Your bag is empty.
Most people think anxiety is irrational fear. In trauma it is usually a protection pattern. Your body is scanning for threat because at some point it needed to. If you survived emotional neglect emotional chaos or unpredictable threat your nervous system learned to stay alert to keep you alive. Anxiety is not random in trauma survivors. It is the alarm system that never got switched off. If you are in Mansfield Nottinghamshire and you are experiencing anxiety that feels deeply rooted rather than situational trauma therapy can help you understand and work with the protective function instead of fighting against it.
Anxiety is a trauma adaptation-
hypervigilance is leftover survival
body keeps the score by staying ready
anxiety protects before logic can catch up
Why thinking skills alone do not shift trauma anxiety-
CBT reframes thoughts,
but you cannot think your way out of a nervous system state,
the nervous system fires first,
cognition comes later.
Anxiety that is rooted in relational trauma
examples:
inconsistent caregiving
emotional criticism
abandonment threat
these created an internal rule: safety is conditional
Trauma and perfectionism-
anxiety becomes control,
control becomes self preservation,
this is why trauma survivors look competent but feel unsafe.
What trauma therapy does differently-
focus on safety not symptom suppression
work with the protective parts not against them
widen tolerance to sensations not delete them
rebuild the capacity to feel without fear
What this means for you-
the problem is not that your anxiety is too strong,
it is that your nervous system learned to survive,
therapy is about teaching it that life is no longer an emergency.
If you want to work with the protective parts behind the anxiety I offer trauma therapy in Mansfield and online across Nottinghamshire.
Book a consultation.