Trauma
What is trauma?
Trauma is our way of responding to distressing or painful event(s) which negatively affects our ability to cope and manage. Common emotional responses to trauma include
Anger or Irritability
Hopelessness or sadness
Fear, anxiety, shock, denial or disbelief
Shame, self-blame, guilt, disconnected or numb
Feeling confused or difficulty with concentration
Trauma can occur to anyone, and traumatic events effect each person differently. A small inconvenient event for one person may feel catastrophic to another person who experienced the same event.
What are the types of traumas ?
Ongoing event traumas, also known as “small t” traumas, often manifest as complex trauma. Complex traumas often have different symptoms than “big T traumas,” which involve single events.
Prolonged or ongoing trauma, known as “small t’s” are repeated to the victim. Complex traumas occur in scenarios of captivity, such as slavery, family households, prisons, religious cults, and industries of sexual exploitation. Coercive control is often used by the perpetrators in complex trauma. This is accomplished by the perpetrator through physical force, intimidation, enticement or in combination. Relational injury is one way the abuser gains control. This occurs when the perceived social support is lost or damaged due to harmful behaviors from the perpetrator, such as sexual abuse. Social support is a crucial aspect of trauma recovery, as well as the therapeutic relationship, accounting for 30% of the curative factor when clients are being supported by the trauma-informed therapist.
A single or isolated event, known as “big T’s” include, but are not limited to, natural disasters, mass interpersonal violence and large-scale transportation accidents .Each type of trauma will require different resources, such as a natural disaster victim requiring comfort, triage and food supplies or a burn victim receiving pain management techniques or medication. Prior to commencing treatment, securing their safety is necessary through means of seeking refuge, providing medical care, pharmaceutical interventions, alcohol, and drug treatment program, and establishing social support. In all traumas, the client has lost their sense of control and power and this needs to be revived.
It is not uncommon for both big T’s and small t’s to occur to those who are currently enlisted in the army, veterans and front line workers such as police officers, nurses, paramedics and firefighters. Trauma symptoms can also extend from listening to a trauma survivor’s experience. This empathetic response is known as vicarious trauma. Although the trauma was not experienced first hand, symptoms of trauma can still occur.
Does Trauma only affect adults?
Relationships where ongoing trauma occurs, specifically child abuse is linked to post traumatic symptoms and it is strongly associated with externalizing and internalizing problematic behaviors and increases the child’s risk of alcohol and drug consumption in adolescence. The attachment style developed in childhood is indicative of later adolescent and early adult attachment style, primarily anxious attachment style, displaying adult traits such as hypervigilance or obsessiveness and reported by others as clingy and demanding. Ongoing relationship trauma, such as abuse during childhood, are predictive factors of how the child engages in relationships as an adult, including increased rates of depression, anxiety, violence, and lowered self-esteem. Trauma experienced in childhood may not develop apparent traumatic symptoms until adulthood. There is no timeline for when traumatic symptoms will be expressed or when they will dissipate. It is never too late to seek support for previously experienced traumas.
If you or someone you know requires support, please reach out to us and we can provide traumatic psychoeducational resources to help you.
References:
Briere, J., & Scott, C. (2015). Principles of trauma therapy: A guide to symptoms, evaluation, and treatment. SAGE.
Goodnight, J. R. M., Ragsdale, K. A., Rauch, S. A. M., & Rothbaum, B. O. (2019). Psychotherapy for ptsd: An evidence-based guide to a theranostic approach to treatment. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 88, 418–426. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2018.05.006
Herman, J. L. (2015). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence; from domestic abuse to political terror. Basic Books.
Kaplow, J. B., Rolon-Arroyo, B., Layne, C. M., Rooney, E.,Oosterhoff, B., Hill, R.,Steinberg, A. M., Lotterman, J.,Gallagher, K. A. S., & Pynoos, R. S. (2020). Validation of the ucla ptsd reaction index for dsm-5: A developmentally informed assessment tool for youth. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 59(1), 186–194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2018.10.019
Widom, C. S., Czaja, S. J., Kozakowski, S. S., & Chauhan, P. (2018). Does adult attachment style mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and mental and physical health outcomes? Child Abuse & Neglect, 76, 533–545. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.05.002