How Do I Know If My Struggle Stems from a Traumatic Experience?

When a person undergoes a traumatic experience, it can sometimes be minimized, depending on how and when the experience took place, how old the person is, or even their natural wiring and personality. However, there are some ways to identify if your struggles might be rooted in trauma.

One way is to look at your everyday life in three categories: physical, emotional, and mental. We’ll look more in-depth at how your responses in body and routine, feelings and emotional reactions, and thoughts and patterns may be clues to how you’re really doing.

Physical Clues of a Traumatic Experience

Physical clues can include anything from practical, everyday life and habits to your physical body. First, let’s explore your everyday habits and routines.

If you’re struggling with any of the basics of human existence (food, sleep, moving your body, feeling less than yourself), these alone won’t necessarily tell you that your body is responding to a traumatic experience. But it’s worth noting which of these are out of whack with what you’d describe as your normal experience.

For example, if you’ve found that sleep isn’t something you typically struggle with, yet it’s been a weekly or every-other-day struggle since you went through something scary, hard, or unexpected that caused you trauma, add it to your physical record.

You can do this by jotting things down on a Post-it note, keeping a journal of your physical health, or just making a note in your phone. It’s a good idea to record the sleepless patterns, however, so that you can give more details to your doctor if you decide to investigate further.

Another physical cue that may go unchecked is your appetite. It’s easy to overlook a weight change when we’re stressed or too busy to take notice. However, pay attention to your desire for fuel.

If you’ve been habitually reaching for cookies and ice cream at the end of the day, even on days that aren’t necessarily stressful, it’s a good idea to ask yourself why. Alternatively, if your desire for food has decreased significantly, and it’s something you used to enjoy, that could be a signal that merits attention.

When you’re someone who enjoys planning a meal, eating out with friends, or a perfectly ripe peach in summer, and these things are not satisfying you or even appealing to you, it may be a sign of disinterest and something to add to your investigation.

Another area of physical sustenance that everyone needs is related to movement. Whether you’re a lifetime exerciser or not, you might want to consider the impacts of how your body physically feels, even if it’s been a while since you worked out. Maybe you wake up sore or you’re struggling with a pain in your lower back that hasn’t traditionally bothered you, but you can’t pinpoint a physical trigger.

If there is no workout or gardening project to blame, and your mattress isn’t the culprit, you may have a physical response to trauma. Again, notice patterns over time, and they’ll give you the kind of information you need to know if your traumatic experience is why you’re struggling in some areas of life.

An Emotional Response

Paying attention to your emotions is always a good idea, but doing so is especially important when you’ve been through a traumatic experience.

Learning your norms is also key to noticing whether something is out of character. If you are typically a more sensitive, emotional person, your continuum of emotions may be broader. This may make it harder to pinpoint anomalies than for the person who is steady and reserved.

It’s still important to notice, though, when you are up one minute and down the next, when something that might normally excite you or give you joy doesn’t, or when you’re consistently sad or angry. Negative emotions aren’t wrong; emotions in general are just information. They are cues that your feelings are tied to something that needs tending.

Your traumatic experience might be something that happened a long time ago, but depending on how old you were when you went through it, you may not have had the emotional reserves to respond as you would now. If something in your life today triggered the ability to explore deeper emotions related to your traumatic experience, that’s worth exploring.

A trained counselor can guide you on your exploration. This will help you understand that your current emotions can lead to yet-undiscovered healing from the traumatic experience.

Pay attention to patterns that help you see connections between emotions. For example, if you find that you get unusually angry every time your co-worker covers an attempt to shortcut something with a joke, ask yourself where that anger is coming from. Yes, your co-worker may be irritating, but it could also be connected to something you haven’t yet healed from in your traumatic experience.

Look for where your emotions seem out of place or differ from your ordinary responses. Then, ask if they could be connected to what you went through.

Mental Signs of a Traumatic Experience

You can’t always separate how you think from what you feel, but it is helpful to try. For the sake of paying attention to your wellness, it’s one way to segment what your everyday life responses are telling you.

If you replay moments over and over in your mind, particularly negative ones, it could be that you’re struggling to recover from a traumatic experience. If your decisions are ones that you’re consistently second-guessing or your friends notice this pattern in you, it might be worth examining. Take time to think about what you’ve been through and how your brain is processing that information.

Do you have trouble concentrating on a task for a considerable amount of time? Research suggests that low concentration levels may be related to traumatic experiences. It isn’t anything to be ashamed of, either.

When you go through a negative experience that leaves trauma in its wake, your well-being takes a hit. You don’t always notice it in your body or even your emotions, but mentally, it can be the easiest to discern when there is an issue. Coping with a traumatic experience can be masked by distraction, inability to concentrate or focus, or replaying events in your mind.

Again, these tendencies can be tied to emotions like anxiety or fear, and they may play out in your willingness to change your lifestyle. This could include avoiding places that remind you of the traumatic experience or saying no to hobbies and friendships that once fulfilled you.

Another mental symptom of someone who has gone through a trauma-inducing event or relationship is an intrusive thought. These thoughts seem to come out of nowhere as if a bridge has collapsed suddenly over a body of water.

They’re sometimes our brain’s way of telling us that we’ve been through something really tough.

If you find that a thought is unlike you and comes out of nowhere, it may be intrusive. Other characteristics of intrusive thoughts are that they can be disturbing in content, repeated, and unwanted.

Rather than trying to push these thoughts away, use your phone or journal to record them and then make plans to see a counselor. They can be brought on by stress or anxiety, and they can be linked back to a traumatic event and, in some people, may indicate Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Christian Trauma Counseling in Texas

Exploring the depths of your struggle from a mental, emotional, and physical landscape is a helpful way to reflect on your present state of being. If you find that these reflective prompts point you to the desire to go deeper, contact me or one of the other counselors in our directory. We’re here to help.