Dealing with trauma from being scammed can be different for everyone; to some, it doesn’t bother them that much because such is life but for others who may have been scammed for their entire life, it’s a whole different ordeal.
Not everyone is fortunate enough to get back their money or possessions so they essentially need to learn to live and harness the tools to prevent this from happening again. So today we’ve put together some key ways for people to deal with their trauma but also how to stop it.
How Do I Know I’ve Been Scammed?
Being scammed can come in a multitude of forms, such as crypto scams, bank fraud, celebrity impersonation scams, job scams and even romance scams. Millions of people fall victim to at least one of these and when it happens, you tend to go through these feelings of embarrassment, shame, and, in more extreme cases, depression. This is completely normal; you play the whole situation back in your mind wondering how you didn’t know, which can leave you angry but also no closer to the money you’ve lost.
Trauma comes in many forms and stages, which can conjure many types of coping mechanisms to put all this shame and anger aside. Dealing with it is the healthiest option for everyone but you might not know exactly how to so we’ve put together a list of ways for you to deal with these emotions.
How To Process Scam Trauma
Grieve
You are allowed to sit in your feelings with this and avoiding is much worse than feeling everything that is expected. Your feelings are always completely valid in these situations, so feeling sad, annoyed and just overall frustrated with the situation is a great start to getting through and over the situation.
Forgive Yourself
Give yourself mercy and find the lesson in this. Begin by putting things into perspective and taking this as a learning experience for you to never let this happen to you again. Educating yourself on what you missed and what to look for next time.
Craft a recovery plan to help soften the blow that might come through you going on an online phone cleanse. This will allow you to not only process the feeling but not as sting. Next, you could go and treat yourself to a nice solo meal.
Don’t Forget
It’s important that you don’t forget this has happened to you because you should take this lesson and educate yourself and others to prevent this from ever happening again and triggering the trauma.
Learning the valuable lesson not to trust everything online also motivates you to be extra careful while you are navigating the online landscape again. While reminding yourself doesn’t promote the best of feelings money comes and goes and it will get easier with time.
Final Thoughts
If you have fallen victim to a crypto scam or romance scam, you may be left feeling shameful, angry and just overall disappointed. All of these feelings are natural and normal but taking the necessary precautions and steps to heal your trauma and stay protected is necessary.