Treatment for Shame-Based Trauma
Suffering through a traumatic incident is hard enough, but when the trauma produced feelings of guilt, shame, embarrassment and depression in addition to the usual emotional responses of panic, anxiety and fear, the suffering is greatly increased.
What Causes Shame-Based Trauma?
Shame-based trauma reactions can occur in relation to many types of traumatic incidents. Sexual abuse is one of the most common types of shame-based traumas. Even though her rational mind rejects blaming herself, her emotions might reflect a buried belief that she shouldn’t have been in that place at that time, or that she somehow invited the assault. Sexual abuse of children also creates tremendous shame that can last throughout a lifetime. Boys particularly bear shame, perhaps for getting aroused.
Sexual abuse isn’t the only cause of shame-based trauma — far from it, in fact. A battered spouse might feel shame for putting up with the abuse, and in time may come to believe it was deserved. Again, men battered by their wives bear a particularly heavy burden of shame.
A soldier returning from military combat might also return to civilian life saddled with a load of shame. Perhaps that soldier is suffering from the aftermath of killing an enemy, or from taking part in a war atrocity, or even from witnessing an atrocity.
Family losses can take their toll in shame, too. In the classic movie Ordinary People, two brothers are out sailing when a storm comes up. The older boy drowns despite his brother’s attempts to save him. The younger boy’s guilt and shame at “allowing” his adored brother to die drives him to a serious suicide attempt before he gets help.
There Is Treatment Help for Shame-Based Trauma
If you are the survivor of a traumatic event, you don’t have to carry your grief, shame, guilt, depression or anger for the rest of your life. Whether through a series of counseling sessions on an outpatient basis, through a support group where survivors can talk freely about their feelings or in a residential setting at a trauma rehab center, you can learn methods of dealing with your symptoms rather than letting them take over your life. Post-traumatic stress disorder is not just a fancy label one can apply to a person who doesn’t “man up” and “get over it.” It is a very real condition, with symptoms that range from a debilitating lack of energy to dangerous rage to the bleak finality of suicide. You can break out of this prison of symptoms by getting competent counseling. Use the toll-free number provided to get started.
