High chronic stress and trauma share an important feature: both can include a feeling of helplessness. A sudden, traumatic external event is by definition out of our control. Something terrible happens to us, around us, or to someone we know. The intensity of the emotions is strong, while the feeling of being in … [Read more...]
Effects of Chronic Stress in Childhood: Spreading the word
Understanding the effects of childhood stress and trauma took a huge jump around fifteen years ago. 1997 marked the completion of one of the largest studies of childhood stress ever done. The ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) study examined the reports from over 17,000 adults about stressful or traumatic childhood … [Read more...]
Stress Symptoms Can be the Tip of the Iceberg
As busy people, most of us only begin to pay attention to our bodies when they are doing something dramatic to get our attention. Like a three year old feeling the need to be noticed, our bodies often start out quietly asking, then end up screaming some version of “Listen to me!!!” In our bodies, this often shows up … [Read more...]
Work Stress and Anticipatory Anxiety
How do work stress and anxiety connect? What is happening when “anticipatory anxiety” takes over, when we are nervous about something that is not even happening yet? And how can we begin to get free from this destructive, upsetting pattern that can keep us feeling trapped? Here's one example of this common problem … [Read more...]