COLORADO SPRINGS — A Mountain View is usually an ideal backdrop for your home, but for Bill Wysong, it's a grim reminder of a past disaster.
"That hillside was all green, totally covered with trees," said Wysong.
With fires currently burning through parts of Los Angeles, Wysong says the charred forest outside his home is now not the only reminder of the 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire for him and his neighbors.
He says the footage he's seen from the City of Los Angeles evokes feelings from when he had to leave his home in 2012.
"You relive everything that you experienced," said Wysong. "Some people that literally lost their homes, they are suffering, you know, to them, it's real."
So how does that "real" feeling return? Candace Rodgers, the owner and Lead Therapist of Your Best Brain Counseling in Colorado Springs, says it's because your brain is wired that way.
"Your hippo campus doesn't bother to care that that fire is happening somewhere else. Your hippo campus thinks it's happening to you. It's happening now. It's in the present," said Rodgers. "What's your brain's job? To keep you alive. That's it. So if it feels like something's unsafe or you're in danger? Absolutely."
So when you feel these emotions returning from past trauma, how do you overcome it? Rodgers says focus on the things you enjoy.
"Know who your friends are. (Take) really good self care. If that's going for a bubble bath, take a bubble bath. If that's going on a walk with your best friend and your dog? Great," said Rodgers.
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