Emotional Collapse: Can Developmental Trauma Cause Someone To Be In An Emotionally Collapsed State?

If someone was able to reflect on how they typically feel, they could find that they often feel helpless and hopeless. By being this way, they are likely to spend a lot of time feeling down and even depressed.

After this, they could think about why they are this way and what could enter their mind is that it is because of what is going on in their life. So, they could live a life that is anything but fulfilling.

For Example

When it comes to their relationships, they could be used to being walked over, ignored and put down. Alternatively, they might not have any close friends and could spend a lot of time by themselves.

Consequently, they could spend a fair amount of time wishing that they had people in their life who loved and cared about them. As things stand, they could believe that this will take a miracle.

Another Area

If they have a job, they could do something that is soul-destroying. Apart from the money that they receive, and this might just allow them to pay their bills, it won’t provide them with much else.

But, as bleak as it will be, they are likely to believe that this is their only option. It is then a case of staying where they are and surviving, or leaving and their life coming to an end.

A Natural Outcome

Taking into account what their life is like, it could be said that it won’t be much of a surprise that they often feel helpless and hopeless. Not only won’t their life be how they want it to be but they might have also tried to change it on so many occasions and been unable to make much progress.

At this stage, it could be said that they have learnt to be helpless and this is why they are unable to see a way forward or to move forward. In order for them to change their life, then, they will need to change their outlook.

One Part

To do this, they will need to monitor their thoughts and to replace their ‘negative’ thoughts with ‘positive’ thoughts. Moreover, there will be the ‘negative’ beliefs that they need to question.

By engaging in this approach, they might gradually develop a felt sense of their own power and begin to live a fulfilling result. Then again, this approach might simply cause them to get their hopes up and then to feel even worse when it doesn’t work.

Another Angle

If this approach doesn’t work, it will be necessary for them to take a deeper look into what is going on. Ultimately, the reason why they experience life in this way might have very little to do with what is taking place in their mind, or what is going on ‘out there’.

Instead, what is taking place in their mind might be a reflection of what is taking place for them at a deeper level. Their mind will then be a messenger as opposed to part of them that is merely trying to undermine them.

The Tip of The Iceberg

What this comes down to is that they don’t begin and end with their mind – they are not simply a walking cortex. Along with this part of them, there are other parts of their brain, not to mention their body that have an impact on how they experience life.

Another way of looking at this would be to say that they have a conscious mind and they have an unconscious mind. What is taking place in this other part of them is greatly affecting how they experience life.

Another Level

With this in mind, if they were to connect to what takes place for them when they feel helpless and helpless, they can soon find that they don't just have ‘negative’ thoughts and feelings in their mind. No, what they can find is that their body also goes into a collapsed state, with them feeling weak and lifeless.

This will show that their parasympathetic nervous system has been activated, causing them to go into a state of despair and be immobilised. What they could struggle to understand at this point is why they respond in this way.

Back In Time

However, as strange and unhelpful as this response may appear to be, there may have been a stage of their life when it served them. During their formative years, they might have been brought up by a parent or parents who were emotionally unavailable.

This would have meant that they didn’t receive the attunement or love that they needed to grow and develop in the right way. Therefore, it would have been normal for them to be deprived of their parent or parent’s presence, eye contact and touch, amongst other things.

A Brutal Time

As they were powerless and totally dependent, though, their only option was to disconnect from themselves, for their true self to go into hiding and to go into a shut down state. This would have stopped them from being overwhelmed with pain and separated them from their needs.

What this would have done is protect their true self and allow them to keep it together. If their system hadn’t automatically responded in this way, their life is likely to have come to an end.

Weighed Down

They felt powerless and they were powerless as an infant, toddler and perhaps child. And, although this is not longer the truth now that they are an adult, as they are still carrying the impact that this stage of their life had on them, they won’t be able to know this at the core of their being.

For this to change they are likely to have a lot of pain to face and work through and unmet development needs to experience. This is something that will take courage and patience and persistence.

Awareness

If someone can relate to this and they are ready to change their life, they may need to reach out for external support. This is something that can be provided with the assistance of a therapist or healer.

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Oliver JR Cooper
http://www.oliverjrcooper.co.uk