Hope, Healing & Freedom Podcast: Episode 136
TRANSCRIPT
Did you know that trauma can affect you in many ways? It affects our minds, emotions, and even our physical bodies. That is the bad news. The good news is that Jesus can heal even the effects of trauma in our lives. In this week’s podcast we are going to talk about trauma and how it can affect your life.
I’m Lee Whitman with Restoring the Foundations and I welcome you into this Hope Healing and Freedom podcast. Cindi and I have had several people come to us for RTF ministry lately that their number one issue is dealing with the effects of trauma. None of these people have been to war and suffered battlefield trauma. They have not been in a major car wreck or some kind of accident that caused their trauma. All four of these people have suffered traumatic events that have left a scar on them during the course of living life. For some people the damage came from one or two very traumatic events. For others it has been a lifetime of ongoing trauma.
Since 2020 and the Covid Pandemic all of us have an understanding of trauma that we may not have had before. Some of us had loved ones die as a result of Covid. We all had to deal with the concern over the unknowns of getting Covid or spreading it to our friends and families. Then there was the constant fear and restrictions that were being pushed on us by the government. Churches were shut down, people were separated from friends and family. I don’t need to rehash that horrible time because you lived through it along with us. What happened with all that went on during those years was that many people were traumatized.
Let’s look at how trauma affects us. Some of the information for this podcast has been taken from an article on mind.org.uk.
Our bodies respond to dangerous situations by releasing hormones called cortisol and adrenaline. When someone is in a car accident, for example large amounts of these hormones are released into our bodies to help us deal with the trauma of the accident. Then when we are in a situation that reminds us of the accident, these hormones are automatically released preparing the body to respond once again to danger. This reaction can continue long after the traumatic event.
Trauma has a direct effect on our emotions. The emotional effect can range from mild all the way to Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. This emotional damage can continue for an extended period of time until the person receives healing. Here are some of the most common emotions caused by trauma:
Anger. One of the most common emotions that people feel when they have been traumatized is anger. Anger at what happened to them. Anger at feeling out of control. Angry for unknown reasons.
Numbness or difficulty feeling any strong emotion. It is not safe to feel so they shut down their emotions. The feelings they have are terrifying or painful, so it is a method of protection to not feel anything.
Feeling like you have lost your identity or sense of who you are. This traumatic event has somehow redefined the person, so they don’t know who they are anymore.
Scared or panicked. Many times, the traumatic event has left them scared of not just the event happening again, but scared because they feel unsafe. Panic attacks are fear that is so strong that it affects the physical body. Many times, a panic attack can feel like a heart attack.
Grief. Life has changed and there is a sense of great loss.
Worry. If it could happen once, maybe it could happen again. And worry and fear do not stay in their lane, so to speak, and just cause fear about that one event happening again, but fear tends to spread to other areas of life.
Irritable.
Confused.
Restless. One of the effects of trauma causes the person to have a hard time feeling settled. They have a constant feeling of restlessness which may have its roots in feeling unsafe.
Unsure of what you need or want. When talking to someone who has suffered trauma, they are not able to tell you what they need or want from you. Their whole world has changed, and they are out of emotional balance.
Hypervigilance – being very alert and aware of your surroundings for fear of something bad happening. The effects of trauma cause the person to be very aware of their surroundings. They are always on alert for danger.
Shock or horror.
Shame. Shame is a very common feeling for the person who has suffered trauma. They feel off but can’t always determine why so they carry a sense of something being wrong with them. That is the essence of shame that something is wrong with me.
These feelings will vary with someone who has experienced trauma. And the feelings can and will change over time. One may not experience the feelings right away and have them develop at a later time. There is not a standard way that someone who has experienced trauma is going to feel. These are just typical feelings that manifest with trauma.
Self-blame. People that experience deep trauma feel like it was somehow their fault. It is very common for someone who has been sexually abused to think that they somehow caused it to happen. One guy whose house burned down held the belief that he should have known that it was going to happen and somehow, he should have prevented the fire.
Possible reasons for the feelings of self-blame include:
- Your mind is trying to make sense of what has happened, and to avoid overwhelming feelings of anger, grief or betrayal.
- Finding a way to survive in an unsafe or stressful situation, such as living with someone who has harmed you.
- Wishing you could have done something different at the time, even though you couldn’t.
- Someone else blaming you for what happened or acting like it was your fault.
- Being made to feel responsible for someone else’s actions, even when they had power over you.
This self-blame can be so strong that it is confusing or overwhelming when someone tries to tell you it wasn’t your fault. One aspect of this self-blame is the feeling that you should be dealing with the effects of the trauma better than you are.
The Physical Effects of Trauma
Trauma is a unique thing because it affects us in several different ways. It affects us emotionally as we have already talked about. It affects us spiritually by causing doubt to enter into our relationship with God. If God let that happen to me, can I really trust Him in the future. It makes it more difficult to pray because of wandering thoughts.
