Terror To Triumph
Childhood trauma is a taboo subject in that it's deeply emotional for people to learn, talk, and comprehend it. However, healing, true healing, can't come from silence. This podcast digs in to the emotions and reveals the symptoms of what can lead to childhood trauma, AND the tell tell signs that can alert us that something is wrong with the youths in our homes, schools, churches, or wherever. Whether it's physical, mental, verbal, or sexual abuse, this podcast takes a brave head on approach to tackle the difficult subject matters while providing the audience a platform to vent, and reach out for help.
Terror To Triumph
Season 1, Episode 8: Finishing episode 7 and beginning episode 8.
We started this mini-series four weeks ago talking about a foundation: rebuilding trust with yourself.
We explored how trust breaks down. We walked through the step-by-step process of rebuilding it. And over the past few weeks, we've talked about sustaining it.
But here's what I want you to understand: This isn't just about trust. This is about reclaiming your life.
www.youtube.com/@TERRORTOTRIUMPHLIVE
Now, if you're struggling with self-sabotage and you don't know where to start, welcome, welcome, welcome. This is Terry the Triumph. I am Alfonso Pelt. I welcome you, welcome you, welcome you. Joining us tonight again is our wonderful co-host, Storm. How you doing, Storm?
SPEAKER_02:I'm doing great.
SPEAKER_00:That's what's up. We are finally finishing off episode seven tonight. It was so damn packed full of information last week. If you saw last week's episode, we ran out of time, but I did not want you all to lose the information that we have for you. So we said on episode eight, we would start in this week, finishing off episode seven, and then going into episode eight, all in one episode again. So episode seven was finishing off our four-part mini-series on trust. So now we're gonna pick it up where we left off. We explored how trust breaks down. We walked through the step-by-step process of rebuilding trust. Over the past few weeks, we talked about how to sustain it. But here's what I want you to understand: this isn't just about trust, this is about reclaiming your life. Um that means leaving negativity behind, trusting yourself to do the right things, and trusting yourself to make the right decisions when it comes to relationships. We can't do it all the time, but one step at a time, building little bit by little bit, we can start to come over the fear, the guilt, the self-sabotage, and all the other things that we created in our psychosis to deal with the trauma as children. But now we're adults where that stuff doesn't work anymore, and now we're developing coping mechanisms, we're developing new thought patterns to defeat and rearrange our minds so that we can have healthy habits, so that we can go forth building meaningful relationships while being vulnerable, but not to the point of detriment of detrimental health where it would cause us damage or harm emotionally, physically, sexually, or any other kind of way. So we've learned that there are settings, certain types of skills and coping mechanisms we could do to help us build a healthy habit, healthy mindset to where we can trust our own instincts, our own thoughts, and set boundaries where we can say openly and affirmatively, this is where we have to draw the line. We have to have open dialogue, not yelling, shouting, but stating the facts factually. That's it. There's no fluff, no thrills, no filler, plain facts, cold logic. And if the other person doesn't respond, that they admit what they did was wrong, or if they try to circumnavigate it or diminish it or try to blame you for the wrong, game over. If you can't abide by this boundary that I I have set, there's no longer a need for us to have a relationship, and that's where we come in today. We we've set all these, well, we didn't set them, but we have shared the knowledge of how to build these coping mechanisms to build our self-trust and trust in others, learning where it's reasonable to still be in a relationship to trust somebody when they've gone too far to cut it off. Or if they try to fix it, and you can see honestly by watching, then you could choose to stay with them, and you can judge how much you need to give yourself to that person, how much you're willing to get close to that person. Remember, it's not about what is not fair, it's about what is, and we have to keep boundaries for ourselves to protect ourselves, but not only for that, but to keep peace in our mindset. Okay, nah, I said all that to recap last week, and now when you sustain trust over time, you can build a life that's stable, a life where you can relax, a life where things can be good, and good things last. And I before we didn't think anything good could last, and we were self-sabotaging those things, but this is the beacon of light, this is where the journey leads to. You don't have to be perfect, you don't have to get it right every time, you know. We're human, we mess up, we make mistakes, you have to forgive yourself. Self-empathy was another thing we talked about. You just have to keep showing up for yourself, keep honoring uh your instincts, keep setting those boundaries, keep choosing people and situations that are trustworthy for you over time, maybe not right away, but you look back and realize I can trust myself, I can trust my life. I'm I could trust that I'm capable of building something beautiful. That's the promise of the work that we're doing here on Terror to Triumph. That's what we've been building towards a community of people learning how to recover from trauma, from abuse, from childhood, scars that have lasted all the way into adulthood. That's what we're about here. Sharing the journeys that we've all taken. So without further ado, before we transition into something new, I want to say, excuse me, I want to say something directly to everybody who's listening who's struggled in the past with trust. You are not broken. Your nervous system learned to protect you the best way and knew how. And now you're learning a new way, a way that's safer, a way that's more open, a way that honors both your vulnerability and your wisdom. That takes courage, real courage. And I see you, I really see you. But trust, real deep lasting trust is something you'll be building on for the rest of your life. And that's okay. That's beautiful, because every time you choose to trust yourself, every time you set a boundary, every time you give someone a chance and they show up, you're rewiring your nervous system and your healing. Storm, I gotta thank you for taking this journey with me. Your presence, your vulnerability, your willingness to share has made this mini-series real and powerful. