How Anger Helps Recover Vitality After PTSD
Key Points
One adaptive response to relational trauma was to shut down our normal "fight," or anger, response.
Instead of fight, flight, or freeze in the face of trauma, some used a fawn response of concern for others.
Healthy "fight," or anger, was traded out for shame, withdrawal, and/or self-critical talk.
Reclaiming our right to healthy anger restores a sense of self-worth and emotional vitality.
Among the limited options available to manage relational trauma as children and teens, many of us with early relational wounding took the behavioral route of being reserved, respectful, compliant, and often tuned into other’s needs above our own. With this scripted option to manage an abusive environment, we learned to “do no harm,” and, in fact, may have evolved instead to be particularly sensitive, kind, and empathic towards others.
