Understanding Trauma
Trauma is an experience of personal violation or overwhelming intrusion on personal safety or integrity or the safety of someone you care about. Once experienced, traumatic incidents or prolonged stress experiences may have continued emotional, psychological, physical, and spiritual impacts on an individual and their significant relationships.
Post-Traumatic Stress results when ongoing symptoms recur after a stressful or extremely upsetting experience.
What you need to know:
- Traumas can occur to competent, good people. It is not completely possible to protect oneself from traumatic experiences
- Even strong, healthy people can experience traumatic stress
- Many people experience both short-term and long-lasting problems following exposure to trauma
- People who react to traumas are not crazy. They experience symptoms and problems that are connected with having been in a traumatic situation
- Having symptoms after a traumatic event is not a sign of personal weakness
- Anyone could develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) if exposed to a severe enough trauma. Many psychologically well-adjusted and physically healthy people develop PTSD
- When a person understands trauma symptoms better, he or she can become less fearful of them and better able to manage them
Commom Symptoms of Traumatic Stress
There are some universal experiences following all forms of trauma, be they experiences of interpersonal violence (sexual, emotional, physical, or verbal abuse perpetrated by another person) or impersonal (accidents, natural disasters, difficult surgical or medical procedures, etc) or experiences of extreme loss.
Physical reactions to trauma might include:
- Trouble falling or staying asleep
- Feeling agitated and constantly on the lookout for danger
- Getting very startled by loud noises or something or someone coming up on you from behind when you don't expect it
- Feeling shaky and sweaty
- Palpitations
- Trouble breathing
Cognitive reactions to trauma might include:
- Upsetting memories or nightmares such as images or thoughts about the trauma
- Trouble concentrating or thinking clearly
- Being unable to think about anything but the traumatic experience
- Difficulty accomplishing normal tasks that require concentration or focus
- Being reminded of the trauma by simple events or occurrences
Emotional reactions to trauma might include:
- Feeling as if the trauma is happening again (flashbacks)
- Getting upset when reminded about the trauma (by something the person sees, hears, feels, smells, or tastes)
- Anxiety or intense fear, feeling in danger again
- Anger or aggressive feelings and feeling the need to defend oneself
- Trouble controlling emotions; sudden anxiety, anger, or upset
- Shutting down emotionally and/or avoiding situations or other people
- Feeling that one is going crazy
Psychological reactions to trauma might include:
- Trouble trusting others after trauma
- Confusion about sense of self or self-esteem
- Relationship issues
- Fears or confusions about sexuality
Spiritual reactions to trauma might include:
- Confusion about God
- Altered sense of meaning in life
- Grief and loss issues
- Questions about “why me?”
By recognizing the effects of trauma and knowing more about symptoms, a person is better able to decide how to heal and what treatments might help.
We offer Holistic Treatments for Traumatic Stress, including:
- Desensitization to past traumatic incidents, such as through EMDR
- Spiritually and Emotionally-oriented psychotherapy to process and make sense of past experiences that have caused pain and confusion
- Skills for coping with the emotional and psychological aftermath of trauma
- Body-centered therapy to improve awareness and heal the impact of trauma on the body, psyche, and spirit
- Bodywork that assists to release stored tensions and pains resulting from the physical and emotional impact of trauma. Safe touch and gentle releasing techniques help one become more at home in their body again
- Couple or family oriented therapy to help family understand and support the healing process
- Medications, when appropriate, may reduce the effects of traumatic stress or PTSD
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