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:Please. You're welcome. We're here today to make sure that it's about engagement. It's about, you know, like you said, opening yourself up for others to see. You know, this is not staged, it's not rehearsed. It's something that we have been through and that we opening ourselves up so that you can see that people can heal, people, you know, can survive, people can set boundaries. And if those, like you said, if you have to do this for the rest of your life, it's okay. You just have to have the courage to set boundaries to other people. So that's the courage of protecting yourself, not to just push people away. You want to protect yourself, but you don't have to push people away trying to protect yourself. Just set your boundaries and stick with those boundaries because we're here to open up and tell you because we have gone through the derby, we have got the derpicions, we still seeking derpy. So this is not, you know, that the derpy is over. We continue to seek derpy. So we'll continue to open ourselves up, we continue to let you know we're here for you, and that's what this is all about.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely, absolutely. Even this, this podcast is us. I don't consider it to be therapy, and I don't want to disillusion anybody. I'm not a psychologist or a certified therapist, I am a survivor, just like Storm is. What this podcast is, is a segue for people to open up, to step out from under the veil of fear, out of the shadow of guilt, so they can start to be human and live the life they were supposed to live, that God had intended for them to live. So, this podcast is is is a way to show you a blueprint to say you don't have to do this this way by yourself. You are not alone. We're here telling you we've been through some nasty stuff. I'm sure you might have too, but you didn't have to suffer like we did because we're here to help you get through it. We're trying to build that community for that purpose, that sole purpose only, that we can all come together and seek healing together. If you need some help right now, though, the numbers at the bottom of your screen, the information down there are help lines. You can jot those down. Even if you don't need help, you might know someone who may need help in the future. Jot those numbers down anyway. That's crucial information that could save somebody's life, and that's what we're here for. Let's continue. To everyone listening, you are worthy of trust. You are worthy of healthy relationships, you are worthy of a life where trust is the foundation, not the exception. Now finished, we can go on into episode eight. Okay. So now we're talking about what happens in the immediate aftermath of trauma. Not weeks later, not months later, but right now. Like something happened to you right after it happened. There was domestic violence, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and it just happened. What do we do? Right now, in the moment, in the hours and days after something devastating happens. That's what we're about to talk about. This is survival information. This is what you need to know to get through the hardest moments.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, let's go. Let's go.
SPEAKER_00:All right, we're about to get into it. First, let's talk about what happens to your body and mind when a trauma occurs, when trauma occurs. Because trauma is not just a psychological event, it's a physical event. When something traumatic happens, your nervous system goes into overdrive. Your body floods with stress hormones, adrenaline, cortisol, your heart races, your breathing becomes shallow, your muscles tense.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:And this happens, this what happens. It's no sorry, this what happens.
SPEAKER_00:You know, sometimes just saying this stuff, you know, brings back memories of, and try to maintain and focus for the sake of people who are listening who need the information. So I'm battling through it. You know, it's not like I'm completely healed. I'm gonna be the first one to tell you I'm still going through trauma. Episodes, you know, things are called back to my memory, or situations bring back thoughts of the trauma. And I'm going through therapy myself currently, and just like a few moments ago that triggered a response as I was saying those words. So I should let you know, and it's it's not as a survivor, it's not easy, it's not easy, even trying to help each other, but the help is needed, the work is necessary. Excuse me. Give me a second, y'all.
SPEAKER_02:While he takes that second, what he's saying is that you know, we continue to go through this each and every day. And even when you talk about it and you be open to people, you're still gonna have those moments. But the more you open up to someone that you feel safe with, a derpist, a doctor, or even so much as a companion friend that you feel close to, you're still gonna have that feeling that that's gonna that tense gonna come back, but it's okay because you're trying to get druid, and you're gonna get through it because that's what we're here for. Back to you.
