How to overcome a traumatic economic situation?

Not all traumatic experiences have to do with physical violence or with accidents in which there is death or serious injuries capable of leaving sequels in the body. Some of them take place in the most abstract sphere of the social, and among them, there is a part that is associated with one of the most real fictions: money.

And it is that in a world in which the economic comes to mark the rhythms of people's lifestyle and its evolution in their lifestyle, events such as losing all savings, having to Closing the family business or being scammed can leave a psychological mark that lasts for months or even years and, if not managed well, can lead to disruption mental.

Therefore, in this article We will talk about traumatic situations linked to economics and how they work in therapy.

• Related article: "What is trauma and how does it influence our lives?"

What is a trauma associated with an economic loss?

First of all, it is important to explain what we mean by trauma. This is a type of psychological alteration arising from an emotionally painful experience and that leaves deep psychological sequels in the person

. That is, it is the result of the internalization of certain memories linked to a painful event at least psychologically (and often physically too), such as a car accident or an experience of abuse sexual.

Faced with experiences like this, those memories are "filed" in our memory in a different way from that of the normal memories, since we tend to relive those events over and over again because they were so important to us. us: the brain puts us "on guard" to avoid at all costs that something like this is repeated.

Now, an event of an economic nature, if it generates a lot of discomfort in us, can also be traumatic, because in many respects, the capital we have is seen as an extension of ourselves or our families; After all, it is customary to assume socioeconomic status (and the lifestyle associated with it) as part of our identity, and furthermore, it shapes certain plans for the future, family expectations that are very important to us, etc.

Thus, it is through the loss of a large amount of money, especially if it was unforeseen, that our lives take a turn and in addition to being forced to materially adapt to this situation of crisis, we are forced to deal with the emotions triggered by such an intense experience.

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How does this type of trauma work in psychotherapy?

In psychotherapy it is possible to develop the emotional management resources necessary to overcome this and other types of trauma. Let's see how.

1. Learn to detect limiting beliefs

In a context of bankruptcy or personal or family economic crisis, it is very common for the person who suffers this experience to develop limiting beliefs associated with a very pessimistic interpretation of life (and of oneself). For example: “after this I will never raise my head again”, “no one will want to be with me for having lost all that money”, or “I will always be an outcast in the eyes of my family”.

Therefore, in therapy we work with cognitive restructuring, a process through which psychologists help our patients to question their belief system and detect those unfounded ideas that you have been clinging to even though they do not conform to reality and do you more harm than good. well. In the case of trauma, it is very important to let go of those limiting beliefs because they are an obstacle to overcoming the disorder and facing one's own fears and insecurities.

• Related article: "Cognitive restructuring: how is this therapeutic strategy?"

2. Management of possible family tensions

Relatively often, events that drastically reduce the purchasing power of a family make some of its members feel more pressured to remedy the situation; It is even possible that discomfort really arises because what happened is interpreted as a "failure" of the main provider of money, which reinforces the feeling of shame, of regret for not having behaved in another mode etc

Therefore, in cases like family therapy becomes very useful, a form of psychological intervention that works with the whole family at the same time (or at least the family nucleus with the individuals most involved in the problem). In this therapeutic context, work is done on conflict resolution, the creation of new ways of communicating and the generation of spaces for free expression of feelings, readjustment of expectations, learning ways to give emotional support to others, etc.

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3. exhibition in imagination

Trauma is almost always accompanied by intrusive thoughts based on past experiences that have been marked "on fire" in the person's memory.

This causes those types of memories, or an exaggerated version of the memories about what happened, to surface again and again in the person's consciousness. traumatized, which not only visualizes in her mind what happened to her in a very vivid way, but also experiences with great intensity the emotions that this made feel. He knows that what comes to his consciousness does not occur in the present, but he can't help but be very emotionally affected, almost as if it were happening in the here and now.

To help patients who suffer from this to mitigate discomfort and get out of this vicious circle of anguish (because the expectation that these "flashbacks" are going to happen soon makes these more likely to affect the person at all times), psychotherapy works with techniques used in the face of alterations associated with anxiety. One of them is controlled exposure based on imagination, in which the person is trained to develop the ability to imagine with many details what she wants and then take advantage of that to help her face her fears and the most stressful memories of her or anxiogenic.

In other words, he is offered psychological support and guidelines to progressively expose himself to those contents of his memory. without letting these mental images make you lose control nor be so afraid of them that the person tries to avoid those memories (which would only serve to give them more strength and importance in that patient's life).

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4. Support and training of emotional management in the development of new habits

Adapting to a crisis situation requires flexibility and developing new routines and habits. But in the cases of people with psychological disorders linked to trauma, this problem can stop them, by making them focus solely on their own discomfort.

Therefore, in psychotherapy, patients are helped to establish these lifestyle change routines (taking into account account their value system and interests), and to apply self-motivation strategies to move from words to acts. In this way, patients are first involved in simple tasks that, little by little, are developed and offering new incentives and sources of motivation until they become exciting projects (personally or professional).

In other words, from the inertia of learning and carrying out certain actions, there are new reasons to keep going and continue progressing in something that has a special meaning for the person, which allows him to get out of the role of "passive sufferer of a traumatic experience".

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Do you want to have professional psychological assistance?

If you are looking for psychotherapy services or psychological assistance for families and couples, I invite you to contact me.

I am a psychologist specialized in clinical and expert psychology; In therapy, I use resources and techniques belonging to the cognitive-behavioral model to help people who face problems such as low self-esteem, trauma, depression or anxiety disorders, among other alterations frequent. I attend both adults and adolescents in person (in my office in Castellón) or online by video call.