What is Trauma?
Trauma has become a buzz word used across social media platforms. Many people are self-diagnosing their own trauma and seeking to understand why they are the way they are– questioning their behaviors and emotional responses to people or situations. So let’s talk about it.
What is Trauma?
Trauma is an adverse event or experience that poses a threat to a person's autonomy. Trauma disrupts our sense of safety, trust, identity, connection, and interpersonal relationships. It can be acute, chronic, or complex. Acute trauma is a single incident such as a car crash, while chronic trauma is repetitive or prolonged– such as war. Complex trauma is a relational violation in which multiple invasive, interpersonal incidents occur over the course of a long period of time. Chronic trauma and complex trauma differ in that complex trauma is often perpetuated by a trusted caregiver, family member, or friend during the formative years of childhood or adolescence. This type of trauma creates a deep sense of betrayal and loss of trust. There are many different types of trauma a person can experience and each individual will be impacted in a different way depending on predisposing and resiliency factors. Predisposing factors include: history of trauma (either personally or genetically passed down from a family member), lack of support, feelings of helplessness, and life stressors. Resiliency factors include things like: a person's worldview, connection to community resources, sense of self, adaptability to change, and secure attachments to others.
How Trauma Impacts Us:
Trauma overwhelms our nervous system, triggering a trauma response. There are various responses the body can have when alerted to a threat to our safety. I’m sure you’ve heard of the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response that gets triggered when experiencing danger or perceived danger. These responses happen automatically in an effort to keep us safe in the midst of a life-threatening event. Experiencing a life-threatening event(s) overwhelms our nervous system, impacting our ability to effectively cope with what happened.
Common responses and symptoms of trauma include:
Sadness
Anger
Denial
Fear
Shame
Guilt
Nightmares
Insomnia
Emotional outbursts
Difficulty with relationships
Anxiety
Depression
PTSD
Fragmented memories
Dissociative disorders
Substance abuse problems
Trauma is subjective, meaning what may make something traumatic to me, may not to you. A key indicator is whether or not your body is having a trauma response, not whether the actual incident was “objectively” traumatic. If there is a trauma response present, then trauma occurred. If it felt traumatic to you, then it was traumatic.
A Path Toward Healing
The first step in addressing trauma is recognizing the experience as traumatic and trusting your own perception of this. It can take an incredible amount of emotional work and courage to feel ready to start addressing your trauma. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix to healing your trauma, however, this is hope. There are plenty of highly trained, trauma-informed therapists in the world ready to support you on a path toward healing. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to working with trauma but there are some specific modalities and approaches that have proven to have successful outcomes. Some common approaches and modalities that specifically treat trauma are EMDR, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Internal Family Systems. In addition to these evidence-based practices, it is most important to find a therapist who you trust and feel safe enough to open up to. The therapeutic relationship is one of the leading factors in positive outcomes for clients. I would encourage you to take advantage of the (often free) consultation calls therapists tend to offer to make sure it feels like a good fit. You can read more about what to expect and suggested questions to ask a therapist during a consultation call in my other blog post, here.
If you think you might be experiencing the impact of trauma, you deserve a space to process and find a way forward. If you’re curious to learn more or you’re ready to start a journey toward healing, reach out to schedule a free consultation by filling out the contact form.
