Is blocking people a trauma response?


Signs and symptoms of trauma blocking can include avoidance behaviors, such as avoiding places or people that remind you of the trauma. You may also experience changes in your sleep patterns, appetite, and social behaviors.

Is blocking a trauma response?

After a traumatic experience, the emotional toll may be so heavy that people may avoid anything that might remind them of what happened. Some people's efforts to block residual feelings of trauma may look like adapting avoidance behavior to avoid feelings of pain, also called trauma blocking.

Is blocking an emotional response?

As Grainne Kirwan, a psychologist specializing in cyberpsychology, explains, blocking can be “a hasty, emotion-based response to a stressful event, which may turn a difficult relationship phase into a non-salvageable one.”

What is the psychology behind blocking people?

By blocking or unfollowing an ex, you reduce the temptation of seeking out information or reconnecting. So, when you do have the urge, you have no other option but to wait it out. You'll notice that the urge is likely to dissipate, as all feelings do.

Is blocking someone a form of emotional abuse?

Reacting to blocking and diverting requires you to stay on your toes. The tactic works so well, it can be hard to recognize this type of abuse immediately. Abusers block and divert during important conversations and frivolous ones. keeping control of your thoughts and emotions no matter what your abuser says to you.

What is an example of trauma blocking?

Trauma blocking is seen in compulsive behaviors that include: drug or alcohol addiction, “emotional eating,” turning to relationships to self-numb, workaholism, compulsive and dangerous exercise routines, compulsive internet or technology use, or any other compulsive behaviors that are used to push away intrusive …

What counts as a trauma response?

Initial reactions to trauma can include exhaustion, confusion, sadness, anxiety, agitation, numbness, dissociation, confusion, physical arousal, and blunted affect. Most responses are normal in that they affect most survivors and are socially acceptable, psychologically effective, and self-limited.

Is blocking a coping mechanism?

Trauma blocking is a common experience that individuals may encounter when dealing with traumatic events. It is a coping mechanism that the brain uses to protect an individual from experiencing overwhelming emotions and feelings associated with the traumatic event.

Is blocking manipulative?

It certainly can be. Typically it's defensive and the blocker is overwhelmed and doesn't want to speak with the blockee ever again. However sometimes manipulative people will block someone short term to purposefully cause anxiety and dread as a sort of digital stonewalling tactic.

Should I block someone who hurt my feelings?

There are many people in the world who are abusive, self-centered and/or sadistic. Block them and move on as soon as you can identify them. ESPECIALLY if your feelings are hurt because somebody was yelling, screaming and or physically violent – that's abuse you should not have to tolerate.

Am I toxic for blocking someone?

However, if you do it just to make someone feel bad or manipulate them, then you are the one being toxic. This is all about context. If someone is cyberstalking you, threatening you, harrassing you, or being otherwise inappropriate, blocking is the appropriate reaction.

Is it unhealthy to block people?

Blocking someone on social media can be a powerful tool for preserving one's mental health. In an era where cyberbullying and online harassment are prevalent, blocking provides a sense of control and protection.

Is blocking a narcissist?

Narcissists are easily offended by anything that threatens their self-image, so if you block them, they might become angry or try to make you feel guilty for doing so. They are often very difficult to deal with, but they can be even more challenging to handle when they know you block them.

Is blocking Gaslighting?

While there are many behaviors associated with gaslighting, the five that are listed by the National Domestic Violence Hotline are: Withholding: refusing to understand or listen. Countering: questioning the victim's memory of events. Blocking/Diverting: changing the subject.

What is trauma blocking called?

According to McLaughlin, if the brain registers an overwhelming trauma, then it can essentially block that memory in a process called dissociation—or detachment from reality.

When is it OK to block someone?

“It's generally wise to block someone when hearing from them or reaching out to them is deeply disruptive to your life, your mental health, your relationships, or your overall well-being,” Vienna says.

What is an emotional blockage?

Emotional Blockage is typically formed by stressors and traumas that you didn't have the time, want or emotional capacity to deal with when the event originally occurred. Emotional blockage forms when your “resistance to what is” becomes a regular way of coping with uncomfortable life circumstances.

When someone is emotionally blocked?

“An emotionally unavailable person has a hard time receiving love and other deep emotions from others,” says Alyson Cohen, LCSW, a therapist for teenagers, young adults, and couples based in New York City. It's tough for them to understand your feelings “because they can hardly understand their own.”

What happens if you ignore trauma?

Trauma Affects Your Relationship with Others If you keep avoiding your feelings, you may continue to place a guard up that stops you from forming new friendships. These people that you continue to push away could be the ones who ultimately lift you up and bring you out of your state of panic.

Do people block out childhood trauma?

For some people, their brains choose to push the memory down into their unconscious, so they can continue living their lives. It isn't something you decide to do. It is your brain's coping mechanism, so you can survive and attempt to thrive. But the childhood trauma may cause you issues without you even realizing why.

What are the 7 F trauma responses?

Key Takeaways: Everyone responds to trauma in a different way, and different kinds of trauma can have different responses in the same people. The six main types of trauma responses are fight, flight, freeze, fawn, fine, and faint. All reactions to trauma are valid, but trauma should always be addressed in therapy.

What are the 5 trauma responses?

The ‘fight or flight' response is how people sometimes refer to our body's automatic reactions to fear. There are actually 5 of these common responses, including ‘freeze', ‘flop' and ‘friend', as well as ‘fight' or ‘flight'.

Is blocking a form of self care?

Blocking is an act of self-care and as Audre Lorde famously stated: “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” So block them, mute that conversation and live your life to the fullest.

Is it immature to block someone on social media?

Not if they are being abusive to you or you find them to be hypocritical. if they said something trivial and you are just offended by it and decide to block them then that's a pretty immature reason. it depends on the context really.

What is blocking disorder?

Thought blocking occurs most often in people with psychiatric illnesses, most commonly schizophrenia. A person's speech is suddenly interrupted by silences that may last a few seconds to a minute or longer. When the person begins speaking again, after the block, they will often speak about an unrelated subject.

Is blocking someone weak?

It depends on the reason for blocking them. If they are constantly harassing you or posting spam, it is certainly a reasonable measure. But blocking someone just for a difference in opinion (as many people on Quora do) is a sign of character weakness.