PTSD and Emotions: Trusting Your Gut or Staying Stuck?

Written By Kelly Anderson

Annaleis Giovanetti, PhD

We’ve all heard the advice: “Trust your gut.” And often, it can be helpful. Your emotions are there for a reason—they give you important information about the world around you.

Fear can signal danger.
Sadness can mark loss.
Worry can help you prepare.

But after trauma, these emotional signals can become overactive. For people with PTSD, the brain’s alarm system can start firing too often and in situations that aren’t truly dangerous.

 

When Your Brain’s Alarm System Won’t Turn Off

Our brains use shortcuts to process information quickly. After trauma, one common shortcut is:

Fear = Danger

The problem? With PTSD, this shortcut can get over-applied.

It’s like a car alarm that’s meant to go off if someone tries to break in… but now it’s triggered when a leaf falls, a cat brushes by, or the wind blows a little stronger.

Over time, the alarm stops being helpful. It’s loud, exhausting, and no longer a reliable sign of real danger. And the cost is significant: many people with PTSD say their worlds get smaller as they avoid places, people, and experiences they once enjoyed, all to keep the alarm quiet.

 

When Trusting Your Gut Becomes Confusing

For some people with PTSD, it’s not just that emotions feel too strong—it’s that they stop knowing when to trust them at all.

You might wonder:

       “Is this fear telling me I’m actually in danger, or is it my PTSD?”

       “Am I overreacting, or underreacting?”

      “Can I even trust my instincts anymore?”

This uncertainty can lead to second-guessing yourself, hesitating to make decisions, or feeling disconnected from your own sense of what’s right for you. Recovery often involves rebuilding that trust and learning to tell the difference between genuine signals of danger and those set off by a sensitive alarm system.

 

Getting Unstuck and Relearning to Trust Yourself

The goal in PTSD treatment isn’t to ignore your emotions—it’s to learn when they’re giving you accurate information and when they’re keeping you stuck.

Evidence-based trauma therapies can help you:

  • Check the facts – Strategies to pause and ask: Does the situation match the level of fear I’m feeling?

  • Approach instead of avoid – Systematically re-engage with the people, places, and activities you’ve been avoiding.

  • Reprocess the trauma – Gain more control over how the memory affects you and reduce intense emotions.


Not Sure Where to Start?

The following treatments are backed by science to help people recover from trauma:

  • Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) – Identify and shift unhelpful beliefs related to trauma so you can reduce intense emotions and move forward.

  • Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) – Safely face and process trauma memories and reminders so they lose their power over you.

  • Concurrent Treatment of PTSD and Substance Use Disorders using PE (COPE) – Address PTSD and substance use together with an integrated, evidence-based approach.

  • Written Exposure Therapy (WET) – Process trauma through structured writing exercises in a brief and effective format.

  • Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation (STAIR) – Build emotional regulation and relationship skills to support recovery after trauma.

 

If you’re feeling stuck, you’re not alone. With the right treatment, you can retrain that alarm system, regain trust in yourself, and reclaim the parts of life that matter most.

Kelly Anderson
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Therapy for the Overthinker