SPEAKER_00:That's true, that's true. That's why we're here. That's why we're here, and you you know we're not faking this, you know. This is real, this is absolutely 100% human emotion, human feelings, um, live being broadcast to you. So I want everybody to know that we are human. This is this is not something we we just said, oh, you know, it'd be fun if we, you know, this we decided to do this because we felt that the silence had gone on long enough. No one's talking about this subject, not like they should, and because of that, people aren't receiving the healing that they need, not like they should. Okay, I'm good now. Thank you, thank you, Storm, for stepping in there. What I just described to you guys, those emotions, is called the fight, flight, or freeze response. It's your nervous system's way of protecting you, is trying to keep you alive. But here's what's important to understand the response doesn't turn off automatically. Not when the trauma ends. Your nervous system, excuse me, your nervous system can stay stuck in this activated state for hours, days, weeks. Common immediate trauma response, you can have shock, numbness, intense fear or panic, hypervigilance, where you're scanning for danger, danger, you're looking around and see, oh, this guy, he might, he might do something to me, or this this woman, she she looked like she's gonna do something to me, or you know, before any symptoms or or words are said that could allude to something being dangerous, your mind is making up scenarios on its own, trying to protect you. But that's one of those responses, a racing heart. How many of us have had that as survivors? Just going down the street, heart racing. Why? Nobody's bothering you, but your heart's racing because you feel vulnerable. That's another one of those situations, dissociation or feeling disconnected from your body, difficulty thinking clearly, emotional flooding or emotional shutdown, the urge to run and hide, freezing or feeling paralyzed, like you can't move. None of these signs are signs of weakness, they're signs that you're human, your nervous system is doing exactly what it was designed to do. The first thing to know is that after trauma, what you're experiencing is normal. Your body is responding exactly as it should. Storm, what's your immediate response to trauma? What did your body do?
SPEAKER_02:No, it was the heart palpitation, it was, you know, numbness, you know. I was the first time it happened, it's like I froze, you know, because I was threatened. And you didn't know how to react. It was like I went, you know, went home, I was scrubbing, you know, for days on edge because you feel nasty, you know. And that's another thing, but you know, you still feel numb. You feel you still feel numb. Some people feel numbness, you know, and your heart is always palpitating because you don't know when it's gonna come because my victim stalked me for three years. So it was always a nervousness. I didn't, I didn't know what to do. And for three years, until that person, until something happened, but it took something else for him to do somebody else the same way, and they took control of the situation. So, yes, that's when I felt free once he was convicted, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I think I've experienced just about every one of those things. I think about when the trauma happened to me, the most severe trauma that I've ever been afflicted with. It felt like I couldn't even breathe. That would be a physical response. Heart rapid freezing, yeah. Freezing like I couldn't believe it was about to happen or happening. It was it was those those three things right there mind racing. It was um intense, intense panic, intense fear. So I don't shock, numbness. No, not the numbness part. But it was it was some shock to it, yeah. Well, the first thing to know is that that was normal. We have to realize that those feelings were normal that we were experiencing, our response to the trauma, those were normal. So let's talk about the first few the first few hours after the trauma happened. What did we do? What are our priorities? First and foremost, we have to say, are we safe right now? If we're still in danger, the first job is to get to safe. That's number one. Call nine one one if you have to. If you're safe, tell yourself that I'm safe. Say it out loud, I'm safe now. The immediate threat is gone. That's if you're safe. I feel like I want to explain safety because you could hide yourself in the closet, lock yourself in the bathroom. That does not mean that you're safe. If you are away from the threat, the threat is no longer in the house, you left the house, or wherever you are, you got away, then you could say that you are safe. If you got somewhere, a friend's house, police station, fire station, somewhere where you could get some help, that would be a safe place. Hospital. I'm just thinking if those are safe places. So don't misinterpret just being out of sight as being safe because the threat could still be upon you. Depending on what happened, if there's been abuse or assault, call the police. Okay, don't play with that. If there's been an incident or injury, definitely call 911. If you're having a mental health crisis, call a crisis line or go to the emergency room. You don't have to handle this alone, y'all. Getting help is not a weakness, it's wisdom. Maybe I should say that again. Getting help is not weakness, it's wisdom. Oftentimes we tell ourselves we don't want nobody to know what we are going through. How can you get help if you keep it to yourself and you never tell anybody? And that's the problem. The fear keeps us silent, and we go years without the help that we need, without the healing that we need. Isolation after trauma is dangerous. Connection is medicine. Even if you can't talk about the details, tell someone you're in crisis, you're in a state of crisis. Tell someone you need help. Your nervous system is in overdrive. Your body needs water. Stay hydrated. Keep your feet on the ground, feel the chair beneath you, anchor yours anchor yourself to the present moment. Breathing. Take slow, deep breaths. In for four seconds, pull for four seconds, out for four seconds. This tells your nervous system that you're safe. Get a blanket, wrap yourself up. Your body needs that comfort. These are things you could do to help yourself. Don't isolate yourself. If possible, have someone stay with you. Not to talk about it necessarily, just to be present. Somebody you can trust. Yeah. Try to go to somebody like that in your life. Just to be around them. You know, you don't have to go into details about the situation at the moment. But just to let them know you need somebody to help you come back down to feel that you're safe. Somebody you know that's not gonna harm you. In the first few hours after trauma, your job is survival, not processing, not understanding, just surviving. You need to survive after the trauma. Okay, Storm. Uh we had to ask you another question. What helped you the most in the first few hours after the trauma?
