Deborah Lee with Sophie James - The Compassionate Mind Approach to Recovering from Trauma

We have always understood that compassion is very important for our well-being. If we are stressed or upset, it is always better to have kind, helpful, and supportive people around rather than critical, rejecting, or uninterested folk. However, it is not only this common sense that tells us about the value of kindness and compassion; recent advances in scientific studies of compassion and kindness have greatly advanced our understanding of how compassionate qualities of the mind really do influence our brains, bodies, and social relationships, as well as affect our health and well-being. Compassion can be especially important when we are faced with major stresses and traumas. At these times we can find ourselves going numb, having flashbacks and intrusions, and experiencing a change in our normal sense of self and in our emotions.

Our susceptibility to these difficult reactions to traumatic events is due in part to the way the brain processes them. In this landmark book, Dr. Deborah Lee explores many of the common symptoms that are associated with trauma, such as flashbacks and intrusions and at times a changed sense of reality and feelingsometimes linked to whats called dissociationand how these symptoms are related to the way our brains may be working. Not uncommonly we can ruminate on the trauma and wonder why it happened to us. We can become sensitive to small triggers from sights, smells, or sounds, which can reactivate very unpleasant trauma memories and feelings. Because we struggle at times to fathom whats going on in our minds, or to deal with the intrusions or change of feelings, we can become self-critical, which compounds our sense of threat and difficulties in healing our traumatic experiences. Not only might we feel self-critical about how we are trying to cope with the trauma, we might feel critical and ashamed about the events surrounding the trauma. We can get locked into self-accusatory spirals, feeling that our sense of self has been changed by the trauma.

So why are we so susceptible to having these very disturbing experiences that can last long after the trauma has passed? Dr. Lee uses her wealth of knowledge and experience in working with traumatized people to guide our understanding and help us recognize that actually many of our emotions and the ways we react to frightening events are the result of a very long evolutionary history. We share with other animals capacities for certain emotions such as fear, anxiety, terror, anger, and frustration. Where we differ from other animals is that we have brains that are capable of extraordinary feats of memory and of analyzing ourselves and our environment. Whereas, for example, if a zebra or an antelope is chased by a lion, after it has made its escape it will usually settle down and go back to eating. It is unlikely to ruminate on the event, to wonder why it happened to it or if it could have avoided it by behaving better, or to ponder the implications for its future. The animal probably wont dwell on what could have happened if it had been caught and entertain horrible fantasies of being eaten. If it suffers from flashbacks of the lion attack, then again its unlikely to ruminate about these, what they mean, and how it can stop them. Of course, we know that animals can be traumatized too and become very anxious or aggressive; people who give homes to these rescued animals will understand this reality very well. Equally, we know that a supportive, kind, and calming environment is what is needed for animals to heal from trauma. If this is true for animals, then it is certainly true for us as well.