16 Days of Action Against Domestic Violence #Day8

Trauma is not stored as a narrative with an orderly beginning, middle and end.  Memories return….as flashbacks that contain fragments of the experience, isolated images, sounds and bodily sensations that initially have no context other than fear and panic
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 The Body Keeps The Score
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 Bessel Van Der Kolk

This is not a narrative with an orderly beginning, middle and end.

This might be a narrative with an orderly beginning, middle and end.

This is a flashback

This isn’t a flashback

This contains fragments of the experience

This doesn’t contain fragments or experience.

These are isolated images

These are not isolated image, these are not sounds

This is a bodily sensation with no context

There is context, and this is a bodily sensation

This is fear and panic

There is nothing to fear and panic here

When Someone is Singing

When someone is singing the old carols –
the earth hard as iron, snow on snow,
when cold brings the world to silence,
when the name of the city we lived in is spoken,
when lorries are parked in lines at service stations,
when making a decision, when another year ends,
when a coach ticks to itself in the heat,
when I see a couple arguing in public,
when I hear someone shouting or swearing,
when I see boats or think of the sea,
when I remember I know how someone can break,
if somebody spits on the pavement, if somebody spits,
when I stand at a bus stop, when I visit the doctors,
when I get in a car with someone else driving,
when I see bouncers in nightclub doorways,
with the taking and giving of pain, when I’m afraid,
it’s only then I think of him, or remember his name.