…versus social support (help from others), self-esteem (learned belief that you can ‘help’ yourself and effectively act on your own behalf), and coping strategies (direct ways to help yourself)
Feeling helpless can magnify the impact of trauma.
See: Which Factors Mitigate the Effects of Childhood Trauma? to contrast helplessness as a “trauma multiplier” and social support (help from others), self-esteem (learned belief that you can ‘help’ yourself and effectively act on your own behalf), and coping strategies (direct ways to help yourself)
I don’t recall ever outright seeing the difference between experiencing trauma (PTSD and C-PTSD) and the “help” paradigm. The author doesn’t actually directly state that here either, but it seems absolutely obvious once you see it.
This is also why ‘learned helplessness’ during abuse is so insidious and toxic, because it teaches a victim that they can’t help themselves nor will they get help from others.
If we can understand the process of getting out of abuse as needing both ‘self-help’ and ‘social support’, we can more effectively articulate things to victims and the community.
Wanting to be rescued is one of the biggest yearnings that adult victims of abuse have, but it is truly triggering to be told that you have to self-rescue. It feels overwhelming and impossible, and depression and abuse make you feel alone in the darkness and trapped. For adults, it does have to start with self-rescue, but that process is planted, and a ‘hope anchored in the soul’, if they already know there is social support available if they reach out.
Adult victims of abuse often hate the idea of going to therapy – no judgment; I did it, too – it that is a crucial juncture of self-rescue AND support.
Abusers capture and manipulate our will, and getting out of abuse requires exercising it on our own behalf again. (Again, this is specifically and only for adult victims of abuse.)