7 Warning Signs You’re Experiencing Emotional Shock
The following contribution is from the Harley Therapy website. The author is Andrea M. Darcy, the primary author of this site, who has grown it from a few visitors to over three million a year. Trained in coaching and person-centered therapy, she herself is well acquainted with life with complex PTSD.
Emotional shock affects us all at some point. It’s in those moments after a difficult or challenging experience.
We keep rationalizing what happened and telling ourselves we should just «get over it.»
But we can’t overcome that feeling of strangeness and unease, no matter how hard we try.
WHAT IS «EMOTIONAL SHOCK»?
It’s not actually a clinical diagnosis, but a popular term.
That said, mental health professionals can use it to help you understand your state of overwhelm after a difficult event. And it’s not «bad.»
Emotional shock is actually the normal and healthy way your mind and body process difficult experiences.
As the NHS says in its guide «Understanding Reactions to Traumatic Events,» «After experiencing or witnessing a frightening or traumatic event, it’s common for people to experience strong physical sensations and emotions and/or find they behave differently.
This can happen immediately, or for some people, it may take several weeks or months for the reactions to occur.
These are normal, and for most people, they begin to fade and settle within a few months.»
The problem arises if emotional shock triggers a past life trauma, anxiety you were already dealing with, or if it evolves into a more serious mental health issue.
7 SIGNS YOU’RE SUFFERING FROM EMOTIONAL SHOCK
- You feel scared
Something has happened that you didn’t expect, weren’t prepared for, and couldn’t prevent.
Suddenly, life feels dangerous and unpredictable. If you already suffer from anxiety, you could experience anxiety attacks.
- You Can’t Think Clearly.
You might feel as if your brain has turned to mush or as if you have brain fog.
Life might even seem unreal, as if you’re disconnected and floating slightly outside your body, watching yourself go about your business.
- You’re Experiencing Physical Side Effects
When your brain detects danger, it triggers the primal «fight, flight, or freeze» response.
This sends a cocktail of chemicals and hormones through your body that can manifest as rapid heart rate, muscle tension, headaches, an upset stomach, and occasional aches and pains.
- You Feel Strangely Exhausted
Sleep is often disrupted when we experience stressful situations.
Insomnia is common. Although for some people, stress causes them to sleep more than ever, even if the sleep may be interrupted and filled with dreams.
- You’re disoriented
When the mind struggles to comprehend a difficult situation, it doesn’t leave much room to deal with everything else that demands our attention.
The stress of a shock can also make us illogical and emotional.
One moment we think, «I’m bigger than this» and feel powerful.
The next, we get lost in victim thinking, feeling sorry for ourselves and crying.
There may also be a cycle of blame (it’s all my fault), shame (what will people think), and guilt (I hate them for doing this to me).
- You feel like (and act like) a completely different person
You might undergo a small, temporary personality change after a shock.
If you’re normally sociable, you might just want to be alone and hole up at home.
Or if you’re often the type to take time for yourself and be practical, you might find yourself going out every night, drinking when you normally wouldn’t. Compulsive behaviors can also be a problem.
- Things just seem, well… meaningless
When something happens that leaves us deeply disturbed, life can temporarily lose its meaning.
We may have negative thoughts like, «Why bother, if everything is going to go wrong?»
WHEN WILL MY EMOTIONAL SHOCK STOP?
Traumatic experiences will interact with your personal vulnerabilities and any unresolved difficult experiences in your past.
This means you’ll have your own unique timeline for getting over the shock.
If, for example, you already lost your job this year and now you’ve had an accident that left you injured, it might take you longer to feel better than someone who just suffered an injury.
So some people recover from emotional shock in several hours.
Others in several days, and some in several weeks. And for some, depending on what they go through, the shock can even last six weeks or more.
Keep in mind that it’s also possible to experience «delayed» shock.
So, you may think an event hasn’t upset you, only to feel symptoms days or weeks later.
IT’S BEEN MONTHS AND I STILL FEEL BAD
Has it been months and you’re still experiencing symptoms like the ones above? You may have developed acute stress disorder or even post-traumatic stress disorder.
