Trauma isn’t something you can just get over with a snap of your fingers. When we are traumatized, we always lose something.
If you missed our introduction to this series of ‘Why You Can’t Just Get Over It’ click here to catch up!
And, if you are continuing with us, let’s move into the first stage of the five stages of trauma together - Denial.
Stage 1: Denial
Denial is the first stage of trauma as it helps you cope with the initial impact of your experience and gives you time to process what has occurred. It can alter your perspective, impact relationships, and affect your physical well-being. The intense nature of trauma can lead to avoidance of thinking about the event.
Although denial is a protective measure, this initial stage is not permanent. Eventually, the reality of the traumatic event and the associated emotions and reactions must be addressed.
How to deal with denial
It's important to understand that denial can help in keeping confronting and scary emotions and memories at bay, but it also numbs you to your real feelings and prevents connection with others.
To progress through the denial stage of trauma, we have to face what has happened and the realities of your experience. We have to allow ourselves to sit with the emotions that arise and feel every one of them no matter how painful the thought of them they are. There are some good coping tools out there, including our custom Think It Out Journal, to help better work through these tough emotions.
Stay tuned to our next blog where we will jump into the second stage of trauma a bit further.