We don’t often think about our trauma as something that we carry in our bodies, but the truth is that the impact of traumatic experiences lives on in the brain long after they occur.

So often I hear people make a joke about their childhood trauma and laugh it off as if it wasn’t real. When that happens, I’m reminded that children who grow up in emotionally abusive homes, or deal with bullying or other complex traumas, were also trained to disregard their own feelings.

PTSD emerged as a diagnosis after the end of the Vietnam War. Accordingly, we often associate it with the violence of war, but the truth is PTSD is fairly common. In addition, people sometimes think of PTSD as a failure to be ‘tough enough’ or psychologically strong.

No matter what your background or what holidays you celebrate, they occupy a special place in the lives of people who have experienced emotional trauma.

Pop culture teaches us that the holidays are a time to cut loose and celebrate. We carry around a lot of ideas about what holidays should look like. Decorations on the lawn.