How traumatic stress affects people

This week we are talking about trauma. If what we talk about today feels familiar for you or someone you know I want to start off with that you are not alone and there is hope. All over the world people experience trauma and heal from the experience, one way to heal from traumatic experiences is through counseling. Last week we talked about how stress influences the brain in the post “2 facts about stress to change your life”. The American Psychological Association describes trauma as:

“Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape, or natural disaster. Immediately after the event, shock and denial are typical. Longer-term reactions include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, strained relationships, and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea.”

Trauma is often like an explosion in the person’s life, long after the fire has faded away there continues to be damage left on the landscape of their life. Traumatic experiences impact each of us differently but a handful of major features can occur for some who have experienced a traumatic event. If you are interested in a deeper look at a specific type of trauma called intergenerational trauma, I recommend the book “It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle”. It will be a future topic. Keep reading to learn more about trauma to help support you and those you know.

1. Something, or a lot of somethings, happened. Whether one major thing happening to someone, like a car accident or assault, or a lot of little things like childhood neglect, trauma involves experiencing an event or events that severely threaten the wellbeing of the person. A common depiction is of the veteran who once returned from active duty, having experienced high stress and life or death situations, experiences a variety of different things because of what they went through. Though just as valid is that of someone who experienced years of smaller abuses, such as someone who was in a relationship with daily threatening experiences causing fear for their wellbeing. 
2. The brain is taken over by the trauma experiences. After a trauma experience, people may begin to have thoughts pop into their head about the event/s. Sometimes this can feel like you are reliving the experience in what is called a flashback. After a trauma experience, things can begin to creep into our dreams, turning them into nightmares. Maybe it’s a sound that reminds you of what happened before, or when you drive by the place it happened but trauma experiences try to take over the mind and force their way to the top. It’s natural to be freaked out by this but working with someone to sort out these types of things is a proven way to resolve trauma memories trying to take over your days. 
3. Trauma may make you avoid people, places, things, and thoughts. It kind of makes sense, if something rough happened we would prefer not to think about it or be around anything that reminds us of what happened, to the extreme. A common occurrence of this is for those who have been in a traumatic car accident after which they can no longer approach or get into their car. There are various ways to overcome this, therapy is one way, but also sometimes continued exposure to the disturbing thing can help. Such as if the person is still around cars and sees that it’s okay usually to drive places, they will lessen their distress about cars over time. 
4. The light of life gets turned down or off. Some who experience trauma have trouble remembering some parts of what has happened to them. Humans often generalize what they have learned to other situations in the present or future, when you experience something traumatic this can influence all your experiences afterward. An example I have seen is that sometimes people who have experienced trauma at the hands of a loved one have difficulty trusting new people. It is common for those who have experienced trauma to blame themselves when outright facts to the contrary are present. This is a little like how we can be our own worst critic. An example of this is when children are abused. No matter what, children are not responsible for the actions of the adults around them but often they will give themselves some blame for what has happened to them. After trauma people may have difficulty enjoying things or seeing the good in the world around them. Their body has been through a shock or many shocks for years and because of this their brain has limited space to focus on positive emotions or experiences and needs to focus on survival. It is normal for people to feel this way after trauma. 
5. On guard, all the time. For some who experience trauma, it is like our brain went out and bought a bunch of new home security equipment and turned the sensitivity up to max. For some who have experienced trauma, there is an increased startle response. While we all jump at some things like a loud noise or sudden jolt, those who have experienced a trauma may get alerted at the slightest sign of anything similar to a threat. Also sometimes people experience irritability that seems for no reason, including outbursts of anger. Sometimes people will have trouble concentrating or sleeping. Our brains hold onto the rough stuff we experienced and while we may not be actively thinking about them, our brain stores that information and is quickly bringing it up in new situations all the time.
6. Unreal and unreality. In some people’s experiences, it has been shared that people who experience a trauma will begin to feel as though they are no longer themselves or the world is not real. Our brains will work hard to protect us from the harsh reality of what has happened to us and change how we see ourselves and the world. 

Again this has been a bit of a heavier discussion, these are some hard things to experience for anyone. As I mentioned last week, there is hope! We will be talking in the next few posts about two of the leading therapy methods for helping people heal from trauma: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Brainspotting. Down the road, I will share other ways to cope with the effects of traumatic stress. 

If you or anyone you know is experiencing some or all of what has been discussed here, there is support. Reach out to Mindspot Counseling to discuss counseling or seek emergency services through your local medical providers.

Andrew