Coping with Trauma

Again quoting from Coping With Trauma:

To relive trauma is to be retraumatized. Being retraumatized is bad enough in itself, but there is another danger: You can become sensitized. Each intrusive experience -- nightmares, flashbacks, emotional upheavals -- may lower your threshhold for the next. You can become mired in a vicious circle: Episodes beget episodes.

You cannot avoid retraumatization entirely. To be able to do so would be tantamount to rubbing out PTSD -- something we've obviously been unable to do. But you can lower the likelihood of such reexperiencing by taking care of yourself -- for example, by emphasizing safety and a secure base, by refraining from self-destructive behavior, and by avoiding traumatic relationships.

Here we encounter the perennial dilemma in the treatment of trauma. You need to remember and talk about trauma, but doing so may be retraumatizing -- making matters worse rather than better. In trying to find the right balance, I am inclined to err on the side of caution. Here's Kluft's maxim for the third (and last) time: "The slower you go, the faster you get there."
(Pages 305-306)