being triggered doesn’t always look like a hyperventilating panic attack. it can also be:
• dissociating
• shaking
• nausea
• a burst of anger
• dizziness
• chest tightness
• emotional flashbacks, where you feel how you felt during the trauma
• flare-up of chronic pain
signs of being triggered (cont.)
• loss of appetite
• hallucinations
• paranoia
• being unable to sleep
• forgetting where you are
• loss of auditory processing
• having trouble speaking
• crying spells
• age regression
• suddenly wanting to be alone
& much more
open this thread if you’re a victim of abuse ❤️ everyone else, please RT to help people find this.
p.s. there are TONS of resources at the end for identifying, validating, and coping with trauma. think of it as a compilation of all my affirming trauma-related content. :)
The abuse wasn’t your fault.
They gave you their own guilt to carry because they were selfish. They blamed you so they didn’t have to change. They tricked you to avoid responsibility. They LIED. You are good and always were. Listen: it’s impossible to *cause* abuse to happen.❤️
Yes, the abuse really happened.
Gaslighting is a technique abusers use to corrode a victim’s reality. If you’re questioning whether traumatic events even happened, that’s undeniable evidence that you *were *abused, because questioning your reality is a symptom of gaslighting. ❤️
i don’t know who needs to hear this but if you’re scared someone will react negatively to you setting a boundary with them, that’s concrete proof that the boundary is necessary.
while you’re here, i’m gonna drop my medical fundraiser! a service dog for my chronic pain and severe ptsd would be life-changing. even $1 or a simple retweet would mean the world 💜 gofundme.com/f/295xbhbe1c?s…
just a reminder that claiming “a person looking away is a sign of lying” directly harms autistics, trauma survivors, and other people who struggle with eye contact. the truth is, there is no universal way to tell if someone is lying, and being constantly accused is frustrating.
i often have to tell people “just believe my words” because it’s hard to perform neurotypical indicators of honesty. when i get nervous, i look away, lose tone-control, and struggle to express myself. being accused of lying is stressful, which only makes me look more suspicious.
just trust neurodivergent people. trying to read heavily into our behavior through a neurotypical lens is unfair. plus, most of us get paranoid about lying anyways due to trauma, strict moral codes, etc, so we’re not even as likely to be lying in the first place. just sayin’.
how to know if you’re stuck in a trauma bond... and how to get out: a thread 🧵
trigger warnings for discussions of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, gaslighting, toxic parents, childhood trauma, and codependency.
there will also be help resources at the end, including a guide on how to escape domestic abuse.
alright, let’s get started.
so... what actually *is* trauma bonding? you’ve probably seen this term thrown around online a bunch. unfortunately, there’s a lot of misinformation about it, so i’m gonna clear up the definition first so we’re all on the same page here. see the tweet below for a clarification.