CLINICAL psychologist Sapphire Longmore has cautioned victims of traumatic events against sharing their stories publicly without being fully healed, warning that divulging such sensitive information to be scrutinised by the public can be re-traumatising.

Drawing on years of experience working with trauma survivors, Dr Longmore, who is also a Government senator, stressed that sharing such experiences prematurely, particularly in the public domain or on talk shows, can have detrimental effects on the healing process.

“What happens is that if the video sometimes goes public with this type of information, [the survivors]] end up being more vulnerable because they are not in an environment that is suited for that kind of disclosure [and] they [will] now have to deal with the consequence,” Dr Longmore told the Jamaica Observer.

“I underscore that some people deal with things in different ways, but whereas it might have been better to cope with it privately, once you go public you cannot get it back,” she said.

Citing instances from her practice, Dr Longmore said she has seen cases in which clients had repressed trauma related to rape, only to confront it while discussing other traumatic events.

Repressed memory occurs when trauma is too severe to be kept in conscious memory, and is removed by repression or dissociation, or both.

The concept of repressed trauma originated with Sigmund Freud who posited that repression is a defence mechanism in the face of traumatic experiences.

“In treating persons, sometimes you have them in a state where they’re manifesting effects of the rape, not even remembering that they were raped, and it’s when you’re trying to deal with another problem — it could be substance abuse or somebody who is an alcoholic — and it’s when you’re treating that problem and going into exploring and deeply immersing them in therapy around that, that this comes up,” she explained.

“You have people who have suppressed a rape and they don’t remember the things that have happened. You have persons who — especially if it had happened at a certain young age — they didn’t realise it, they probably thought it was some sort of normal part of life,” she added.

“The person may also tend to have dysfunction in their lives otherwise, whether it is something that is related to something like personality disorders, whether they can’t maintain relationships, whether they have a particular predisposition to even engaging in certain sexual activities. They end up having issues dealing or coping with something in their life and they seek out help, and in treating that we discover the cause,” she said.

Dr Longmore said that when individuals go on talk shows to discuss other traumatic events they, too, may uncover these lost memories in their discussions and become in need of serious psychological intervention. However, they would not be in an environment with people who are adequately trained to deal with them coming to this realisation.

“Everybody is conscious about mental health and mental health being such a cosmopolitan thing to be talking about. You have persons who, for media popularity or to gain exposure so to speak, will talk to persons in forums that are not appropriate. They themselves are not equipped to deal with it,” she said.

“Every circumstance is unique, every individual is unique, every outcome is unique, so when someone comes to be aware there is no telling what will happen,” she said.

“This is why therapists need to be adequately trained. The individuals who are managing persons like this need to be adequately trained to deal with someone coming to such realisation or seeking resolution of the consequences of that,” added Dr Longmore.

While acknowledging the power of storytelling in raising awareness, she urged survivors to prioritise their well-being above all else.

“If you have not processed your trauma as an individual, do not go public with it until you are comfortably healed from the circumstance,” she advised.