I’m slowly making my way through Dr. Woodhouse’s You’re Not Broken (link)because there’s a lot to process. Reading a book like this can be overwhelming, and she points that out. Sometimes we need professional help to sort through all the thinking and trauma loops we’ve collected and included in our daily lives.

This morning’s reading was enlightening. Dr. Woodhouse lists some common traumatic thinking patterns, and I will share them here with you. If you recognize yourself in this list, it might be good to read this book/seek healing assistance/discuss these ideas with a professional:

• Mind-reading (guessing, second guessing, guessing again what others are thinking)
• Shoulds (I should be working harder)
• Self-Sabotaging (what’s the point in trying, I might as well give up)
• Destructive decision-making (I’m going to give up)
• Worry and rumination (running over and over the same thing in your mind)
• Black-and-white thinking (I’m right, you’re wrong — not being able to find a measured middle-ground)
• Catastrophising (I’m definitely going to lose my job because I made that little mistake)

Now, I’m sharing these because it might be helpful to connect the patterns with your own thinking. It doesn’t stop there. This book has exercises to help you work through the patterns and release habits.

One particular tool that I intend to try soon (really, I do!) is to journal through some of the reactions, thoughts, and triggers that may be connecting with self destructive behaviour. Dr. Woodhouse writes that “[t]his tool is about observing your daily life, yourself, your reactions, physical sensations, feelings, thoughts and behaviour.”

It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it could be helpful as a starting point for those working through trauma and the after effects of trauma.

Let me repeat that. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be helpful.

And one thing I’m pretty sure about is that journaling in and of itself won’t be harmful. It may bring up some painful memories, though. It may be uncomfortable.

For me, though, lately the discomfort of working through trauma is less than the discomfort of being trapped in a trauma loop. A catch phrase that I’ve heard in 12 step groups is “stinkin’ thinkin'”. Stinkin thinkin is not a pretty place. It’s not a happy place. It might be comfortable, because it’s familiar. Suffering might be familiar, but that doesn’t mean we need to marinate in it.

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