SPEAKER_02:I s well, you're not supposed to have isolation, but I did, you know, I had cut everybody off. You know, I didn't, you know, want to be with nobody. I wanted to just I knew I was safe because I was with my cousin, you know, she didn't know that nothing had gone down because she really didn't know. She was in another part of where it had happened, and she didn't know that it went down. I didn't say anything because, like I said, I was threatened and I believed that threat, you know. If I would have known that what I know now, yes, I could have ended everything in a snap. I could have called police or whatever, but I isolated myself, I froze, you know. I could I became numb because that was that's the only way I felt like I could survive. I had to be numb because I had to play like wasn't nothing going on because I believed that threat. So I became numb. And I became numb for 10 years.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for sharing that. Thank you for sharing that. I try to think about um what I did to cope after the trauma. Uh I didn't have any coping mechanisms. I didn't I couldn't in my situation there was no escape. I couldn't I couldn't leave the house. That didn't work. Failed miserably. I had nobody I could call where I can get on the phone and have an isolated phone conversation, you know. We didn't have cell phones like we do today, you know. Children, you know, kids have cell phones. We didn't have that back in our time.
SPEAKER_02:Nope.
SPEAKER_00:So I know isolation is wrong, but that's what I did. I went to my room and cried.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:But I cried for hours, and I I couldn't get to nobody to console me. The one other person that I thought I confided, could confide in in the house, saw it happen, and I guess because of her own trauma, deleted it or removed it from her memory. So I had nobody to confide in. That we need people to confide in because, or at least to be around, because in those moments, I was very suicidal, very suicidal. Yes, that was that was the moment where I came out my bedroom window and I was about to just die head first out of second story window into the pavement. If it wasn't for my next door neighbor, seeing me standing out on the ledge outside my window and yelling at me, I wouldn't be here today.
SPEAKER_02:The same. I'm sorry, the same situation, very suicidal from a lot of different things going on. You know, you every time you think about it, every time you think somebody has wronged you, it's like I wanted to put a gun up to my head and just end it all. But because I had a best friend that could feel she called me and she was like, I know something going down, put it down. I'm coming. And she did. She came, her family embraced me, but until she didn't even know what kind of trauma it was, she just knew that I was had something going on and I wasn't ready to talk. And but she was there, and I may be thinking about five more years after that, that's when things went left, and I finally got some help because another situation happened in my life, and that's how I was able to get the help that I did get, but it took 10 years for me to break my silence.
