How and Where to Find Happiness After Trauma
Happiness can feel difficult to attain after trauma, grief, and loss. The downside of trauma is that it feels like joy is stolen. Losing a loved one, being hurt in a romantic relationship, or experiencing child abuse, trauma leaves a lasting impact. From trauma counseling in Waterford, Connecticut, you can reconnect to the things that bring you happiness. As well, healing complex trauma and C-PTSD means learning to live in the present moment.
Complex trauma impacts emotions, trust, and self-esteem
With trauma, you may experience trouble sleeping. When you close your eyes, the shame, self-blame, guilt, and anxiety all come rushing back. Commonly, negative memories or flashbacks cause high levels of anxiety. To note, it is common for trauma survivors to feel unsafe or like it is hard to trust others. Often, survivors of emotional, physical, and sexual trauma need help gaining positive coping tools. Sleeping problems, insomnia, and racing thoughts are common in complex trauma survivors. Unfortunately, people with complex trauma and C-PTSD may take part in negative behaviors.
What are negative ways to cope and how can trauma counseling in Waterford, Connecticut support healthy coping tools?
Notably, trauma counseling in Waterford, Connecticut helps survivors find happiness within themselves. From creative, holistic therapies, survivors of trauma can gain contentment and self-compassion. Without proper coping tools, complex trauma can lead to drug use, alcoholism, anger, sex addiction, pornography addiction, and more. Furthermore, due to negative emotions that come with complex trauma, survivors are always trying to feel happiness.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult for complex trauma counseling in Waterford, Connecticut to gain happiness, joy, and self-confidence.
Build lifelong tools for happiness
On that note, complex trauma counseling in Waterford, Connecticut supports inner peace. From art therapies, yoga therapies, drama therapies, and music therapies, you can gain healthy outlets. Happiness can only be found from within, and any other source of happiness is normally temporary. The high associated with drugs and alcohol often leave more negative memories and anxiety when they wear off.
Can complex trauma counseling in Waterford, Connecticut support healthy romantic relationships after trauma?
For instance, a lot of couples experience extreme joy and happiness when they are first engaged. If that happiness is dependent on their romantic partner, then it is only temporary. As well, survivors of complex trauma may try to find happiness by impulsively starting a relationship. To note, there is new relationship energy that can feel like a drug or a high.
Trauma survivors may jump into an unhealthy relationship in an effort to avoid being alone.
And, trauma survivors may take on a caretaking role putting their own needs on the back burner. Trauma victims tend to prioritize others over themselves. These trauma symptoms can create unhealthy communication and boundaries in relationships. Therefore, complex trauma counseling in Waterford, Connecticut supports healthy romantic relationships. Talking about trauma in childhood as a couple supports emotional safety.
Marriage and couples therapy in Waterford, Connecticut allows for healing after trauma.
At times, two people who have childhood trauma end up triggering each other and get into high conflict fights. Realizing happiness is sometimes only temporary is one reason why divorce happens and why families split up. Victims of trauma and loss may be consistently in and out of relationships. It is common for victims of complex trauma to have a new friend every day. Without complex trauma counseling in Waterford, Connecticut, people may feel defeated or emotionally drained. Chasing temporary happiness can lead to anger, feelings of failure, and more loss.
What are benefits of complex trauma counseling in Waterford, Connecticut?
Finding true happiness equates to stable relationships, jobs, and emotions. Figuring out how and where to find that happiness within yourself is hard work, but not impossible and it is worth it.
What are skills for inner peace and happiness right now?
Accept Who You Are
For a long time, I found myself saying to myself, “I will be happy when I move” or “I will be happy when I have this amount of money.” Ask yourself how many times you have made similar comments to yourself. Complex trauma counseling in Waterford, Connecticut helps you gain happiness from the inside out and self-acceptance.
Finding a way to accept yourself is the first thing you should consider when over coming trauma symptoms. Often, trauma survivors want to change the past. The past may be filled with emotional pain and regret. From experiencing complex trauma, it might feel impossible to enjoy life to feel happy. For instance, journal, paint, or go for a walk. Self-acceptance is a key in finding happiness because you are the only person who can forgive yourself. Essentially, give yourself permission to let go of self-blame. Not accepting yourself is the same as being hard on yourself. In complex trauma counseling in Waterford, Connecticut, you can get to know your true self. Lastly, being in touch with your spiritual self can give you the happiness you are looking for.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult for complex trauma counseling in Waterford, Connecticut to gain happiness, joy, and self-confidence.
How does accepting myself bring happiness?
Complex trauma therapy supports self-love through holistic, mind-body therapies. Disliking any part of yourself can result in continuing the trauma on the inside. And, inner criticism can lead to depression. When you dislike parts of yourself you usually are unkind to yourself, that leads to more emotional pain. That persistent feeling of disgust, sorrow, or frustration can transform through Southeastern Connecticut complex trauma therapy.
