Stephanie Ortoleva
#Trauma doesn’t make people stronger.
It damages their nervous system.
It hijacks their digestive tract.
It keeps the person in a constant loop of hypervigilance.
To tell someone they are stronger because of trauma is to deny what it has cost them to survive.
Dec 7, 2024 at 10:20amWeb
Show threadlaurelDec 7, 2024
@StephanieOrtoleva @Resister Living with trauma is also not the same thing as moving forward with strength and resiliency. Most of the ways I coped with early childhood trauma were painful to myself & others, frequently destructive in nature, and added crippling levels of shame to the ever increasing unmanageability of it all.
Show threadlaurelDec 7, 2024
@StephanieOrtoleva @Resister It took a whole community of people committed to loving me at my most unlovable for any real strength to begin developing. Strength out of trauma is what happens when we take care of each other, when we approach the individual experience of pain with solidarity and compassion.
Show threadJohn A. WojtowiczDec 7, 2024

@StephanieOrtoleva
Thank you for your post.
I have had secondary onset diabetes for several years. Since before the election my glucose levels have increased. After the election, the numbers have gotten worse.
My diet has been consistent throughout.
I believe stress (trauma) has been the determining factor.

Peace

Show threadShantell PowellDec 7, 2024
@StephanieOrtoleva I wonder if this is why my GI system has been fucked up since I was a teen.
Show threadJargogglesDec 7, 2024

@StephanieOrtoleva
There's a great episode of Community where Jeff confronts his deadbeat dad and his dad is basically like "look at all of these good qualities it gave you." Jeff confronts him and rattles off all of the different ways it damaged him, too.

Abusers only seem to try to take credit for the ways we manage to put ourselves back together and never for the ways we're still damaged. Go figure.

Show threadcheeseheadDec 7, 2024
@StephanieOrtoleva agree to disagree, as someone with C-PTSD

it sure irreversibly damaged my psyche, but personally it also lets me see things others, who never went through what i did, would never see

not saying the deal is worth it, that's just how i see my own shit, there's definitely more downsides and it's better off to be blissfully unaware and have a great life