When we experience a traumatic or a painful event, our natural instinct is to forget about it so as to protect ourselves from the painful memories associated with the event. The emotional toll carried by such an event can be so overwhelming that one chooses to avoid anything that reminds them of that traumatic event. You can pick up some distractions to just redirect your focus from the memory of that painful experience. This avoidance behavior is what is called trauma blocking.

What is Trauma Blocking?

Trauma blocking is a coping mechanism that the brain employs to keep you safe from overwhelming stress or trauma. When you are overloaded with painful sensations and emotions which you cannot process effectively in the moment when that traumatic experience is happening, you brain may ‘shut down’ so as to prevent further pain.

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When you bury your traumatic memories, it can be easy to cruise through life and we even adopt behaviors that help soothe the pain. Some behaviors may be outrightly unhealthy for you while some may look like they’re doing no harm to you. Trauma blocking behaviors bring a certain feeling of relaxation and you might think that you’re free from the pain. Some of the habits we adopt as part of trauma blocking may include: –

· Mindlessly Scrolling social media — (being a keyboard warrior in Facebook groups and online forums)

· Substance Abuse

· Binge Eating

· Staying in a bad relationship because it seems better than being alone

· Keeping yourself busy and overworking

· Excessively working out

· Binge watching

Is Trauma Blocking Healthy?

Trauma blocking may look okay in the short-term because it provides an immediate gratification and temporary relief from those painful feelings and sensations. It protects you from feeling that emotional pain and at the same time it’s pleasurable to enjoy that (for example) marathon of game of thrones or that slice of pizza or that bottle of beer (case in point — unhealthy compulsive behaviors). The danger of these unhealthy compulsive behaviors is, of course, clearly visible as they will ruin your health if you indulge in them for a long period of time.

In case of other avoidance behaviors like keeping yourself busy or excessive exercise, it may look okay but you’re also blocking your attempt to completely deal with the pain. Avoidance of those painful feelings take a huge effort and toll in your life and the more you avoid them, the more you’re giving them strength. You will be focusing too much energy on those avoidance behaviors because you feel that without them, you will not survive.

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This means that you’ll not be able to build meaningful connections in life. Also, when you avoid dealing with your trauma, it can lead to a higher risk of developing mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

How to Deal with Trauma Blocking

Nothing good will come with avoiding the pain or blocking the pain, dealing with the pain is where the solution is. Distractions and those avoidance strategies will just postpone the problem and even prevent you from living more presently. Going inwards and dealing with the root cause of the problem will free you from those attempts to deal with the symptoms. It will of course be uncomfortable to process your trauma at first but you will find some sense of bliss and inner peace you’ve never felt before. It’s like dropping unnecessary weight which you’ve been carrying with you for a very long time. Unprocessed pain is that unnecessary weight which is limiting your freedom in life. When you’re ready to explore and process that pain., feel free to reach out. As long as you’re committed, you will release the baggage instead of blocking it.

Note from the Author

If you’re ready and you’d like my help with healing, finding peace in life and breaking free from these toxic patterns, then you can book a FREE BREAKTHROUGH CALL with me HERE. Happy healing 💙💙. Feel free to share and comment! Use this information with caution, it comes from my own thoughts & bias, experiences and research😊.