Best Tweets for Trauma and PTSD Survivors is a weekly Friday feature. My selections are entirely subjective, and I know it will never be possible to include every great resource tweeted. But I can try! I’ve personally read all tweeted links, and believe them to be of great value.
Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for content found on any other website. Stay safe, and don’t follow links if you believe you might be triggered by them. Also, I will not be re-checking links from older Best Tweets posts, and if the site’s archived URL is different from the one I’ve provided here, you may need to do a search on their site.
NEW and REALLY COOL: You can now “like” and “share” this post everywhere with the touch of a button or two at the end of the linked tweets! Feel free to do any or all of that! (And thanks.)
@Drift_of_Swans “May all the prayers ~
extend themselves to people ~
in need of great hope.” ~ haiku
Six Standalone Tweets to Ponder
@LillyAnn “I am no longer afraid of becoming lost, because the journey back always reveals something new and that is ultimately good for the soul.”
@SpiritualNurse “Those who are lifting the world upward and onward are those who encourage more than criticize.” ~ Elizabeth Harrison
@AnnCurry “GAMBARU in Japanese means: Never ever, ever give up, even and especially when there is no chance of winning.”
@DrHubaEvaluator “Help others recognize their own courage, intelligence, empathy. Follow the Yellow Brick Road and wear those cool red shoes.”
@drjeffersnboggs “Sometimes the easiest way is the hard way.” ~ John Finn
@soulseedz “You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestation of your own blessings.” ~ Elizabeth Gilbert
Linked Tweets
Japan in Crisis
@psychcentral Here are Therapy Soup’s First 5 Thoughts On Japan’s Earthquake, Tsunami. What’s yours?
[SEO: This article’s first five thoughts include: Prayer, Awe, Personal Meaning, Admiration, and Gratitude and Giving. My first thought, in addition to all of these, was enormous sadness.]
@SarahEOlson2009 ABC News — Japan Earthquake: before and after pics (hover over before to see after)
[SEO: It’s really hard to take in the enormity of this disaster. These pictures bear witness, and provide a devastating perspective.]
@AlwaysWellWithn Why the Japanese Earthquake is Not a Hollywood Disaster Movie Set
[SEO: “The danger of blanket coverage of such natural disasters is this — we become hardened and we get compassion fatigue. The thing is this — we feel so powerless amidst such suffering. And the more we watch, the more closed off and harder we can become to all this suffering.” If you’re a trauma survivor, take care that the relentless coverage doesn’t overwhelm you. But don’t close yourself off completely from what impacts you from afar. Your humanity — and I believe, your path to healing — is intricately entwined with your ability to feel and express compassion. Both for the people of Japan (and Haiti, and Indonesia, and Christchurch, New Zealand), but also for yourself.]
@VA_OEF_OIF How To Help Japan: Earthquake Relief Options
[SEO: An extensive list of ways in which you can help, put together by Huffington Post.]
The Rest of the Best
@Hopefortrauma I’m hosting March 2011 Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse ~ DID Awareness Month
[SEO: A group of us multiples were unaware that some day in March was “DID Awareness Day”. So we decided to make March into “DID Awareness Month”! 
The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse accepts blog posts on all manner of topics relating to child abuse, and can be posts from your archives if you don’t have time to write something new. (And you don’t need to be DID to join in!) The deadline to enter is March 23rd.]
@BBCWorld US Web suicide nurse found guilty
[SEO: A follow up to a Best Tweets post about six months ago. This man pretended online to be a female nurse who was suicidal. He frequented chat rooms where he sought out people who talked about wanting to commit suicide. He “befriended” them, and convinced them to make a suicide pact with him. He always said, in effect, “You go first.” Now he’s been found guilty of imminently inciting suicide in two cases. (There were more.) He faces up to 30 years in prison. Beware of online predators who get a thrill from your pain.]
@ssanquist Common Therapy Approaches to Help You Heal from Trauma
[SEO: A great resource to see in one place what different types of therapy for trauma healing are, and the features of each, as well as a point that is sometimes missed: “… the purpose of all trauma-focused psychotherapy is to integrate the traumatic event into your life not subtract it from your life.”]
@SarahEOlson2009 Why Do People React Differently To Witnessing Catastrophe?
[SEO: An important article to the understanding of why and how people react/respond differently to the same traumatic event. “While Traumatologists indicate that the characteristics of an event – be it man-made or natural disaster, time-limited or prolonged, life threatening or catastrophic- mediate the impact of a traumatic event on people, they hold that the most crucial factor in determining a person’s response is the meaning of the event for that person.”]
@PTSDGFW “What PTSD Means To Me” Stories from trauma survivors
[SEO: A long page of first-hand accounts of “what PTSD means to me”, written by trauma survivors at various stages of healing. While some of the material may be triggering (keep yourself safe), it’s also instructive to know how others have dealt with their issues, and what may lie ahead. While you’re there on the Gift From Within website, take a look around at their numerous resources for trauma survivors.]
@ssanquist How Can Psychologists Help Immediately After Trauma
[SEO: “‘…one of the rather solid findings we’re coming up with is that people in those first hours, or the first day or two after a very traumatic event experience very high arousal. We know that that’s predictive of subsequent post-traumatic stress disorder, months and years later. … People who get morphine in the hours after an event, which is a suppressant of arousal, that tends to be protective of later PTSD.’” However, “Most of what we ‘know’ about helping people after traumatic events is intuitive, guesswork, hope, speculation, and pieced together from flawed research.'” SEO: The good news is, trauma mitigation and recovery are finally being regarded as keys to unlocking decades of future misery.]
@zebraspolkadots I’ve recognized that my serenity does not depend on how others treat me but in how I allow others behavior to affect me.
[SEO: A thorough discussion of what empowerment means in the context of trauma healing. “Being self empowered means taking the action and asking the questions to move myself from where I am to where I want to be.”]
@aflourishinglif 10 Life-Changing Facts About Attachment (via @AlwaysWellWithn)
[SEO: Very thought-provoking read! “Simply said, when we make our happiness dependent on people, money, success, possessions, or circumstances, we suffer. Attachments are sticky. Our freedom goes out the window, and we react emotionally and maneuver to get what we want and reject what we don’t want. … Just for a moment, imagine being free of attachments. Things come and go, but you are stable and unmoving in the midst of it all. It doesn’t mean you don’t care. In fact, in the lack of clinging, you are free to care deeply. The most intimate state of being is devoid of the separation that attachment brings.”]
@DrKathleenYoung PTSD and Quality of Life: New Research (via @ssanquist)
[SEO: A breakdown of new research regarding PTSD and quality of life issues leads Dr. Young to the following puzzle. “I can understand this finding [of adverse impact to quality of life] regarding avoidance and have written about how dissociation can be adaptive short-term. But I am surprised that re-experiencing symptoms like flashbacks and nightmares were not correlated with reduced quality of life. This is not what I hear reported in my practice. What do you think? Does these research findings fit with your experience?”
She invites your response in the comments. I, too, was surprised at these findings because flashbacks and nightmares have haunted me my entire life, and created endless insomnia. This probably is the number one adverse impact on my quality of life.]
@ucobudo Budo Beat. Zen Garden (YouTube)
[SEO: Lovely and tranquil. “Japanese bamboo flute and garden shots from the Portland Japanese Garden, Portland, OR make for a Zen-like meditative atmosphere in this photo-show. The name of the song is ‘Tamuke’.”]
