Trauma Survivors Get Stuck

Sometimes we get stuck in our feelings and beliefs because of the traumatic event we’ve just been through. For trauma survivors, stuck points can affect their sense of safety, trust, and intimacy. They may also affect their sense of esteem. A common example is a car that gets caught in traffic. The word “stuck” refers to an object that’s fixed and cannot be moved. In other cases, it can be a jar lid that doesn’t open and is hard to remove.

After experiencing a loss, the person may begin to worry that they’ll never feel safe again. They may begin to feel fearful, hopeless, and unsure how to live in their new reality. They may struggle to reconcile conflicting beliefs and experiences. The loss experience reinforces their previously held negative beliefs and contradicts their existing beliefs. Ultimately, they feel stuck and unable to move forward. To overcome their feelings of being stuck, they need to understand their emotions and the nature of their world.