If you live with complex trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma dumping or oversharing could be a natural trauma response and coping mechanism.
“Trauma dumping refers to the oversharing of difficult emotions and thoughts with others,” Dr. Prewitt explains. “It is not a clinical term used by mental health providers, but people who engage in 'trauma dumping' often share traumatic events or stressful situations with others during inappropriate times.”
Oversharing can all too often be a smokescreen for a serious psychological issue, including things like anxiety disorder and borderline personality disorder. And the first hint can be whether you can control your blather or not.
For some people, sharing the intimate details of their lives can be empowering and freeing. But for many others, oversharing is a coping mechanism for anxiety, stress, and untreated trauma. In some cases, oversharing may be a cry for help from someone struggling to cope with their mental health.
A common reason for oversharing is the desire to build depth and emotional intimacy before the relationship is ready. This can often be connected to stress or a fear of not being liked by the person. First dates, new coworkers, or mutual friends often elicit this oversharing.
People with BPD often engage in self-sabotaging behavior. This can include: Oversharing.
Venting is a healthy way to share negative emotions and reduce stress. But with trauma dumping, you overshare in a way that makes the listener feel overwhelmed or ignored.
Mutual sharing for emotional support is one of the ways that people develop closer relationships with others. But, trauma dumping usually isn't a mutual interaction; it's a toxic kind of communication that involves one person getting their emotional needs met at the expense of someone else.
Initial reactions to trauma can include exhaustion, confusion, sadness, anxiety, agitation, numbness, dissociation, confusion, physical arousal, and blunted affect. Most responses are normal in that they affect most survivors and are socially acceptable, psychologically effective, and self-limited.
It's common for people with ADHD to overshare information. People may be impulsive and not stop to think about what they're saying.
Oversharing doesn't create intimacy. Oversharing is self-absorption masked as vulnerability. This may also signal emotional neediness and/or lack of boundaries.
That said, gaslighters do have some common characteristics and there are some behaviors you can look out for: Lack of boundaries (oversharing information about themselves or others) Making excuses, blaming others for their issues. Reacting explosively to feedback or (real or imagined) threats.
“Your anxiety makes you talk uncontrollably [and] the more you share the more anxious you get but you can't stop,” she says. Lastly, the clinical psychologist says oversharing can also be linked to “a part of you that feels lonely and is looking for connection.”
Trauma is a factor that can cause overthinking. People who have experienced trauma are more vulnerable to overthinking. For example, childhood abuse or parental neglect can alter an individual's brain to stick in a constant hyper-vigilance state.
Overshare. One sure way to recognize an insecure person on social media is that they overshare. They go to painstaking measures to share details that no one would have ever asked for. More often than not, it's because they feel that they have something to prove.
Key points. A "trauma bond" is an attachment formed between two people who unconsciously bond to each other based on shared trauma. Traumatic bonds are typically established in abusive childhoods and are learned as a product of intermittent positive and negative reinforcement.
What is Toxic Venting? Toxic venting feels like an attack on someone's character. Whether you are the one venting, or you're listening to someone else do it, this communication makes the other person out to be “the bad guy.” This type of bad-mouthing becomes an intense form of gossip.
Is trauma dumping a form of abuse? Most of the time, trauma dumping is not purposefully abusive or manipulative. It's more common for a dumper to be so involved in talking about their traumatic experience that they are unaware of how their story is impacting their listeners.
Signs of Emotional Dumping
You feel spent, used, unappreciated, or stressed after a conversation with a friend or loved one. A friend or loved one call or texts you repeatedly and at all hours with their problems with no regard for your time. You feel like your conversations are always one-sided.
Oversharing. It can be hard to process and filter the constant thoughts, heightened feelings, and energy levels of a manic episode. This can sometimes result in feeling unable to stop oneself from sharing random or inappropriate compulsive thoughts, even in serious situations.
People with borderline personality disorder may experience intense mood swings and feel uncertainty about how they see themselves. Their feelings for others can change quickly, and swing from extreme closeness to extreme dislike. These changing feelings can lead to unstable relationships and emotional pain.