Author: A.C. Brooke
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A Quick Reflection On the conversation Surrounding Trauma
Some Candid Thoughts One concern I have when talking about trauma or anything related to it is giving the perception that I’ve had a hard life—I haven’t. Being open about this stuff is just something I’m passionate about! I’ve been through some really hard things, yes, but the two are not synonymous with one another.…
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Vlog 15: The PhysicAl Effects of EMDR
I address a couple things in this vlog, but the biggest one is talking about the physical effects of EMDR. This has to be one of the wildest things I’ve experienced! Many people going through EMDR note that after sessions, they see a physical and emotional impact, something that’s been dubbed an “EMDR hangover” in…
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Shame: What it is and how it’s shown up for me
Shame: What it is and how it’s show up for me 📝 I actually had something to say about this but I can’t remember now. Anyways, honestly just since being in EMDR have I recognized how much shame I had. Not only that, but I didn’t even think the beliefs I held about my self…
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H(a)unted By The Past
This was a drawing I did a few weeks into sessions with Dr. Sizer. I will get into the original interpretation, but first I wanted to explain it’s most prominent meaning to me now: It’s sort of a different manifestation of a drawing I also did that fall called “A Splash of Self”. I remember…
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Bird Bites: Trauma & Transference
***Clip originally posted on YouTube in 2022 “Trauma—specifically recovered memories of trauma—and transference is a big theme in our documentary, and that’s because my relationship with my oldest niece, Evelyn, has held a big part in all of this. She’s been the subject of my worst nightmares, and her wellbeing the source of my anxiety.…
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Night of the Screaming Skin
This was a drawing I did the day after August 29th, the night I had my first flashback. I was working at Ross at the time and scribbled it on the back of receipt paper in a desperate attempt to illustrate what that experience had felt like. When I had my first flashback, I was…
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The Polarity of PTSD
This was a drawing I did the late fall of my junior year of college. I found I was having a lot of mood swings, not just then, but since I had ‘remembered’. I would alternate a lot between a deep sadness and a fiery anger. But the feelings themselves seemed to transcend those words.…
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A Piece of prose about living with ptsd in your early 20’s: “I’ve Never Been to Iceland”
Context Hey guys! Bit of a depressing prose I wrote last night but I wanted to share (trigger warning for mention of sexual assault). For a really long time I’ve wondered how to capture what life with PTSD is like, more specifically, how it feels to navigate in your 20s. Spoiler alert: it’s kind of…
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Always Almost: A Poem On Hypervigilance
“Always Almost”, a poem I wrote recently about how I feel since developing PTSD. One thing I’ve experienced is an uptick in anxiety over all after 2020. It’s like now I’m always waiting for the next catastrophe to happen, to the point that I have these fears based in nothing that can deeply impact my…
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A Splash of Self
“A Splash of Self” circa September 2020 I remember that moment quite well actually, I think down to the register I was at. It’s weird how much has changed in the last three years. It was also quite strange reading this back and knowing the things I do now, because today I was holding that…
Project Paper Birds 