Silence is never empty—it is crowded with unsaid words, unspoken grief, and stories the body was too afraid to tell. In this episode of Numbness Paralysis – The PTSD Podcast, Olga Costa gently explores the weight of unspoken trauma, why silence becomes a survival strategy, and how it can also keep us isolated.

Through real-life reflections, trauma-informed metaphors, and neuroscience explained simply, Olga guides listeners into the paradox of silence: how it both protects and imprisons. With a Reflective SWOT moment and practical tools, this episode offers ways to slowly give silence a voice—through whispering, writing, safe presence, and grief work.

Silence is not failure. Silence is protection. But healing begins when we learn to open the sealed box of what has long been unsaid.

Trigger Warning: This episode explores grief, loss, and trauma responses. Listen gently and with care.

For many trauma survivors, touch doesn’t feel like comfort—it feels like alarm. A hug can feel like a trap. Even the gentlest touch can awaken memories of danger.

In this episode of Numbness Paralysis – The PTSD Podcast, host Olga Costa explores why touch can feel unsafe after trauma, how grief and memory live in the body, and what it means to slowly reclaim safety in your skin. Through gentle metaphors, psychology, and practical tools, this episode offers a compassionate guide for reconnecting with your body—on your own terms, and at your own pace.

If touch has ever felt complicated for you, this episode is a hand extended softly, saying: Your body is yours. And it can learn safety again.

Can joy be terrifying? For many trauma survivors, the answer is yes.

In this deeply reflective episode of Numbness Paralysis – The PTSD Podcast, host Olga Costa gently explores the strange and tender space where joy and grief meet. When you've lived through Complex PTSD, emotional numbness, or loss, happiness can feel like a betrayal — of those you lost, of the pain you endured, or of the safety your nervous system has learned to crave in stillness.

Through poetic metaphors, real-life vignettes, and somatic tools, this episode offers a compassionate exploration of why joy often arrives hand-in-hand with guilt, anxiety, or tears. Learn how to recognize micro-joys, build a dialogue between Joy and Guilt, and create space for both grief and celebration in your healing.

This isn’t about forcing yourself to be happy. It’s about letting yourself trust joy… gently, slowly, without shame.

Because you deserve more than survival. You deserve to live — with presence, softness, and permission to feel it all.

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Next up: When Touch Feels Unsafe — reclaiming your body after trauma.

In the Season 2 premiere of Numbness Paralysis – The PTSD Podcast, host Olga Costa guides listeners through the tender, often invisible layers of grief hidden beneath emotional numbness. With poetic insight, somatic wisdom, and trauma-informed reflection, this episode explores why dissociation isn’t failure—but a sacred form of survival.

You’ll hear personal stories, listener vignettes, and grounded science that explain how grief becomes stored in the nervous system—and how it can begin to thaw when safety returns. Using metaphors like “the vault beneath your ribs,” Olga gently walks with you into the quiet places where sorrow has lived unseen.

Learn how to journal to your numbness, create grief rituals, and recognize your body’s quiet cry for compassion. Whether you’re frozen, feeling too much, or somewhere in between, this episode invites you to witness your emotional truth with gentleness and strength.

💔 You are not broken. You are thawing.

🕯️ Every Friday at 3:00 PM.

When your body begs for rest, but rest feels like danger — that’s emotional exhaustion.

In this episode of Numbness Paralysis – The PTSD Podcast, host Olga Costa explores why calm can feel suspicious for those living with Complex PTSD, emotional numbness, or long-term hypervigilance. Through listener stories, poetic metaphors, and trauma-informed science, Olga gently unpacks why stillness can trigger old alarms and how to slowly reintroduce the body to safety.

We talk about micro-resting, softening the edges of rest, and creating safe spaces where relaxation is possible. You’ll also hear “The Bird That Forgot to Land” — a metaphor for a nervous system that has flown too long without trust in the ground.

This episode is an invitation to stop fighting your exhaustion, to release the guilt, and to begin treating rest as a birthright — not a betrayal.

Because rest isn’t weakness. Rest is repair. New episodes every Friday at 3:00 PM

In Episode 9 of Numbness Paralysis – The PTSD Podcast, we explore the silent and heavy burden of shame—how it forms, why it persists, and how it becomes a protective "armor" for survivors of Complex PTSD and emotional trauma. Host Olga Costa gently unpacks the neuroscience of shame, shares poetic metaphors and real-life listener stories, and guides you through a reflective SWOT moment to reclaim your truth.

