6 Ways Delayed Responses to Trauma Can Impact Primary Caregivers
Delaying a response to a difficult situation happens often. Avoiding looking at your child’s grades online, looking the other way when you know your child’s behavior isn’t acceptable or respectful, and staying quiet when your spouse’s anger gets explosive, even though he or she isn’t abusive, are all ways a primary caregiver may be responding to trauma that was never fully processed or healed. A simple definition of trauma is a traumatic event or series of events that impacts a person’s sense of self, relationships with others, and everyday life. Trauma responses can be immediate or delayed, and they can be normal and temporary, depending on the individual. Trauma responses can also be detrimental to a person’s way of life in certain areas if not healed. When a primary caregiver isn’t aware of how his own trauma has impacted him, it can reveal itself in how he parents his children. The Difference Between Delayed and Timely Response to Trauma If you experienced trauma as a child or even as a young adult or teen, it can be difficult to discern whether you’ve processed the grief and other emotions that can coincide with trauma. Immediate physical responses to trauma may include restlessness or a feeling of not being sure what to do. You may have excess energy but struggle to know how to use it. Cognitive responses that are more immediate include an inability to concentrate or struggling to discern the time lapse during a traumatic event. However, delayed response to the same trauma may be that instead of struggling to concentrate, you detach yourself from responsibilities that would require concentration. You don’t go to work, struggle to eat and sleep, and experience thoughts that seem unwanted and intrusive related to the traumatic event. This keeps you in a perpetual [...]
