Please Read This

Yesterday, something terrible happened.

Tragically, we hear about terrible things happening all too often these days. But yesterday was different in that millions of people didn’t just hear about it, they had to witness it.

When people are exposed to extremely graphic or violent images, even briefly, it can create real trauma responses in the brain. This is often called vicarious trauma or secondary trauma. The subconscious mind doesn’t always distinguish between seeing something and experiencing it. It can trigger the same fight-flight-freeze reactions.

Trauma can, and often does, induce hypnosis in people. You can walk around fully hypnotized and not even know it, in fact, it happens every day. Hypnosis is a great thing in a clinical setting when it’s being used for your well-being. But being in a hypnotic state while you’re just walking around in the world can be detrimental. While you are highly suggestible, your mind may absorb fear-based thoughts or false beliefs without question. This means that negative thoughts, feelings, and experiences will take root deeply, shaping emotions and behaviors long after the moment has passed. You are more susceptible to being impacted negatively to anything you encounter.

Because people go into a heightened suggestible state in moments of shock, this is why intrusive images and feelings can “stick” in the mind.

Some of the symptoms of trauma induced hypnosis can be numbness, hypervigilance, anxiety, trouble sleeping, and replaying the images. These are the mind trying to process what it saw.

No matter what you thought about Charlie or what he stood for, witnessing what happened to him can have a profound impact on your brain, your nervous system, and your sense of safety.

I am heartbroken over the entire thing. I’m heartbroken for his family and his two little kids. And I am also heartbroken for humanity as we are, once again, experiencing a mass trauma event. The irony is not lost on me that I’m having to post this on 9-11.

It’s very easy to feel helpless in times like this.

Some of you know about my background as a hypnotherapist. As someone very familiar with states of hyper suggestibility, this is one area where I can try to help.

The following are a few simple techniques to help pull yourself out of that hypnotic state and minimize the impact on your mind and body.

Look around and acclimate yourself to your surroundings periodically.
When we are in a highly focused survival state, we tend to get tunnel vision and the world around us fades out. If you’ve ever had a panic attack, you know this feeling well. That is a more pronounced and severe example of what I’m talking about, but the same thing happens on a less obvious scale in trauma induced hypnosis. We get locked into our phones, computers, or the TV. Or sometimes we just get locked down within our own thoughts. Have you ever noticed how when an animal experiences something overwhelming, a cat falling out of a tree, a dog running into a wall, their first instinct is to shake their body? Part of this is a natural response to reorient themselves to their surroundings. Anxiety creates a dissociated “freeze” state. Take time to look around your environment, all around you, taking notice of as many details as you can. If you’re inside, look around all four corners and four walls of the room. What do you see? It’s also helpful to stand up and shake out your body, your arms, your legs, and gently shake your head back and forth. This helps to reset the body, allowing the parasympathetic nervous system (the “rest and digest” state) to come back online.

5-4-3-2-1 grounding exercise
This is another variation of the above. Pause for a moment and name 5 things you can see, 4 you can touch, 3 you can hear, 2 you can smell, 1 you can taste. This brings awareness back into the body.

Box Breathing
Inhale 4 counts → Hold 4 → Exhale 4 → Hold 4. Do 4 rounds. This calms the vagus nerve and lowers cortisol.

Mental Distancing
This is a very common modality used in hypnosis to minimize, or completely remove, anxiety caused by memory of a traumatic scene. You can do this if the image spontaneously comes up into your mind, or you can practice it now. Take a few slow, deep breaths and close your eyes. Picture the disturbing image shrinking down smaller and smaller with every breath you take, until it is the size of a postage stamp, then turn the image to black and white, and imagine it floating away. You can even blow out through your lips and imagine blowing it off into the distance until it completely disappears.

Some other tips I have, avoid replaying the videos or seeking out more, this re-exposure reinforced the trauma loop. Talk about it in a safe space, sharing your feelings with supportive people can release the emotional charge. And be patient with your mind and body. Trauma is not a sign of weakness, it’s the nervous system doing its job. It just needs help coming back into balance.

I hope this helps you. Please share this with as many people as you can in hopes it may help them, too. 🙏