This can happen if your shocking experience triggered old, unresolved experiences, or was simply too shocking for your brain to process.
It’s time to seek support if this applies to you.
BUT I’VE FELT THIS WAY MY WHOLE LIFE
«The symptoms of shock describe how I’ve been acting for years, if not my whole life. Is it possible I’m living in a state of never-ending psychological shock?!»
Some people live in a kind of «prolonged shock» after traumatic experiences in childhood.
Or because their childhood was filled with difficulties, called «adverse childhood experiences» or ACEs in psychology.
As adults, they may be constantly anxious, have trouble sleeping, feel unable to have close relationships, or even show signs of adult ADHD, including extreme distractibility and an inability to think clearly.
This type of «long-term shock» is now beginning to be diagnosed as its own form of PTSD, called complex PTSD or «c-PTSD.»
If you think this may be the case for you, seek help. Working with a counselor or psychotherapist can help you gently and carefully uncover your past trauma, while learning how to lessen its control over your life.
BE KIND TO YOURSELF
The important thing with psychological shock is to be kind to yourself and not judge yourself.
There is no «right» or «wrong» way to respond to traumatic events, and again, we all improve within our own timelines.
The important thing is to give yourself time to heal, practice good self-care, and seek support if you need it.
Ready to ask for help? We connect you with top London psychologists experienced in trauma and shock therapy. Not in London or the UK?
Our booking site helps you select a UK-based, registered online therapist you can speak to from anywhere.
Anxiety affects highly sensitive people more. Here’s why (and how to overcome it)
The following contribution is from the Sensitive Refuge website, which is defined as follows:
Andre Sólo and Jenn Granneman, creators of Sensitive Refuge. Welcome!
We created Sensitive Refuge as a community where highly sensitive people (HSPs) can be themselves, disconnect from the harshness of the world, and feel fully understood.
The author is Mary Richards, a proud HSP and registered nurse, passionate about helping others take care of their own health. Since January, she has been pursuing a master’s degree in Complementary and Integrative Health at Drexel University, along with a minor in Entrepreneurship. Her work is also published in Sensitive Life Well Lived.
A highly sensitive person who looks anxious
Scientists believe that highly sensitive people are more likely to develop anxiety in stressful circumstances. But are they also better able to overcome it?
We all know the feeling of anxiety. You have to give a presentation at work or school. Or you plan to finally tell that person you’re passionate about how you feel. Or you wake up from a dream where you were chased by an axe-wielding clown.
At that moment, you notice your heart racing, your palms sweating, your mouth dry, and your mind racing.
You might feel a little sick to your stomach as you think, «What if my presentation goes poorly or that person rejects me?» What a terrifying dream, but why do I dream about axe-wielding clowns chasing me?
How Anxiety Tries to Help Us (Even When It Fails)
The anxiety-induced reactions mentioned above are actually our bodies’ way of preparing us for danger.
Humans, like many other species, are hardwired to prepare for and remember situations we perceive as dangerous.
It’s what kept our ancestors safe in a time and place where being eaten by a predator was a real threat.
It’s a survival mechanism known as «fight or flight.»
The «freeze» response is another facet of this that occurs when someone feels anxious: they freeze when they feel threatened, just as animals do if they are attacked.
Ultimately, the safety of our ancestors was what allowed your being to exist in the world.
And when we face threats in our modern age, our body’s danger alert system does the job it was designed to do, and it does it wonderfully.
It’s okay to be afraid of rejection from a crush or being laughed at after a speech or presentation.
Running away from a clown chasing you with a gun is also often a good idea, even if it’s only in your dreams.
These are normal and healthy reactions to keep you safe, and are known as defensive behaviors.
But when you feel your body preparing for a danger that doesn’t seem all that dangerous, a normal and healthy response to danger can turn harmful.
You might be so afraid of telling your crush your true feelings that you stop talking to them altogether. (Or postpone the conversation until they finally announce they’re seeing someone else.)
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is considered the gold standard for diagnosing mental, emotional, and behavioral illnesses.
The criteria for diagnosing an anxiety disorder are based on several factors.
