We all experience trauma in some form or another in a lifetime; it cannot be avoided.
We will all lose loved ones to death at some point, experience anxiety over severe illnesses (our own or someone else’s) requiring intrusive medical treatments with no guarantees, accidents, violence such as war, crime or rape, losses of all sorts from jobs to homes to relationships, and more.
What is traumatizing to one person may not be to the next.
Seeing a person maimed in an accident, for instance, may traumatize one person while it catapults another into action or simply gets stored as a distant memory because they work in an ER and are desensitized.
Under normal circumstances, we are surrounded by familiar people, places and things that help comfort us to get us through.
Most people process through trauma and may even become stronger for it. This is called “resilience”.
But not everyone can. In fact, many cannot.
Why?
Let’s first define the word more completely:
There are very real, physical reactions to traumatic events. These physical reactions are meant to help us escape and survive. But there are times that we can become “stuck”, and the reactionary physical effects continue in an alarm state rather than rebooting back to neutral.
Many things can contribute to becoming “stuck” in trauma due to the sense of helplessness.
Some trauma is far too horrific to ever have the tools to process properly.
For instance, what humans do to other humans in crime, violence or war are things we were never designed to experience. Severe trauma, long-lasting and repeating trauma can be high on the list of events that can cause us to become “stuck”.
Those who do not have close relationships that feel comforting, safe and secure are at risk. Children who were raised in with insecure attachment to their caregiver or an unstable, unsafe environment are especially at risk.
There is no list of specific events that cause trauma. There is no guarantee that an event will or will not continue to effect an individual without intervention.
What is traumatizing to one person may be something another person can just walk away from shaking their head.
It has everything to do with our backgrounds, again – things over which we had little or no control, and how we developed.
It also has much to do with what happens during and immediately after the trauma. The sense of helplessness is a key factor.
But there IS hope – and we can help.
— written by Janet Schryer Donahue, LLPC, NCC, CCTP. Janet works extensively with traumatized refugees and survivors of torture.
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