Trauma also affects us physically. Our bodies have a memory of what happened. If it was a physical trauma like sexual abuse, or an accident, or being attacked, your body will remember the physical feelings that happened during that event. It is not uncommon for people who have been sexually abused to completely block out the abuse from their conscious memory until they begin to have physical sensations that bring back the memory of the abuse.
Some of the effects of trauma on the physical body are:
- Headaches
- Aches and pains in your body
- Shaking
- Tiredness
- Sweating
- Changes in our eating patterns or what we like to eat
- Memory problems
- Dizziness or changes in vision
These are just a few of the ways trauma manifests in the body. Some of these issues can lead to long-term physical problems that are linked to stress. One lady never experienced symptoms of her abuse during the day, but at night the pain of what happened to her returned. She talked about having severe pain in the night causing her to scream and cry out due to the pain. Ultimately it caused her to dissociate from the pain in order to survive.
Some very common things people experience due to trauma:
- Flashbacks – Reliving aspects of the traumatic event as if it were happening in the present. Flashbacks can happen by seeing images or re-experiencing the event through other senses like taste or smell or with physical sensations in the body.
- Panic Attacks – These are a type of fear response. They are an exaggeration of your body’s response to danger, stress, or excitement.
- Dissociation – This is a way that your mind copes with overwhelming fear or stress. It might be that you block out the event, or that you feel numb, or you simply detach from your body as though the world around you is unreal.
- Sleep problems – people may find it hard to fall asleep or stay asleep due to feeling unsafe. They also might be plagued by trauma induced nightmares.
- Self-Neglect – Some find it difficult to meet their basic needs like eating, keeping clean, or taking care of your home. Some self-neglect due to low self-esteem having trouble adjusting to life following trauma.
- Self-Harm – Some will hurt themselves as a way of dealing with painful memories or experiences.
- Suicidal Thoughts and Feelings – For some the pain of the traumatic event is so overwhelming that they have thoughts of ending their life.
- Alcohol and substance misuse – Many people who have experienced trauma try to dull the pain through alcohol and substance use.
The effects of trauma might affect people in the following ways:
- Looking after yourself – neglecting yourself physically emotionally socially and spiritually.
- Holding down a job – not able to keep of hold down a job due to the turmoil caused by trauma.
- Trusting others – inability to trust those who you should be able to trust. Especially when the person you should have been able to trust was the one who caused you the harm.
- Maintaining friendships or relationships
- Remembering things
- Making decisions
- Your sex life – not being able to turn off the traumatic thoughts in order to enjoy sex. Especially for people who suffered sexual abuse.
- Coping with change
- Simply enjoying life
The good news is that RTF ministry can help people who have experienced trauma of any sort. The first thing RTF can help with are the generational curses that come because of trauma. As we have said, trauma affects the body, soul and spirit. As the ministry of RTF is applied to these effects of trauma, the curses from those things are either greatly lessened or totally removed. We have seen people who suffered considerable trauma leave the ministry totally free.
Trauma always brings with it Ungodly Beliefs. When you look at life through the filter of the trauma you will have a very hard time seeing life clearly. The trauma teaches people beliefs like” I deserved this abuse”, or “I will never be safe again”, or even “turmoil is normal for me”. When those Ungodly Beliefs are renounced, and the agreement is broken with the kingdom of darkness the person is then able to hear from God clearly about His truth for them. One guy who believed the lie that turmoil is normal for me heard Father God tell him, “Yes turmoil has been part of your life for a long time, a part of your past, but it will not be part of your future. I am redeeming all you have been through, and your future is bright and full of hope”.
The next place RTF ministry is effective in setting people free from trauma is by bringing healing to their broken hearts. Jesus came to heal the broken hearted. He does not have a limit on how much healing He will bring to your heart. The more healing you need, the more healing He will bring. One lady who had experienced severe sexual abuse was totally healed by Jesus during her RTF ministry. He puts our broken and shattered hearts back together better than any counseling ever could. He also brings His healing quickly and completely.
Then of course RTF gets rid of the demonic interference that continues to stir up and energize the wounds caused by trauma. Trauma gives the enemy a landing strip in our lives. By taking away the legal ground for the demonic interference, we can then easily command the demonic to leave and they have to do what we tell them to do because of the power in the cross of Christ and our authority as believers.
Trauma comes in all shapes and sizes. Some have experienced devastating trauma; others have experienced other more normal traumatic events. The size of the trauma does not always determine the amount of damage and struggle a person will experience. The reason I am bringing this podcast on trauma is to let all of us know that trauma is a reality in this world and to be able to recognize its effects so that we can receive RTF ministry to set us free. Don’t put up with the effects of trauma in your life. Freedom is available!
Prayer
Father God, would you help each of us recognize if we are dealing with the effects of trauma in our lives. Then would you give us the courage to get the help available through RTF ministry.
If you recognize any of these symptoms of trauma in your life, please go to our website at restoringthefoundations.org and click on the Get Ministry tab at the top of the page to find a skilled RTF minister in your area. And if the Hope, Healing, and Freedom Podcast is a blessing to you would you consider forwarding it to your friends?
