08/18/2026
Important information if you are a trauma survivor who gets activated by certain calming techniques like breathing, body scan or meditation. It’s not your fault! Pay attention to what happens. Other techniques are just better for you right now. "If you have ever tried deep breathing during a moment of overwhelm and felt your panic rise instead of fall, you are not broken. If body scans make you feel more dissociated, not less. If being told to slow down and go inward sends your nervous system into a spin rather than settling it, that is not a failure of willpower, effort or commitment to your own healing."
On why deep breathing, mindfulness and grounding techniques backfire for many trauma survivors, and what actually helps instead