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.

Photo Credit

@soulseedz “When you look at life with gratitude,
a room with a view becomes a window to wonder.”

Six Standalone Tweets to Ponder

@tinybuddha “It isn’t what happens to us that causes us to suffer; it’s what we say to ourselves about what happens.” ~ Pema Chodron

@karenkmmonroy “Some people are just plain ol’ mean, critical and dis-spiriting. Your job is to not attract them by being mean, critical and dis-spiriting.”

@FeelBetter2day “Live out of your imagination, not your history” ~ Stephen Covey

@OurMentalHealth “Find something this spring that you want to grow and nurture it to fruition.” ~ Cyleste

@Tamavista “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” ~ Omar Khayyam

@thereseborchard “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eyes.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Linked Tweets

Sexual Assault Awareness Month
(with thanks to Dr. Kathleen Young)

@DrKathleenYoung What Can You Do About Sexual Violence?
[SEO: “April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. This year’s theme is “It’s time … to get involved.” The message is that preventing sexual assault needs to be our collective responsibility. This month’s focus will be about combating the bystander effect.” Which means everyone has a stake in this, not just victims of sexual assault.]

@DrKathleenYoung 12 Ways You Can Make a Difference
[SEO: “I want to share this resource from the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault Inc. (www.wcasa.org) because it speaks to this year’s theme of promoting community (and individual) involvement.”]

Self Care for You and for Those Who Care About You

@akvet This article describes secondary trauma among therapists treating PTSD. Family members experience similar responses.
[SEO: The concept of “compassion fatigue” has been widely discussed in the last 20 years. It is defined in this article as: “…state of exhaustion and dysfunction (biologically, psychologically and socially) as a result of prolonged exposure to compassion stress” (Figley, 1995). We become exhausted by the exposure to experience after experience of emotionally draining clients who look to us for help.” As noted by @akvet’s tweet, compassion fatigue can also apply to a trauma survivor’s closest support people, whether family or friends. It’s vital that people in those primary support roles give more than mere lip service to practicing self-care. While this article specifically pertains to clinicians, see the next post below for information for friends and families.]

@akvet For loved ones and family members of someone with combat induced PTSD this is an excellent summary
[SEO: Or for loved ones and family members of any type of PTSD. You can also find a great list of resources aimed at family (and friend) caretakers offered by the National Family Caregivers Association.]

@psychcentral Self-care and Survival: Getting Through the Tough Times
[SEO: “So what gets you through? And how can you connect with it in those moments when you might feel overwhelmed with challenge or sorrow? … [What might it be like] maybe to just take a moment when the tough times are next upon you, and to listen for what’s missing? Or what’s needed? Or what could soothe or strengthen or support? What might it be like to become that ‘someone’ that cares for you?”]

The Rest of the Best

@zebraspolkadots Not all mental health providers abuse their position — but the ones that do… do so much damage. Healing from the 2nd trauma.
[SEO: An important guest post by Susan Kingsley-Smith (@zebraspolkadots) on Emerging From Broken discusses why abuse survivors may be susceptible to further abuse by incompetent and/or dysfunctional mental health clinicians. “The mental health ‘professionals’ had successfully stripped me of any hope when they informed me that my brain was broken. They had laid the groundwork for my lifetime dependence on them; telling me that they, and only they, knew the answers and in order for me to ‘get better’ I needed to submit myself to their care.”

Certainly, not all clinicians operate in this manner; there are competent, caring, and humble clinicians who create a true partnership with their clients, who maintain healthy boundaries, and are skilled at not fostering unhealthy dependence upon them. Susan eventually found one of these gems. But you need to know that not all clinicians match those standards. Be informed, and be your own best advocate. The discussion continues in the many comments.]

@psychcentral 5 destructive mind habits that may be destroying your life
[SEO: “Mind traps are those habitual thinking styles we get caught in that inevitably trap us into a cascading snowball of reactivity that leads us to greater distress.” Discussion about catastrophizing; exaggerating the negative and discounting the positive; mind reading; being the eternal expert; the “shoulds”; and blaming. Uses the analogy of falling into a hole, and how you might then react according to each category.]

@tinybuddha 5 Easy Ways to Get into Yoga This Spring (via @AlwaysWellWithn)
[SEO: If you’re contemplating getting started with yoga, this post provides helpful ways to ease yourself into it. “Now more than ever, yoga seems the perfect escape from our increasingly complex, technology-driven, distracted modern lives. Finding peace and contentment in the present moment is one of the most challenging things to do, and yoga provides the tools we need to find that much-desired stillness.”]

@goodthingz 7 Steps to Inner Simplicity
[SEO: “Just think of it, a well-organized and minimalistic home won’t bring you any satisfaction if you are troubled with negative or unhappy thoughts. A perfect schedule which has enough room for all your activities will be useless if you are reliving over and over old painful memories. External ways of simplifying life have no meaning at all if you cannot find your balance and inner simplicity.” (The pop up when you first arrive is annoying, and more than a bit ironic. Just sayin’. But the post gives much to contemplate.)]

@psychcentral Is it better focus on the past, present or future in therapy? A few things to consider
[SEO: A discussion of different therapeutic philosophies related to time, and how each provides opportunities to move forward with healing. “Some people tend to focus on the past, where others are obsessed with planning for the future, but finding a balance and being more conscious of our time orientation can serve a major role in mental health and happiness. There are certain times when focusing on past, present, or future will be most nourishing.”]