SPEAKER_00:See, that's why we're here tonight, so you don't have to wait as long as we did. I didn't start to see a therapist until this year. I'm 54 years old. When that trauma happened, I don't think I was more than eight. Might have been seven, eight years old. You don't have to wait that long. You got people right here to help you. You got people who are trying to give you information to help you out of your situation, help you come out of your situation, help you deal with your situation. Numbers you can call to get the help that you need. We didn't have that, we had nobody on our side to say, do this, come over. Luckily, Storm had somebody 10 years later that was willing to come help, but in the meantime, that's 10 years, 10 years. We're gonna do another podcast that's gonna be about noticing the red flags and others because that's something we need to pay attention to, the people around us. But let's press forward. I don't wanna end up having this be another continued episode. Okay, so you made it through the first four hours. Now we're in the first days. What does stabilization look like? Ah, you create a physical space where you're safe. This could be your bedroom where you're locked inside. This could be over. A friend's house, a shelter, anywhere you feel that you could be or are protected. You make it comfortable. You dim the lights, have water nearby, blankets, make it a sanctuary. Your nervous system is in chaos right now. But routines create structure, predictability, and predictability helps you, helps your nervous system calm down, even if it's small. Wake up at a certain time, eat meals at a certain time, go to bed at a regular time. Do one grounding thing each day. Limit your triggers. Right now, your nervous system, your nervous system is hyper sensitive. I don't know. Smells, certain people, anything could trigger you back into a trauma response. So limit your exposure. Turn off the news because you know that ain't nothing but bad for you, right there. So always talking about something bad. Avoid social media. Social media always shows you something bad. Don't talk about the trauma repeatedly unless you're with a professional. Yeah, there's a reason behind that. Professionals can give you advice, they know what to say at the right times to help you. If you speak repeatedly about your situation to somebody who's not a professional, you could get a lot of bad advice. So this is not the time for that. Avoid people who minimize and minimum, I'm sorry, minimize, minimize, Lord, have mercy. Minimize or blame you and protect your energy. Your nervous system needs to know you're safe. Grounding techniques help. Technique is to name five things you see, four things you can touch, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one you can taste. Then do a body scan. Scan your body from head to toe. Notice where you feel tension. Breathe into it. Cold water. Splash some cold water on your face or hold the ice cube in your hand. This acts no, this is a word I might mess this word up right here. This activates your parasympathetic nervous system and calms you down. Thank you. Movement, walk, stretch, dance. Movement helps process the trauma stored in your body. You already started breathing to loosen up the tension, but keep the breathing slow. Intentional, though, you know, focused. Do box breathing four, four, four, four. Like we discussed earlier. Repeat, repeat. And that calms your body down. In the first days, you should connect with a trauma-informed therapist, counselor, or crisis worker. You need professional support. This is not something that you should handle alone or you should deal with by yourself. Getting professional help early can help you alleviate decades of misery, messed up relationships, isolation. People, we're living proof trying to tell you what to avoid because we went through it. This is not something you would want to experience. A life living in fear, in misery, in dread with guilt, just shadowing you. You don't want to live like that. That's no way to live. And then you're getting in relationships where all this stuff up here is still affecting your relationships, and you can't hold on to a good relationship because you sabotage them or you push good people away. Do you want that? No, of course not. You want a healthy life, you want a healthy relationship. Get the help you need, and the earlier you get it, the more apt you will be to have a healthy relationship later on down the road. Don't play with this. Call a crisis line. Look for community mental health centers. Check and see if there's a support group in your area. It possibly will be. Sometimes, yeah. I don't know. I've had that feeling. I want to just like this is what happened to me. Is anybody listening? You know, I felt like saying it, screaming. You might feel the urge to tell nobody. Both are normal. That's normal on both sides. But be strategic about who you tell. Tell the people who will believe you. Tell the people who won't blame you. Like if you were sexually assaulted, and you tell somebody and they say, Oh, you must have done something to bring that on. That's blaming you. Don't go to those people. If you had conversations where they did that in the past, that's not a person you want to talk to. Tell people who won't minimize it or diminish it. Make it seem like God's not as bad as what it looked. Everybody go through that. Oh, we all had that happen to us. That don't make it right. And it don't make it right that you're trying to diminish my suffering. Tell people who will support you. If somebody says, Oh, that happened to you. Come here, come here. We're about to go get you some help. Support. Somebody who's actually gonna try to help you. In the first days, your job is stabilization. Create safety, establish a routine, get professional support. Okay. Now we're in the first week. You survive, you stabilize. Now processing begins. By now you might be experiencing nightmares or intrusive thoughts, hypervigilance, which you're looking for danger and everything, emotional numbness or flooding, or you don't feel anything, or you just start crying for no reason because all these emotions just come back. You have difficulty concentrating, changes in appetite, like you just don't feel hungry, or you