TRAUMA AND PTSD
“Trauma is a deeply distressing experience.”
Sometimes trauma is an event, an action, a loss, or an experience. It is a person’s reaction to that event, and the ripple effect isn’t always seen at first. You could directly experience assault or witness something happen, and that experience can impact your central nervous system to the point of creating symptoms. This is the impact of trauma.
Trauma research tells us that things that happen in our environment can impact us psychologically, physiologically, and emotionally, and that what we do about it has a strong correlation with how we cope.
It was previously believed that people could only experience PTSD if they were in combat, and that those who claimed trauma from civilian life were either faking it, or they were experiencing some other sort of problem. This brought about societal change in the US and led to understandings that the same symptoms were in play for the combat veteran and the child who was verbally abused by their care provider. This understanding goes a long way in empathy and brought about societal changes and social programs to attempt to end certain cycles of violence, called intergenerational trauma.
A person who has experienced trauma may feel:
denial
anger
fear
sadness
shame
confusion
anxiety
depression
numbness
guilt
hopelessness
irritability
difficulty concentrating
They may have emotional outbursts, find it difficult to cope with how they feel, or withdraw from others. Flashbacks, where a person relives the traumatic event in their mind, are common, as are nightmares.
Physical responses
Along with emotional reactions, some people also experience physical symptoms:
headaches
feeling on edge/jumpy
digestive problems
fatigue
racing heart
sweating
Sometimes, people also experience hyperarousal (feeling like you are in a constant state of alertness) or hypoarousal (feeling like nothing matters). This may make sleep extremely difficult.
Individuals may also go on to develop other mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, and substance abuse problems. Traumatic events can be a one time experience, or ongoing events.
Therapy has been shown to have a significant impact on functioning and recovering from trauma symptoms. For help recovering from trauma, reach out to SRH today.