Therapist Mentor

TLDR: Collective activation can blur the line between stress and threat. Trauma recovery includes learning how to return to safety after activation.

Collective stress impacts us deeply. Even if we are not personally connected to the political decisions or global events unfolding each day, we are connected to one another. We feel the fear of our communities. We absorb the distress of the people we love. Many trauma survivors are sensitive to suffering because they know what suffering feels like in their bones.

This collective activation can make it incredibly difficult to differentiate between normative stress and traumatic stress.

Normative stress is a part of being alive.

It comes and it goes.

It asks something of us and then it lets us reset.

Traumatic stress feels like there is no letting up.
It feels like urgency that never ends.
It keeps our system bracing for impact long after the moment is over.

After trauma, recovery from any stressor becomes harder. It is not that the stress is always bigger. It is that the nervous system has lost trust in its ability to come back down. Please remember this: Your trauma responses are doing exactly what they were built to do.

They are saying:
“I will not let you be caught off guard again.”
“I will protect you from anything that looks like danger.”
“I will keep you alive at all costs.”

What a loving instinct that is. How bad ass your body has been. And, when we’re healing, we need to  widen the possibilities. Not just: “Am I in danger?” But also: “Is this moment asking for protection or presence?”

This isn’t about pushing past activation. It’s about reminding yourself that your system can complete the cycle and return to safety again. The more we practice this, the less confusing stress becomes. The less overwhelming life feels. And the  more accessible hope seems to feel. 

You are not overreacting. Your body is protecting a story it has lived through. And it is possible to teach it a new one.

Thank you for letting me see you,