Understanding Trauma

 
 

What is Trauma?

Trauma is an umbrella term used in both medical and mental health settings. In the medical world, trauma is about damage that has occurred to the body. Treatment is typically focused on repair of those physical wounds and creating circumstances where the body can work on healing itself as much as possible. Trauma in the mental health world involves both the emotional and physical impacts that occur. Trauma can change how the mind perceives what is happening to the body (sense of physical safety), our relationships (feelings of connectedness), and our identity (sense of self). Treatment is focused on helping the person become aware of the source of their wounds, how a person has made meaning out of that experience, and working towards (like the medical model), creating circumstances where the body can work on healing itself as much as possible.

Trauma’s impact on the Body

Because trauma impacts both physical and emotional perceptions, what is experienced by the individual who was traumatized, and what is witnessed by people around that person are expressions of distress. The following is a list of some of these symptoms, but by no means is all inclusive as each persons experience of trauma is unique to them:

  • Emotional Overwhelm

  • Numbing or Feeling Nothing

  • Impulsivity - self-destructivness

  • Insomnia or Hypersomnia

  • Nightmares and/or flashbacks

  • Chronic pain (headaches, stomach aches, back, neck, etc)

  • Autoimmune diseases

  • Depression and or hopelessness

  • Anxiety and/or Panic attacks

  • Agoraphobia

  • Addictions

  • Eating Disorders

  • Feeling not in your body

  • Memory problems

  • Paranoia or Mistrust of Others

Trauma Informed Care

The concept of Trauma informed Care is unfortunately lacking in many places that should recognize a person struggling with trauma who walks through their door. Other places that have at least done some training and implemented some practice or policy around trauma informed care, still fail to then know how to actually support and treat a person struggling with traumatic symptoms. When looking for help to manage your symptoms it is not only important to know if the place you are seeking help from has training and policies in trauma informed care, but also has training in treating complex trauma and dissociative disorders. For most people who have not been impacted by life traumas, or only have experienced a single traumatic event, this type of research may not be as critical. However if you mentally checked off many of the symptoms from the previous list on Trauma’s impact on the Body, then making sure you get the right care can aid in not being re-traumatized or further traumatized by the very people who are supposed to be there to help you.