This is something my therapist said to me today. (I'm so glad his leave got delayed and he offered me an earlier appointment!)

He was describing for me what he observed of me last week when I kind of checked out because of being triggered into a trauma memory.

So, he was explaining to me that trauma memories, trauma re-experiencing, kind of lives on a separate time zone to real life, and that when triggered it has this huge and strong gravitational pull. He was explaining that you get dragged back, against your will, to a different time.

He said that it looked like I had both feet firmly planted within the time zone of the trauma, and that it looked completely terrifying for me. He said that it is going to be so important for me to try to be able to visit that place, but find ways to keep one foot firmly planted, grounded, in the now....the current time zone.

This was the first time that he has seen me quite like that, and neither of us know what it was that triggered such a strong response. He said that he had been thinking about it, but doesn't know. Neither do I.

I don't want to go there again, but of course I probably will have to....need to.

What do you think about trauma having it's own time zone? Is this how you experience it? Or how your therapist may have spoken about it, or somehow differently?