Trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
A majority of people have experienced a traumatic event at some point in their lives. For some people, they have experienced multiple events. Despite this, only about 6-7% of those individuals will develop PTSD. In fact, it is much more likely that trauma survivors develop anxiety or depressive disorders than PTSD. The key takeaway from this statistic is that humans are resilient, even after experiencing trauma.
Trauma Therapy in Virginia
What is Trauma?
Trauma is an experience that can be difficult to define. I think of trauma as an emotional shock to your system. Your nervous system becomes so flooded with fear that you are unable to access typical mental resources you would usually use to cope. For many people, this causes them to feel as though they “blacked out” or cannot recall details of what occurred.
Most people believe that you have to have been in combat or a first responder to experience trauma. Others believe that you had to live through a natural disaster, physical, or sexual assault. These beliefs are not entirely accurate.
Trauma can also be:
Threatened physical or sexual violence
Sudden death of a loved one
Emotionally abusive or neglectful parents
Car accidents
Witnessing any of these events
Signs of Trauma
Trauma uniquely impacts each person who experiences it. What may cause lasting symptoms for one person, another may be able to move past it quicker. For either experience, this does not mean anything is wrong with you - it simply means we are all unique in how we process.
The impacts of trauma show up in different ways. The following are some common symptoms experienced by individuals who have experienced traumatic events:
Feeling alert and on guard
Difficulty trusting others, even those closest to you
Feeling disconnected from others
Distressing nightmares
Difficulty sleeping
Guilt and shame
Recurrent, intrusive memories of the traumatic event(s)
Avoidance of emotions
Avoidance of the trauma memory
Difficulty concentrating
Persistent irritability and angry outbursts
Difficulty regulating emotions
Increased risk taking (e.g., driving car too fast, spending large sums of money, having unprotected sex with unfamiliar people)
Dissociation (feeling disconnected from your body)
Believing that you are bad, dirty, defective, or worthless
Avoiding people, places, or situations that remind you of the traumatic event.
*This is not an exhaustive list of all of the symptoms of trauma. In fact, almost all of those listed are symptoms of other mental health conditions as well. If you do not have a diagnosis of PTSD, it doesn’t make your experience any less real or important.