PTSD Counseling NYC: 5 Ways Trauma Can Wear Down Your Relationship
Why should you consider post-traumatic stress disorder treatment? Because unresolved trauma cannot be ignored for long without causing trouble for you and those that love you.
If you don’t address it, trauma can keep you stuck and suffering .Until you learn how to reprocess it and release its hold on your brain, body, and beliefs about yourself, you and your partner may feel so worn down that you finally break.
Don’t give up. Trauma doesn’t have to have the upper hand in your life. It doesn’t have to tank your relationship.
To get a handle on what’s happening in your mind and affecting your cherished connections, consider these common ways trauma can affect your relationships and what to do about it:
PTSD Counseling NYC: 5 Ways Trauma Can Wear Down Your Relationship
1. Does Your Body Repeatedly Relive Your Trauma Story?
Trauma can effectively sabotage physical touch and closeness, even if you don’t realize that trauma is the cause. When you haven’t released the trauma internally, your body holds the pain, shock, and self-protective instinct inside. It keeps them cycling in your brain and your nervous system. You can remain alert and on edge. You may feel fatigued and ill. Regardless, this can lead to either controlling your partner or withdrawing from them. Neither are good for healthy interaction.
2. Are Distrust and Avoidance Your M.O.?
Unprocessed trauma can lead you to believe that the world is a painful and insecure place. Thus, you may believe that you must keep your defenses up and avoid exacerbating your hurt. Even if it seems safe and necessary to erect walls between you, this makes for an unsatisfying relationship. Distrust and avoidance slowly erode the vulnerability that fosters closeness and emotional intimacy.
3. Have Past Relationship Attempts Been Dysfunctional Disasters?
Are you clingy, codependent, or anxious? Trauma might be creating ripples of fear and longing that disrupt your ability to connect without suffocating that connection.
Perhaps you had an abusive or neglectful role model or early relationship. Maybe the pain you endured fostered unhelpful thought patterns. It may be that negative behaviors are now habits that keep getting in the way of healthy love and intimacy.
Don’t beat yourself up, simply take notice. Post-traumatic stress disorder treatment can help you accept how your ability to have a healthy relationship dynamic is affected.
4. Do You Zone Out, Disconnect, Dissociate?
The pain of your trauma may have led you to cope by way of mental distancing. You simply don’t fully process and release the trauma so you disconnect emotionally. Unfortunately, not focusing on the thoughts and memories of your trauma often extends to other more helpful and comforting thoughts and memories.
Despite the emptiness, you might feel, drifting along alone feels safer. Yet, connecting deeply to day-to-day productivity, as well as your partner’s needs and desires, is likely a problem when trauma is unresolved and you dissociate instead.
5. Do You Feel Like a Perpetual Victim?
Trauma exposure can foster a chain of other traumatic experiences too. So much so that trauma can feel inevitable or inescapable. Why? When trauma becomes stuck, the emotional repetition of rejection, isolation, shame, and/or powerlessness can start to feel normal.
A happy future may feel improbable on a long-term basis. Thus, self-sabotage may be your default, consciously or unconsciously, as you recreate past pain in current connections.
6. Are Your Symptoms Relationship Red Flags for Your Partner?
Living with your unresolved trauma may cause you to be reactive, withdrawn, or exhibit behaviors that are otherwise tough for your partner to accept. This can lead to feelings of isolation and resentment for one or both of you. Continuing on without help can lead to more emotional damage and ultimate loss of the relationship.
PTSD Counseling NYC: How to Start Turning Things Around
Seeking the help of a therapist is a crucial part of PTSD recovery. Do what you can therapeutically to work through sadness, anger, and disappointment with the goal of healing in mind.
Rebuilding your relationships is difficult work. It’s wise to accept support and guidance from a compassionate and experienced professional. Doing so in a safe, accepting environment (in person or online) can be extremely productive. PTSD counseling can make all the difference in securing a happy, mutually satisfying relationship.
The Help You Therapy is Available via PTSD Counseling NYC
All is not lost and you have nothing to be ashamed of. Trauma therapy with a compassionate, experienced professional is an essential next step. Talk therapy can help you process your traumatic experience, shift your response to stress, and support healing.
Trauma is not a legacy you must live with. You have every right to seek help and receive it. Counseling with a compassionate and knowledgeable therapist is a proven means of recovery. Committing to your own mental healthcare is an invaluable gift to your adult relationships as well as your own wellbeing.
Are you ready to deal with your trauma and move forward? We have the experience to support trauma sufferers. Please read more about PTSD therapy and contact us for support soon. You can feel better and live well.
To learn more about our Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Treatment services, click here.
If you’re struggling, call 917-273-8836 or contact us for a complimentary consultation to learn more about counseling in NYC and how we can help you.
