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Vicarious Trauma
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Transcript
Vicarious Trauma
What is vicarious trauma?
What is vicarious/secondary trauma?
When someone else is harmed, but it has an effect on us
What is vicarious trauma
Survivors share intense emotional pain and, as an advocate, we work to help them understand their reaction is normal. Especially because advocacy happens in private and/or is governed by confidentiality, it is common to begin to experience vicarious/secondary trauma.
Symptoms
Signs
- Intrusion symptoms
- Avoidance symptoms
- Negative changes in thinking and mood
- Altered arousal
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Panic attacks
- Physical symptoms
- Relationship issues
Triggers and flashbacks (science!)
Science!
Source: The Body Keeps the Score Bessel van der Kolk
A: The Limbic Brain
A
- Intense emotions activate the limbic system, especially the amygdala
- Reacts with alarm, even years after the original event
- Cascade of hormones and nerve impulses that drive up blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen intake--preparing the body for fight/flight/freeze
- Cause psychological state of frantic arousal, even when you know you are safe
- Biggest area of brain activation
B: Visual Cortex
B
- Left side: remembers facts, statistics, vocabulary of events--we use it to explain our experiences and put them in order
- Right brain: remembers sound, touch, smell, the emotions they evoke--reacts automatically to voices, facial features, gestures, places
- When experiencing a trigger/flashback, our brains light up only on the right side--direct impact to organize experience into logical sequences
- Visual cortex reacts as if traumatic event is happening in the present
C: Broca's area
C
- Left frontal lobe of the cortex (Broca's area)
- Speech center of the brain decreased activation
- Similar level stroke patients when the blood supply is cut off
- Cannot put your thoughts and feelings into words
- After emotional storm, our left brain kicks in and looks for something or someone to blame--without realizing you are re-experiencing the past
Secondary Trauma Changes How You Think
Changes in thinking
- Black-and-white thinking:
everyone, never, always, none
- Disqualifying the positive
- Amplifying the negative
- Over-generalization
- Mind reading
- Fortune telling
- Should-ing on yourself or others
- Personalization
- Control fallacy
- Labeling
"Drowning in Empathy"
Amy Cunningham
"Drowning in Empathy"
Topic 5
Stoplight
The Road Ahead
The Road Ahead
- Be aware of your triggers and symptoms
- Watch for "habit creep" of reoccurring isolation/avoidance, negative thinking, poor nutrition, sleep, excersise
- Make self-care a priority
- Know your stress range
- Have a plan for emergencies
- Build your support network
- Notice and celebrate your post-traumatic growth
- Remember the positive work you've done
- Expect change
Further Reading
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