Trauma

Have you been diagnosed with PTSD and wondered, amid your struggle, whether life will ever feel normal again? The answer is yes. No matter how impossible it may look right now, your life does not have to be forever defined by your trauma. You can access effective PTSD help. With the help of God and a trained mental health professional, you can learn how to reframe your experience, cope with your symptoms in a healthy way, and live a happy, fulfilling life. You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn how to surf. – Jon Kabat-Zinn PTSD Defined PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) is a disruptive mental health disorder brought on in some people by the shock of experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event. Symptoms may include reliving the trauma through flashbacks or nightmares, severe anxiety, or uncontrollable, intrusive thoughts about the event that last long after it has ended. Common Symptoms of PTSD Though everyone’s experience with PTSD is unique, there are some common symptoms most people share. Intrusive memories Frequent intrusive memories that cause you to relive the trauma may manifest as nightmares or flashbacks. These can be upsetting and give rise to panic attacks, disrupted sleep, palpitations, headaches, and digestive disorders, as well as feelings of fear, guilt, shame, or anxiety. Avoidance You try to prevent triggering distressing emotions by avoiding anything that evenly remotely reminds you of the trauma. This could include staying clear of certain places, avoiding people who remind you of an abuser, or even specific sounds or smells. A heightened state of arousal Your body may continue to remain in a state of high alert even if the trauma happened months or years ago, causing you to overreact to everyday occurrences and be easily startled. A veteran, for example, may panic at [...]

In the basic definition, trauma is defined as a personal response to an event that is overwhelming physically, psychologically, emotionally, and mentally. Traumatic events happen at any age to any person, and they can be extremely stressful. The effects can be long-lasting but there is a way to heal. The causes may be common, but the effects are just as different as the person experiencing the event. This means that each person needs different healing strategies for trauma. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. – John 14:27, NIV Some strategies can help with healthy healing from the negative effects of trauma. Through proper therapy and counseling, a person can move toward living a life that is healthy and well-balanced. Causes of Trauma The many causes of trauma are not concerned with the event itself. Rather, the cause is about how a person responds to the traumatic event. That is why some people are affected by trauma when others who face the same event are not. Some of the most common causes of trauma in people are: Childhood neglect. Unstable home environment. Sexual abuse/assault. Medical trauma/severe illness. Violence. Grief. Domestic abuse. Bullying. Combat. Terrorism. Witnessing a harmful event. Natural disasters. Individuals who experience these events firsthand may react in a way that will have a long-lasting effect on them. Without proper counseling for trauma, a person can develop other conditions that affect their overall well-being. The Different Types of Trauma The form of trauma is not always the same between two individuals, even though the situation is the same. The type of trauma a person faces refers to the level of mental or physical [...]

This article is an overview of how trauma is understood and how it may affect your mental health. It discusses the effects of trauma, lists some treatment options and discusses how to remove barriers that prevent you from securing the correct type of support. This article is also relevant to readers who want to be a better support to those who have undergone trauma. It will be useful to start with the question of the basic effects of trauma. After all, it seems that many of us are either in one of three life stages when it comes to life’s difficulties: we are either entering a tough time, in the middle of one or coming out of one. Now, as you can expect, trauma has a different impact on each person. This includes the ways our bodies respond to danger, the impact that trauma often has on mental health, the link between trauma and physical health problems, and other factors. There are quite broad touch points on trauma, so it is likely that you will have experienced or witnessed in others some of the impacts which appear in the article, and quite likely some others that are not mentioned. The ways our bodies respond to danger. Cortisol and adrenaline are both hormones that our bodies instinctively release when we are feeling stressed or threatened. Trauma is an involuntary and natural response by our bodies to help us prepare to respond to danger. These hormones will affect different people in different ways. Experts have coined these reactions in the following ways: fawn, fight, flight, flop, and freeze. Fawn – attempts to placate the one who is harming you. Fight – being belligerent, struggling, or dissenting. Flight – getting away from the danger and threat of trauma. Flop – simply obeying [...]