The Fear of Reducing Fear

There often comes a point in trauma therapy where a person is hesitant to process something awful, because they fear that processing it will mean that they make themselves vulnerable again, that the fear they have is important to keep. However, there is a distinction about what we seek to address in therapy, that is illustrated easily in words from author Mira Grant: "I’m also fascinated by the difference between terror and fear. Fear says, “Do not actually put your hand in the alligator,” while terror says, “Avoid Florida entirely because alligators exist." In trauma therapy, we can keep reasonable fear. What we really seek to do is make it where you aren’t living in terror at the thought of what it is we need to process. Fear is helpful, terror is debilitating. So, if you find yourself also hesitant to address a past trauma because you are afraid of being naive and getting hurt again, know that trauma therapy doesn’t take the wisdom and lessons you’ve learned away. It makes it so that you can think logically about what traumatized you and actually see the key differences between then and now. It helps give you power over what lessons you want to keep.

"I’m also fascinated by the difference between terror and fear. Fear says, “Do not actually put your hand in the alligator,” while terror says, “Avoid Florida entirely because alligators exist."

~ Mira Grant