Relationship Trauma: Signs, Effects & Tips to Heal From It

It’s good, wholesome and human to need love. We stay longer, more healthy lives while we sense a person near us with whom we feel safe. 

It isn’t a hidden fact that for all of us, wholesome relationships matter. In fact, deep relationships are vital to a lifestyle as a wholesome human being. 

What is relationship trauma?

Situations like abuse and bad behavior are what define a relationship trauma. For someone being in such a trauma, the act of deepening relationships in a wholesome manner may be mainly difficult. Something apparently easy like accepting praise can be painfully hard. 

But the ability to deal with and let go of such fears is what needs to be done if someone is facing such a thing. 

Emotional and psychological trauma

PTSD and relationships can be taxing. While emotional trauma is a typical reaction to an upsetting occasion, it becomes Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when your sensory system gets “stuck” and you stay in mental shock, incapable of figuring out what occurred or processing your feelings.

Aftershocks after proceedings of any trauma are broadly categorized into 5 phases according to research.

These phases of relationship trauma are-

• Shock and refusal
• Pain and Guilt
• Agony and culpability
• Depression
• Acknowledgment and trust.

Caution: This article contains data about harmful connections, which some might find setting off.

Also read: What Are the 5 Stages of Grief in a Relationship Break-up

10 signs you are experiencing trauma after a toxic relationship

While many individuals feel down or disturbed when a relationship reaches a conclusion, there’s a major contrast between pausing for a minute to stop and reflect and encountering a post-traumatic relationship. 

Assuming you’re emerging from the relationship with serious stuff, obstacles, or manifestations that appear to be like traumatic pressures, there’s a decent possibility you were in a harmful relationship, or had a genuinely or truly oppressive accomplice, and are enduring, therefore. 

Want to find out?

Check these relationship trauma symptoms of whether you are experiencing trauma after a relationship or not?  

1. You feel paranoid about running into your ex, not because it might be awkward but because of the fear that he/she might be stalking you.
2. You want to jump back into that relationship, forgetting all hardships it had with a fresh start.
3. You feel guilty because you stuck around with someone who wasn’t right for you.
4. You keep blaming yourself for the end of that relationship.  
5. You feel like you don’t deserve a healthy relationship.
6. You Have Intrusive Thoughts about your ex as you process what happened. It might feel like you need to ponder something different, yet can’t.
7. You have nightmares where you feel like you are transported back to those toxic times in your relationship.
8. You feel anxious & unsettled all the time and cannot take your mind off those incidents.
9. You withdraw from friends & family. You refute any kind of help or support from your well-wishers.
10. You feel unsure to step into any new relationship. There is always a feeling of fear back in your mind.  

Trauma and its effect on relationships

So, how do traumas create negative patterns in relationships? How does trauma affect relationships? 

In a relationship, it is important to reflect on your instincts. Do not ignore any similar patterns if you observe them. Rather, for relationships after trauma, trust what you’ve gained from your past relationship, and don’t be reluctant to end another one in the event that it is giving you terrible energy.

Further, it’s important to know that time may ultimately mend your injuries, however, your sentiments will change when the environment starts to change in the relationship when you see your accomplice putting forth an attempt to change the relationship environment through clear activity.

How to heal from relationship trauma

The anger, guilt, and fear of a traumatic relationship do not fade away instantly. It takes time to heal completely. But this doesn’t mean you sit ideally and wait for that time to come naturally. Here are 4 steps that you can follow:

1. Take care of yourself

Exercise regularly, together with going for a walk, using a bicycle, or taking a workout class (continually seek advice from your physician earlier than starting any workout program)

2. Sleep well

Get at least seven to eight hours of sleep each night.

Rewire and reprogram your mind for powerful self-healing so that you can release negative thought cycles and unwanted behaviors, process your emotions effectively, and choose healthy options easily.

3. Get busy

Exploring a brand new skill, together with taking a cooking class, becoming a member of an e-book club, or enrolling in a seminar at your nearby college

4. Seek support

Calling or seeing buddies or cherished ones who can provide aid.

Apart from this relationship trauma survivors may also use the following flow cycle to reflect on their thoughts and let go of these disturbing and negative thoughts. This may also help them to move into a new relationship smoothly.

5. Find the problem

Sit with your thoughts and start listing them down. Figure out the problems and magnitudes of that. At first, you may not even want to go on that path of bad nostalgia, thinking you are not strong enough to rethink all that. But trust me without facing that fear it’s not possible to bury those paths forever.

6. Come up with a clear plan

Take a bold step forward and draw up a plan of how you will go about resolving these issues. Make yourself feel happy about the courage you have put in all while the process goes. 

7. Reflect on the plan

While you would rather not deny your sentiments and imagine all is great, you additionally don’t have any desire to reflect and ruminate. But remember this is the final step and you are strong enough to go by it.