Counseling in Waterford, Connecticut for complex trauma helps survivors believe in themselves, feel empowerment, and build a life worth living.
The team at Wisdom Within Counseling can help you manage your depression and trauma so you can start to accept yourself. Victims of trauma often speak poorly about themselves to others. As well, victims of complex trauma are too hard on themselves frequently. Furthermore, victims of trauma may let others be unkind to them and have no boundaries. To get others to be kind to you, it all comes from healthy boundaries in counseling. To practice happiness, you should partake in happy habits every day. One of the major and priority ‘happy habits’ is self-acceptance.
What is a self-soothe kit?
At Wisdom Within Counseling in Waterford, Connecticut, you can make a self-soothe kit. Self-soothe kits offer distress tolerance skills to handle any intense emotion. Learning to tolerate distressing emotions is a part of complex trauma recovery and therapy. Next time you feel flooded with a trauma memory, you can use your self-soothe kit.
How can I start accepting myself before starting complex trauma counseling in Southeastern Connecticut?
Be as kind to yourself as much as possible. When you make mistakes, look at them as an opportunity to grow and learn instead of belittling your efforts. You should also take note of the things you did well, even if the end result was not how you expected.
Here are some other tips to help you accept yourself:
- Focus on positive qualities about yourself.
- Acknowledge and accept your imperfections
- Talk positively about yourself
- Ignore what other people think about your decisions
- Counteract negative thoughts with positive ones
- Try your hardest to accept past mistakes and leave them in the past
Surround Yourself with Positive People
Strangely, it is true when people say you are who you hang around. This is true because you pick up their habits, whether you realize it or not. With that being said, know that if you surround yourself with people who are positive and doing positive things in life, then you will unintentionally adopt those habits.
At the very least, positive people will encourage you to keep up with your positive attitude.
Staying positive and keeping an optimistic mindset makes a world of a difference when you are in a difficult situation. When you are already negative, that negativity will only heighten an already negative situation, and negativity does not bring you closer to happiness.
Negativity can even extend to anxiety. If you are someone who struggles with anxiety then chances are that you overthink almost everything, assume the worst out of people and situations, and are constantly on edge. This may make it hard to make friends who are positive, but there are ways to grow beyond anxiety and still make friends.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult for complex trauma counseling in Waterford, Connecticut to gain happiness, joy, and self-confidence.
Pick Up Good Habits, not Habitual Schedules
Humans are naturally curious beings. That curiosity is how we have been able to create the technology and improve the tools and devices that make our life easier. Confining ourselves to daily schedules can be daunting.
Do not get me wrong though. Schedules are good, and some people even need them to thrive, but having a moment of spontaneity every now and then keeps your curiosity peaked and helps you stay happier.
If you are doing everything at the same time and the same way, every day or most days, you are draining yourself of creativity and excitement. Creativity helps people become better problem solvers in all aspects of life. It also helps you to better look at and deal with uncertainty, which helps you keep a positive mindset.
Here are some good habits that can help you live a happy and healthier life without confining you to schedules:
- Eat healthy foods and workout because you feel better about yourself when your body feels good.
- Get enough sleep and find ways to solve your sleep problems.
- Treat everyone with respect and kindness, even if they do not deserve it. This will lead to you feeling good about yourself for taking the high road.
- Celebrate other people’s success because why not? Seeing your loved ones happy should make you feel good and feeling good leads to happiness.
- Do not rush through everything. It is okay to be busy, but relax and accept that you can only do what you can do.
- Gift yourself too and not just others. Self-care is the best care!
- Reward yourself as much as you can, and celebrate even the smallest things you do.
Look for Happiness in Yourself First
Before you look to other people or other activities to bring you happiness, you must learn to be happy with who you are. Take the time to get to know yourself and to accept yourself, then take the time to establish habits of positivity and creativity. Happiness is a choice, and it’s a choice that only you can make for yourself. At Wisdom Within Counseling in Waterford, Connecticut, the team of therapists specialize in trauma. Experiences of sexual abuse, loss, and grief can lead to complex trauma symptoms.
Wisdom Within Counseling in Southeastern Connecticut is a team of complex trauma specialists
When childhood trauma occurs and then trauma in adulthood does too, complex trauma evolves. To add, working with a complex trauma specialist allows you to recover and nurture yourself. Family therapy and couples therapy can help loved ones understand how to support someone with complex trauma. As well, complex trauma symptoms can lead to problems at work, with friends, and at home when untreated. At Wisdom Within Counseling in Southeastern Connecticut, complex trauma therapy includes creative art, yoga, music, and mind-body, somatic therapies.