can't go to sleep, or you're sleeping a lot more because you're trying to sleep away the pain, physical pain or tension. You might actually have been hurt from the assault, or tension because your nervous system is still reeling from it. All of these are normal trauma responses, they do not mean that you're broken, they mean your nervous system is processing what happened. This is critical. A trauma-informed therapist can help you with that. They can process what happened, help you understand your nervous system's response, help you to learn coping skills to deal with it, and begin to integrate the trauma. Therapy is not a luxury, it's a necessity after trauma. You have to have it. You need to identify people who believe you, who support you, who don't minimize your experience, and who can show up consistently. You lean on them, let them help. Connection is healing, not isolation. Connection. Practice self-compassion. Might get angry at yourself or blame yourself. You might think I should have or I could have, you know, why didn't I fight back? I could have fought harder. You know, thinking about the past, and it's not gonna change it. Thinking about what you could have, shoulda, woulda did, it's not gonna change it. Here's the truth, though. You did the best you could with the resources you had, with the mindset that you had, and you survived. That's what matters. You lived to live another day, you lived long enough to tell your story, you lived long enough for you to get help. So talk to yourself like you would talk to a friend. Acknowledge your pain without the judgment. Remind yourself, I'm doing the best I can. Some coping mechanisms are healthy, some are not. Healthy coping mechanisms can be journaling, movement, art, or creative expression, some time outside in the nature, like the woods or a park, connecting with others, going out, movies, dinner, just being social. Therapy definitely is a coping mechanism. Meditation or mindfulness, you're trying to focus on yourself, self-therapy. What's unhealthy though is substance use. Trying to wash away the pain is not going to wash away the pain. It's not. No matter how much liquor you put in your body, no matter how much weed or cocaine or heroin or whatever is the method of choice, it's not going to change the situation, it's not going to change your mindset dealing with the trauma. You're just like a video you're watching. You press the mute button. The video's still going. You see everything happening still. You're just muting so you can't hear it. That's all that is. Don't do that. Self-harm. Cutting yourself, pinching yourself, biting yourself. And there's a lot of people who do self-inflicted things. That's unhealthy coping mechanism. Isolation is very unhealthy. It can bring about all the other things, risky behaviors, trying something you know you ain't got no business doing, trying to get some adrenaline to wash away the pain. Numbing through food or other compulsions or eating away your fears or problems. Be intentional about how you cope. Choose practices that heal, not practices that harm, okay? And don't rush the process. Don't judge yourself for how long it's taking because trauma rewires your nervous system and that takes time, okay? Gotta love yourself. In the first few weeks, your job is to begin processing and with professional support to build your healthy team, your healing team. Before we move into our call to action, I want to give you some critical resources. If you're in crisis right now, please reach out. National Crisis Lines or National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. That's 988. That's it. Three digits, 988. Crisis Text Line. You can text H O M E to 741741. The National Child Abuse Hotline is 1-800-422-4453. The National Sex Assault Hotline is 1-800-656-4673. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233. And the National Human Trafficking Hotline is 1888-373-7888. If you're having thoughts of suicide or self-harm, if you're experiencing severe panic or dissociation, if you're in any kind of immediate physical danger, if you're unable to care for yourself, eat, sleep, basic hygiene, if you're having a psychotic episode, seek immediate help. Right now, don't play. Go right now. Call one of those numbers if you need help right now. Call 911 or go to an emergency room if you are in immediate danger. Call call 911. Don't be afraid. I don't want to call 911. Call it. That's their job to help you. They want to help. You are not alone. Help is available. Help is available, people. Please reach out. If you're listening to this and you've recently experienced trauma, I want you to know what you're going through is real. What you are feeling, your responses, they're valid. And you are not alone. Here's what I want you to do. If you're in crisis, call one of the hotlines. Don't wait. Don't suffer alone. Call one of the hotlines. If you're stabilized, find a trauma-informed therapist. Make that call this week. Professional support is essential. Build up your support system by identifying two or three people that you trust. Tell them you need support. Let them help you. Practice one grounding technique, the 54321 technique, the box breathing. Notice what helps your nervous system and what helps you to calm down. Be gentle with yourself. You've been going through something devastating. You're doing the best you can, and that's enough. When you're ready, share your story. If this episode helped you, tell us. Your story might help someone else know that they're not alone. We drop new audio episodes every week. They come out on our breath spot and all our affiliates. We want you to know we're here for you. You can follow us on these programs, these platforms Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podcast Index, Podcast Addict. You can follow us on Pod Chaser, Deezer. Player FM Overcast Castro Cast Box Good Pods TrueFans YouTube Podcast StreamYard and Buzz Route. If you're listening, your response is valid. You're you've gone through something devastating and it's real. We want you to know you survived the worst. You can survive the healing. This has been Alfonso Pelt, and this has been my lovely co-host Storm. This is Tara the Triumph. We thank you for joining us tonight. We hope to see you next time.
