If you are on this page it means that you are interested in understanding what trauma is. The information we have gathered and published can be found in the DSMV as well as multiple research studies conducted. We will have the original pages linked in for you.
Trauma is an important term to understand as it happens to everyone.
While there are two positive effects one can see from trauma the majority of people do not experience these two positives. These two positive effects are vicarious resilience and compassion satisfaction. These positives can largely be seen in those working with survivors of trauma. They improve ones resilience to traumatic events.
That being noted let’s begin having a look at understanding the more prominent aspects of trauma.
An emotional response to a deeply distressing or disturbing event – leading to lasting feelings of anxiety and fear (Bancroft, Allen, Green, & Feuerle, 2015).
It has a severe negative impact on one’s life and can result in feeling a loss of safety and trust in other people. Trauma is known to trigger the fight/flight/freeze response in our brains.
Trauma can lead to self-isolation as the person’s sense of worth, sense of self and feelings of control, are lost.
There are generally 3 levels to trauma:
There are multiple events that could be considered distressing enough to lead to acute trauma response. In general, though there is primary and secondary trauma, these can then be seen to branch out into further mental health issues.
(Bancroft, Allen, Green, & Feuerle, 2015)
Flowchart by Heather Anne Corringham
Trauma responses do not start in the mind. They start in the body. Each traumatic event is stored in the memory of your body, which the cells remember.
There is also a genetic component. Trauma changes the physical structures of your body, it imprints on it if you will. This means that generational trauma has an effect on how you react.
What this means for us is that each trauma our ancestors have lived through is in fact written in our genetics and is passed down. This further increases the risk of more serious side effects when we ourselves face trauma.
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