened in order to avoid it ever happening again.

This part of of your mind examines every aspect of the event to try and and make sense of it; what happened, how it happened, what you could have done differently, the aftermath, etc. That's why you might get flashbacks and dreams. If - as if often the case - there is no rational explanation, because the trauma was a random event; or that people involved are unavailable or unwilling to explain their roles, the crew member will just keep in a loop of looking for answers, reason and rationale. We call it the "unsolvable puzzle."

Imagine if I gave you a box containing a jigsaw. It's supposed to contains the full picture of your trauma(s) but there are pieces missing, it got mixed up with another jigsaw over the intervening time and a can of white paint also got in there as well. Would you try to make it work anyway or would you recognise that it wasn't ever going to be a complete picture and throw it away?

Therapy can help you unpick your feelings and allow your mind to relax and not be constantly on edge.