Muslim Mental Health Course – Negative Impact Of Trauma Brain On Faith

taboo topics, session trauma and faith. So when we're thinking about trauma and the impact that it has on our brain, right, and the struggle that our brain has to come out of survival mode, even when we don't need to be in survival mode anymore, realizing that that can develop into really unhealthy thought patterns, right? If your brain is constantly perceiving danger, right, your eyes are going to look for everything that could possibly be a source of discontent, danger, dissatisfaction, unhappiness, anxiety in your life, right. And so your brain is trained, you're training your brain, to see all of those negatives. And then what happens when the survival mode won't shut off. It is

pretty common, sometimes, really, and can be really difficult burden when that trauma brain starts to impact your faith. And this is where a lot of times people don't realize that there's an association. So there's no shortage of research that talks about how faith can be really helpful in coping with difficult situations. Right? Spirituality has been found to be a very, very powerful tool, a powerful coping mechanism helps people bounce bounce back from difficulties in a very powerful way. But what a lot of people don't realize is that sometimes these difficulties can damage things in a way that then negatively impacts our faith. And so you can't get this source of serenity

that comes from faith in that situation. And so a lot of times, when people experience doubts in their faith, when they develop these unhealthy thought patterns, where they start to ask things like, you know, is ALLAH SubhanA data angry with me? Does he hate me? Or why would Allah do this? Why would he punished me? Or, you know, it seems like no matter what I do, I pray and I don't feel anything changing, and nothing is changing. Why do bad things keep happening to me? What's the point? Right, where people ask all of these questions where they say, I feel betrayed by Allah, because this happened to me. Right? These are the thoughts that can arise when our brain won't get

out of survival mode.

And so when these thoughts come up, it's really important to realize that these doubts, that can lead to Delta faith, right, these thoughts that can make us doubt, Allah doubt our faith, they can be oftentimes attributed to unhealed trauma. And once we know that, it can really give us a path forward in being able to heal in order to alleviate those faith based doubts as well, in sha Allah.

The Prophet Muhammad SAW Salam, there's a really, I think, moving Hadith for anybody who experiences these types of doubts, for anybody who struggles with these types of thoughts is realize that some companions once came to the Prophet Muhammad sai Salam. And then they said to Him, we find in ourselves thoughts that are too terrible to speak of. And he asked them, you know, are you really having these thoughts? Right? And he? And they said, Yes, we are. And he said, these concerns that you have, the fact that you dislike these thoughts is a sign of clear faith.

So anybody who has these faith based doubts, and is beating themselves up for it, wondering, why can't I get these thoughts out of my mind?

Why can't I trust in Allah? Why do these thoughts come through my mind, I can't believe that I'm thinking this I hate that I have these thoughts. Realize that those concerns are a sign of clear faith as it also sallam said, and realize that you're in very good company, that even the most, some of the most righteous people had a struggle with these thoughts that would go through their minds. So realize you're not alone in dealing with that. But one of the most heartbreaking issues that comes up in these situations when people have these thoughts because of the trauma that they've endured, is that it pushes them away from the ultimate source of healing, right in order to be able

to heal from trauma. What does trauma do? Trauma gets us off off center makes us feel unstable, makes us feel unsafe. Right. And how do we counter that?

How do we counter that the best source of countering that is with Allah, He is the source of safety and stability. He is a salaam right the source of peace, that he is the one who helps us to feel rooted in a sense of mastery feeling, feeling like we have our needs met feeling like we are worthy and when

If we don't have the antidote to these feelings, because of the doubts that we're experiencing, it can be very, very lonely SubhanAllah. But one thing to keep in mind is that there's a path forward, when you can identify that trauma is at the root of this, you can work to heal it. And one of the things that I find so profound Subhanallah is a concept called Post Traumatic Growth, where

most people

think about trauma as okay, you know, it's life changing 100% Like the trauma can change an individual the way that they view their life, the way that they view themselves, their thought patterns, their ability to map manage emotions, and things like that. But also realize that it can result in really positive psychological changes, which is really strange when you think about it, how can something devastating

make somebody actually end up feeling better than they did before that devastating event happened in their life. That's what post traumatic growth is, that researchers have found, and they defined it, they define it as the ability to thrive, not just bounce back, not just survive after a traumatic incident incident, but to be able to thrive afterwards. And they categorized it in five different areas. Number one, being a greater appreciation of life, right? That when you have been buried in a sense of grief, when you have experienced something overwhelming and something difficult, you then appreciate the times when you're not experiencing that you have a greater experience, you have a

greater appreciation for the small things that you realize are beautiful in life. Number two, is this increased closeness in relationships, once you experience potential, like we said, trauma is always some sort of loss, which makes you then appreciate what you actually do have, right?

And it helps you to be more patient and empathetic and appreciative toward the people in your life. Three is the identification of new possibilities, post traumatic growth. This is one of the things that cat care characterizes people who thrive after a traumatic incident is that they see the big picture, right? It shifts their priorities, right. And so they look to new possibilities and new opportunities, increased personal strength. I mean, that's undeniable. Once you've gone through something difficult. You never imagined yourself being capable of getting through it. But once you've gotten through it, you realize that you can get through almost anything and that Allah

Subhana Allah has given you the capacity to endure that. And then number five is greater spiritual development. If we can bounce back and heal from a traumatic incident and thrive afterwards. One of the absolutely most beautiful benefits of it is an increase in spiritual and religious growth, feeling renewed in that and feeling a greater sense of closeness to Allah subhana data as well.