Mental Blackouts: Causes, Symptoms, and Coping Strategies

Identifying these in your life may require keeping a journal to record frequency, duration, and problems caused by blackouts. I had to learn to accept that I had them but choose to not keep them in my life. I needed to acknowledge their existence before I would take the necessary steps to take back responsibility of my life, either PTSD or I was going to run my life. Counseling helped me to take on these monster symptoms that were munching away 2/3 of my life. PTSD experts strongly believe dissociations to be a common feature of posttraumatic stress disorder.

What Is Dissociation?

• If you have PTSD, this higher level of tension and arousal can become your normal state.
• If you’re experiencing memory disruption or disconnection, our residential trauma treatment offers specialized care for emotional and neurological recovery.
• And then, after years of trauma work, I did not dissociate for an exceptionally long time.
• We feel as though we’re floating outside ourselves because we sure don’t want to be in here when that death blow comes.

One common type is dissociative amnesia, which involves the inability to recall important personal information, often related to traumatic events. This form of amnesia can be localized to specific events or generalized, affecting broader periods of an trauma blackout individual’s life. Blackouts, in the context of PTSD, refer to periods of memory loss or gaps in consciousness that can occur during or after traumatic events. These episodes can range from brief moments of disorientation to prolonged periods of lost time. The prevalence of blackouts among PTSD patients is significant, with studies suggesting that up to 70% of individuals with PTSD experience some form of dissociative symptoms, including blackouts. In conclusion, addressing memory loss from trauma is a complex but crucial aspect of PTSD recovery.

Navigating the Two D’s of Trauma Responses: Dissociation and Defense Rage

Becoming self-aware is never a bad thing, even if what you become aware of is bad. Understanding yourself is a huge battle but once you chip away at the wall you’ve built around yourself, you begin to see the holes and fill them back up. Studies¹ have shown that writing (in all its forms) is extremely therapeutic and is often used in both therapy and coaching to help survivors work through their trauma and aide in recovery. When you spend a lot of time in this state, fatigue often sets in , making even the simplest tasks seem more difficult than climbing Everest. You may feel like you’re trying to navigate an uncharted sea with a broken compass, having lost the emotions that guided you. Brutally honest and compelling memoirs and self-help books, Jennifer Storm revisits the trauma of her childhood rape and ensuing addiction and how she channeled her pain into a healing life of advocacy.

The Connection Between PTSD and Blackouts

That’s what stress and anxiety can do to your mind, overwhelming your mental circuits and leading to temporary shutdowns. Imagine your mind as a vast library, filled with countless books containing your memories, experiences, and knowledge. Now picture a mischievous librarian who occasionally misplaces a few volumes or, worse yet, tears out entire chapters from your life story. It’s as if someone hit the pause button on your consciousness, leaving you to piece together the missing fragments of time. Behavioral therapy and cognitive processing therapy are also effective therapeutic approaches to trauma. Behavioral therapy focuses on changing negative behaviors and thoughts, while cognitive processing therapy helps individuals develop new ways of thinking about their trauma.

Seek Treatment

She has developed and implemented an evidence-based, integrated treatment https://e-pixels.gr/a-federal-grant-helps-extend-sober-housing-for/ approach to addressing trauma/PTSD at Caron Treatment Centers. However, as a general rule, stress and trauma are the main triggers of emotional blackout. In fact, studies have shown that it is often a response in exhausted caregivers who care for others, as well as in those who have experienced trauma. Another study conducted at the University of British Columbia also suggested that it can even occur in people who are overwhelmed by daily stress. The flop trauma response is when the body shuts down as a coping mechanism for dealing with distress. Stress and trauma play starring roles in the drama of emotional blackouts.

Maladaptive Daydreaming and PTSD: The Connection Between Escape and Trauma

One of the first steps is to remove or stop anything that might be causing or contributing to the amnesia. An example of this would be taking military personnel out of situations — especially combat — that might trigger or worsen amnesia. Schumer also said he was baffled that such a chilling communications blackout could be caused by copper wire—something Duffy pointed out as a serious issue in March. He was the subject of mass outrage over the weekend after he shared a photo of himself smiling with a plate of tacos while hordes of travelers were stranded in New Jersey and elsewhere. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said the workers put on leave “walked off the job” in a statement on Friday.

Personalized intensive treatment from home

• Think of these as reinforcements for your brain’s natural defenses, helping to shore up any weak spots in your mental fortifications.
• Sometimes teens and young adults feel embarrassed or overwhelmed by their mental health struggles, especially when they don’t fully understand them yet.

In some cases, adopting a mental-based approach can also help, such as mathematics. Practicing timetables or counting backward by 2s, 4s, or 5s are some ways to avoid dissociating in the present. drug addiction If none of this is possible, try naming as many countries as possible or look around to find objects of a specific color or shape to keep the mind occupied. Writing (in general) has this strange way of making us self-aware and in-tune with ourselves. While this might be a very difficult thing for trauma survivors, it also helps them identify the lies vs the truths they have going through their minds.

• Preventing emotional blackouts is like being a weather forecaster for your own mind.
• Having worked on some of the most high profile cases in our history, she is often the first call media make when stories break on addiction, victimization and trauma.
• They’re like those pesky pop-up ads of the brain, interrupting our normal functioning and leaving us scratching our heads.
• You may feel like you’re trying to navigate an uncharted sea with a broken compass, having lost the emotions that guided you.

It can happen when the brain is overwhelmed by excessive anxiety or stress, disrupting normal cognitive processes temporarily. Unresolved trauma can also lead to a range of mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a mental health condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. It can cause a range of symptoms, including flashbacks, nightmares, and hypervigilance. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition triggered by experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. PTSD can affect anyone, from soldiers and first responders to individuals who have experienced violence, abuse, or significant personal trauma.