Thread by @karenraycosta

"Everyone is on the verge of a breakdown."

#HigherEd
#TraumaAware

insidehighered.com/advice/2021/11…

"But now it’s just expected and understood: everyone is just one minor event away from snapping. COVID scares can trigger existential crises and then ripple effects. Why ask each other “How are you?” when nothing has changed in almost two years?"

#HigherEd
#TraumaAware

"Learning has become a chore rather than a fulfilling process."

Point of clarification: Formal learning in a classroom? The human brain is always learning, whether at college or not.

But yes, this is exactly what we expect when trauma responses begin to overwhelm resources. Our nervous systems shift to surviving perceived threats and begin to change due to managing trauma.

#HigherEd
#TraumaAware

This can all feel impossible. Long-term, collective traumas are incredibly complex. What can we do? The greatest resource we have right now is to tell the truth about what we're experiencing. Naming things has incredible power.

#HigherEd
#TraumaAware

The worst thing we can do is to ignore this, deny it, or try to minimize it. Truly the absolute worse. Those approaches only serve to feed the trauma. To push more things behind "the wall" and pray it won't collapse.

But it will.

#HigherEd
#TraumaAware

Anyway, I don't agree with some of the online shaming stuff in this article, but it's good. More of this. More truth telling. I hope everyone has a space where they can talk about how hard this is and for how long it's been hard.