Trauma is the experience of extreme psychological stress usually associated with an extreme event. It is when you feel emotionally or mentally hurt by something that has happened. Examples of traumatic events include experiencing abuse, war, the death of someone you love, a natural disaster like an earthquake, a difficult relationship or breakup, a car crash, incarceration and restraint, or terrorism. When you experience a life-threatening situation, it is normal to have a psychological, emotional, or physical reaction. However, it is crucial to take steps towards recovery and mitigate its negative effects and impacts.
Symptoms of Trauma
Symptoms of trauma are part of the normal healing process following a traumatic experience. These symptoms are broken down into four categories; physical, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive.
Physical Symptoms
Physical symptoms of trauma are those that have an effect on the body as a whole and may include dizziness, headaches, sleep problems, rapid heart rate, excessive sweating, nausea and vomiting, fatigue, muscle or joint pain, and heightened startle rate.
Emotional Symptoms
Emotional symptoms will directly affect a person’s emotional responses to situations. The emotional symptoms of trauma include denial of what happened, persistent alarm, numbness or detachment, and feelings of fear, sadness, oversensitivity, shame, panic, and guilt.
Behavioral Symptoms
These are those that influence the way a person acts. They may include ignoring daily routines, changes in appetite, sleep problems, self-medication or substance abuse, social withdrawal, and inability to stop focusing on what occurred.
Cognitive Symptoms
Cognitive symptoms are those that affect the way a person thinks. They may include nightmares, hallucinations, confusion, poor concentration, and intrusive thoughts or memories of the experience.
The Stages of Trauma
Trauma often causes emotions similar to grief. The five stages of trauma are:
- Denial. Denial is a defense mechanism that helps to reduce the impact of the trauma.
- Anger. You experience anger when the reality of the experience sets in
- Bargaining. You begin to try to take control of the difficult emotions you are experiencing
- Depression. You will experience sadness, low energy, guilt, and social withdrawal
- Acceptance. With acceptance comes healing. It allows you to process your trauma and come to terms with your experience
Types of Trauma
It is common for people to deal with fear and anxiety during and immediately after a traumatic experience. However, we all experience trauma in unique ways and tend to respond differently. The following are the several types of trauma:
Childhood Trauma
Trauma experienced as a child is known as childhood trauma. These experiences cold make you more likely to have mental health problems as an adult. The effects of childhood trauma go on to adulthood if as a child you didn’t have support to manage the trauma, or if you experienced trauma over a long period of time.
Generational Trauma
Generational trauma is a type of trauma that is experienced across generations of a family, culture, or group. Trauma that happened in the past has an impact on the mental health of current generations. However, it is not clear how this happens and some researchers tend to think that trauma may have effects on our genes. However, it is more likely that trauma affects the environment we grow up in.
Moral Injury
Moral injury is the type of trauma you experience when you are put in a situation that goes against your morals, beliefs, or values. It mostly happens in people who have been in situations where they need to make big decisions about other people’s lives. Moral injury can happen because of working in a system tat you see failing but you have no the power or capacity to fix, lack of poor resources at a workplace, immoral behavior at the workplace especially by those in charge, and poor safety practices. Moral injury can impact your view of the world, the organization you work for, or your government. With moral injury, you might feel betrayed or alienated at the workplace, question your moral codes and ethics, feel disconnected from people around you, or have difficult feelings about continuing to work at your current place of work.
Collective Trauma
Collective trauma is when a traumatic experience happens to a large number of people at the same time. Not everyone that experienced the event feels it was traumatic for them. Everyone will cope with it in their own way. When you experience collective trauma, it can mean that you experience personal symptoms and ’social symptoms’. Social symptoms include how the society has dealt with the trauma.
Racial Trauma
Racial trauma is the impact that racism has on your mind and body. Sometimes, racial trauma is used to mean all the effects that racism can have on how we feel, think, or behave.
Secondary Trauma
Secondary or vicarious trauma is when you witness trauma or you are closely connected to it. With secondary trauma, you don’t experience the trauma directly. For instance, journalists who often report on traumatic events or medical practitioners working in emergency departments may experience this kind of trauma.
Tips to Recover from Trauma
The following tips will help you heal from the trauma and move on with your life.
Get Moving
Trauma will freeze you in a state of hyperarousal and fear. As such, exercise and movement will help to repair your nervous system as it will burn off adrenaline and release endorphins. Try to exercise for 30 minutes or more. Rhythmic exercises that engage both your arms and legs such as walking, swimming, running, or dancing work best. As you exercise, focus on your body and how it feels as you move.
Take Care of your Health
Having a healthy body increases your ability to cope with the stress of trauma. Make sure you try as much as possible to get enough sleep. Also, eat a well-balanced diet to keep your energy up and minimize mood swings. Tring out relaxation techniques such as yoga, deep breathing, and meditation will also help to reduce stress.
Spend Time with People
It is natural to want to withdraw from others following a traumatic experience. However, isolation will only make things worse. Connect with others as comfort comes from feeling engaged and accepted by others. Participating in social activities will also keep your mind off the traumatic experience. You can also choose to join a support group for trauma survivors. Hearing how others cope can help inspire your own recovery. It is also important to ask for support. Find someone that you can tell exactly how you feel.
Self-regulate your Nervous System
Trauma will cause feelings of anxiety, fear, anger, confusion, frustration, and/or panic. It is important to know that you can change your arousal system and calm yourself. You can practice mindful breathing to calm yourself. Also, you can experiment with different stress relief techniques such as petting an animal to find out what works best for you. It is also important to allow yourself to feel what you feel when you feel it. Acknowledging your feelings about trauma will help your recovery.
Engage in Creativity
Engaging in creativity might mean making music or just listening to it. It might mean journaling, reading a fiction book, or writing poetry. Engaging your brain in creative activities has been proven to improve physiological and psychological outcomes in people.
Get Professional Help
Learning essential techniques of dealing with and coping with trauma is important. However, it is equally crucial that you also seek help from a professional who will help you further in your recovery and healing.
Conclusion
Trauma is mostly about how your body and mind responds to a traumatic experience. If we understand what trauma is, its causes, and its symptoms, it will help us take the right steps toward recovery and mitigate its negative effects and impacts.