This episode offers grounding tools like embodied practices, shame-release rituals, and the power of safe human mirrors. Whether you’ve ever felt like a burden, frozen in self-doubt, or quietly apologized for existing—this one’s for you.

You were never too much. You were simply unprotected. Let’s begin the soft work of setting the armor down.

🔔 New episodes drop every Friday at 3:00PM. 🎙️ Hosted by Olga Costa.

#ComplexPTSD #ShameRecovery #CPTSDJourney #TraumaInformed #HealingFromShame #MentalHealthPodcast #NervousSystemHealing #EmotionalHealing #InnerChildWork #PodcastForHealing

Have you ever shut down during a conversation — not because of what was said, but because of what it reminded you of? In this tender episode of Numbness Paralysis – The PTSD Podcast, host Olga Costa gently explores emotional flashbacks in relationships. These hidden trauma responses don’t come with memories — they come with feelings that flood our bodies, hijacking the present with echoes of the past.

With real-life vignettes, accessible neuroscience, and trauma-informed compassion, Olga helps listeners understand why they sometimes panic in love, withdraw from praise, or misread safety as danger. A reflective SWOT moment invites gentle self-awareness, and practical tools offer grounding and co-regulation.

This episode is for anyone navigating love while living with Complex PTSD, emotional numbness, or dissociation — and anyone trying to build bridges between their past and their present.

🌿 “You are not too much. You are someone who has lived through too much — and who is still worthy of safe love.”

Why do some of us feel like we’re always on alert — even in moments of calm? In this episode of Numbness Paralysis, we explore hypervigilance: the exhausting state of constant scanning for danger, even in safe environments.

Through listener voices, trauma-informed science, and compassionate reflection, we unpack how hypervigilance forms, how it impacts our daily lives and relationships, and how the nervous system can slowly, gently, learn to stand down.

We also offer practical tools to support regulation — from orienting exercises to relational anchors — and close with a reminder: Your vigilance was earned. But your rest is deserved.

🎧 If you’ve ever felt like your guard never comes down, this episode is for you.

Topics Covered:

• What hypervigilance feels like
• Trauma biology and the brain
• Somatic regulation tools
• A gentle SWOT reflection on survival patterns
• How to offer safety to your nervous system

🔔 Subscribe and follow for weekly episodes on PTSD, emotional numbing, complex trauma, and healing through gentleness.

Have you ever felt emotionally numb, mentally foggy, or like you’re watching life happen from the outside?

That’s not you being distracted — it’s dissociation. A powerful, subconscious trauma response that helps the brain and body survive emotional overwhelm.

In this gentle yet illuminating episode, trauma educator and host Olga Costa explains how dissociation works, why it develops, and how to begin gently reconnecting with yourself through body-based tools and trauma-informed compassion.

💡 You’ll learn:

• What dissociation feels like (and how it differs from distraction)
• How the freeze response protects you
• The neuroscience behind emotional numbness
• Grounding tools to return to the present moment
• A soft SWOT reflection to explore your own patterns

If you’ve ever Googled "Why do I feel so disconnected?" or "How do I stop emotionally shutting down?" — this episode is for you.

Stay safe, stay soft… and stay curious.

🎧 Episode 5 — Shame as a Cracked Armor | Host: Olga Costa

Shame doesn’t scream. It whispers: “You’re too much.” “You’re not enough.” “If they knew the real you, they’d leave.”

In this powerful episode, Olga Costa explores shame not as a feeling — but as a survival strategy. We dive into how shame becomes emotional armor, why we wear it, and what happens when it starts to crack. Through stories, symbolism, and science, we’ll uncover how to soften shame’s grip and meet it with compassion instead of judgment.

🔎 In this episode:

• The difference between guilt and shame
• How trauma wires us to hide
• The “social survival” brain and why shame feels so dangerous
• The kintsugi metaphor: cracks that heal with gold
• A reflective SWOT to reclaim your voice
• Tools to speak back to shame gently, not forcefully

If you've ever felt like you're too broken to be seen, this episode is for you.

🕊️ You are not the armor. You are the softness underneath.