Why Your Anger Feels Justified—and What That Says About Post Traumatic Embitterment
I was speaking with a betrayal trauma client the other day.
The had found messages from their partner to another woman.
Flirty messages.
A link to a hotel.
As my client read the messages, the foundation of what she used to know started to crumble away.
All the times her partner gaslighted her and minimized suspicious things came back to her.
The dream that she had about her partner cheating on her a few weeks back. That came back to her too.
By the time that I saw her, she was deep in embitterment. Experiencing intrusive thoughts, righteous outrage, and wanting justice because she was at home feeling broken while her partner was meet another woman at hotels behind her back.
Symptoms of Post-Traumatic Embitterment
In a 2009 study found that people with Post Traumatic Embitterment scored significantly higher in:
- Long lasting feelings of resentment
- Thoughts of revenge
- Anxiety
- Helplessness
- Depression
- Intrusive thoughts
- Painful memories
- Hyperarousal
- Irritability
- Need for distraction
- Mood impairment
- Withdrawal from social life
- Inability to pursue activities
- Phobic avoidance
- Aggression
- Social withdrawal
After betrayal, you may experience persistent feelings of bitterness, about righteous outrage that doesn’t go away.
You feel violated.
Wronged.
Like your sense of justice was shattered.
Unlike PTSD, which is rooted in fear or danger, Post traumatic embitterment is tied to betrayal, humiliation, or loss of dignity.
Why You Feel Stuck After Betrayal
If you’ve been blaming yourself for not getting over it, consider that your your mind is stuck replaying a moment when something felt deeply unfair. You might even want them to suffer like you did.
These intrusive thoughts are your brain trying to make sense of an overwhelming experience that doesn’t even seem real but the more you ignore it, the more stuck you feel.
Traditional talk therapy might make you feel worse and have an unintentional iatrogenic effect, because you revivify the trauma and experience it again when you talk about it.
A Different Path to Healing
If you’re stuck in post-traumatic embitterment, you might need a helping hand to move forward because it requires a trauma-informed approach, like Accelerated Hypnotherapy that’s boosted with OEI therapy to help access the subconscious patterns keeping you stuck and access new possibilities for yourself and your life.
Let’s connect so you can put the past behind you so it’s not running your life and you can create a whole new future
Small changes in the subconscious lead to significant shifts at the conscious level.





















































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