I’ve seen many mentions recently about anxiety being a normal response to our current world. This is also a contradiction to what much of the self-help and positivity industry would tell us. Spend any time on social media and you’ll see plenty of messages about gratitude, finding joy and purpose, and the silver lining in any situation.
What you won’t hear is that there are situations that SHOULD make you angry, anxious, and sad. But there are.
Frankly, this does sound like a common struggle for childhood abuse survivors. It also sounds a lot like some of the symptoms of being neurodivergent. So, I guess the question is, does a history of childhood maltreatment equal an increase in the likelihood of being neurodivergent? Or does this personality trait simply have a lot in common with other types of neurodivergent traits yet is caused by surviving early trauma?
Let’s start the conversation, where do you go when you want to see some good news? Do you check out a site like Upworthy.com? Do you follow someone making fun content or beautiful art on social media? Do you find fun music on your favorite streaming app? What can we do to bring more kindness into our newsfeeds?
Where do you go to find the good in this world?
What we see there is that mental health problems can create debt. When we cannot work, our healthcare costs skyrocket, and we can find ourselves in a poor financial situation. That poor financial situation creates more stress and emotional labor, contributing to mental health issues.
Whether the mental health problem or financial struggle came first doesn’t matter. Once we are in the cycle, it will continue round and round.
That’s what cycles do.
Maybe, instead of blaming people for overreacting, we should consider for a moment why they do not feel safe. And instead of beating ourselves up for overreacting, we consider how to ground ourselves and remind ourselves of our safety when the need arises.
As survivors, our healing depends on our ability to create a life where we feel safe. That means both being in a safe place and learning to recognize that safety to get out of this constant survival mode. That mode is not sustainable. It was never meant to be a constant state of being.
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