The two main symptoms are excessive anxiety and worry, and three or more of the following six symptoms must be present: restlessness or feeling nervous; easy fatigue; difficulty concentrating or a blank mind; irritability; muscle tension; and/or sleep disturbance.
The manual also indicates that the symptoms of worry must be present most of the time for at least six months, be difficult for the person to control, be disproportionate to the situation, and cause difficulty functioning.
Feeling temporarily stressed is normal, but when anxiety becomes severe enough to be diagnosed as an anxiety disorder, it can make you (and those around you) miserable.
Are highly sensitive people (HSPs) more likely to suffer from anxiety?
Yes, indeed. Studies show that highly sensitive people (HSPs) are more likely to react negatively in stressful situations, making us more likely to develop anxiety.
Furthermore, we are easily overstimulated on a daily basis and are highly influenced by environmental factors, so imagine how our anxiety increases when we are stressed.
This happens because our brain deeply processes all the information we receive.
Scientists are still trying to understand exactly why, but research published earlier this year suggests that there are simply more connections between our neurons, especially in the brain regions that manage memories and emotions, particularly fear.
More connections between neurons means our brains can be more efficient at processing information.
The connections between neurons can be thought of as telephone wires or train tracks.
Each connection allows specific pieces of information, packaged as electrical impulses, to travel along the line to reach their destination in the brain.
Different brain regions receive these pieces of information and react accordingly through the use of hormones and other chemicals.
This applies to all brains, but especially to those of HSPs, where a greater number of connections means more information is available for the brain to process and use when figuring out how to react to a given situation. If neurotypical brains are similar to a pair of train tracks alongside a highway, the brains of HSPs can be thought of as Grand Central Station, only on a larger scale.
Purely by chance, research has found that these additional neurons are located primarily in the brain region that manages emotions and emotional memory.
This means that while humans, as a species, are prone to remembering dangerous situations in order to later avoid them, HSPs are even more so.
The additional information provided by increased brain connections simply increases the likelihood that our brains will face more threats to respond to.
The Anxious Brain of an HSP in Action
Let’s look at an example of an HSP’s anxious brain in action. At a previous job, I was late to a shift once after being either punctual or early for a year.
I rushed into work, afraid of being fired, or at least being reprimanded by my boss. What would I do if I were laid off? I didn’t want to look for a new job, especially during a pandemic.
Besides, how would I support myself while searching? I could take money from my savings, but I had just redeposited it after spending it during nursing school. All of this led me to wonder: Why couldn’t I have left the house sooner?
In the end, I wasn’t laid off, but the mounting sense of fear and hopelessness I experienced in that situation also increased the likelihood that I would feel even more anxious in the future if I was late again, even a little. In these situations, and others, when anxiety and stress take over, it can develop into an anxiety disorder. But in this article, we’ll focus on «anxiety» as a general term.
Physical symptoms of anxiety also affect HSPs more intensely.
In addition to the worry and stress characteristic of anxiety, the DSM-5 also includes physical symptoms of anxiety in its diagnostic criteria, such as muscle tension and fatigue.
Pain and fatigue are known to be strong triggers for HSPs, who, of course, experience these sensations much more frequently than the average neurotypical person.
Cortisol, the hormone released during periods of prolonged stress, also influences eating patterns and can lead to hunger.
Elaine Aron, one of the leading sensitivity researchers, included hunger in her HSP scale, a test that measures a person’s sensitivity. Furthermore, HSPs are more likely to experience hunger and anger.
Therefore, HSPs are not only more likely to develop anxiety, thanks to our deep-processing brain, but they are also more likely to experience its symptoms, both physical and mental, with greater intensity. Untreated anxiety can make life miserable for those who suffer from it, along with high sensitivity.
The Silent Tension at the Top: Mental Health in Executive Leadership
The following contribution is from the McLean Hospital website.
Executive leadership often conjures images of success: strategic offices, global influence, and the power to transform industries.
But behind the glittering titles and impressive resumes, many leaders silently struggle with the overwhelming weight of responsibility.
Experiencing in Silence
The reality? Executive burnout
