What is Trauma?

If you’ve heard of the word trauma before, you might have very specific and intense images that get conjured up along with that term. These might be based on your own experiences, relate to something you’ve read or learned about before, or perhaps stem from stories you’ve heard from others. In fact, the word trauma applies to a broad spectrum of experiences. Let me explain these more.

 

Trauma on a spectrum

Most of us can easily recognize harrowing experiences such as war, physical or sexual abuse, and natural disasters as traumatic. And yet, we also hear the term being used more broadly to describe everything from bullying experiences to losing a beloved pet. So, what gives?

One method that people often use to separate the two groups is through the labels Big “T” and little “t” trauma. Big “T” Traumas are those events we usually think of when we first think of trauma: war, school shootings, sexual abuse, etc. These are the events that many, if not most, people in the same experience would consider traumatic. 

On the other hand, little “t” traumas are much more individualized responses to events. These might include things such as the death of a grandparent, moving to a new school, or breaking up with a significant other. For these experiences to be recognized as traumatic, we need to look beyond the event itself, and consider how they impacted the person going through them. 

For example, a person who was not very close with her grandmother and only saw her once a year would not likely experience the grandmother’s death as traumatic. Whereas a child who was primarily raised by this grandparent and is the person they looked to for comfort is much more likely to experience her death as traumatic. 

Some people have a hard time describing their experiences as traumatic, thinking that they are not “big enough” to warrant the label. Unfortunately, this minimization only interferes with their ability to seek the support they need to heal the wounds created by those experiences. Because whether you call it a trauma or not, the trauma response still plays out. Calling it what it is allows us to better address the problems caused by the trauma, and do so in a more timely manner.

 

Types of Trauma

The following is a list of many of the most common Big T Traumas; however, this list is not exhaustive.

• Child Abuse: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, psychological abuse
• Neglect or Abandonment: Insufficient care of a child including inadequate feeding, poor or absent supervision, or failure to obtain appropriate medical or mental health care 
• Domestic Violence: Witnessing or being the victim of physical or sexual violence between adults in an intimate relationship
• Natural Disasters: Natural disasters such as tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes; unintentional man-made disasters such as fires or explosions
• Medical Trauma: Significant pain or physical injury, serious illness, invasive medical procedures 
• Community Violence: Gang violence, mass shootings, predatory violence
• Bullying: Physical, verbal, social, cyber
• War: Being in a war zone, fleeing a war zone, torture
• Traumatic Grief

Trauma occurs when our nervous systems get overwhelmed by what is happening to or around us. 

 

How People Respond to Trauma

In the same way that there are multiple perspectives on what gets perceived as traumatic, the body has multiple ways of responding to trauma. Despite these variations, there are still some common themes. 

 

Reexperiencing

Reexperiencing symptoms refer to the ways you might feel like you are reliving the original trauma over and over again. This can occur through intrusive thoughts (memories of the trauma that pop into your head without warning), nightmares (reliving the trauma while asleep), or flashbacks (suddenly feeling as though you are back in the actual trauma and reliving it all over again). Reexperiencing also refers to the physical and psychological distress you might feel in response to a trauma “trigger.” 

 

Avoidance 

Remembering traumatic experiences can be very painful, so many people find ways to avoid encountering things that cause them to remember the experience. What exactly gets avoided is highly variable, but it can include people that were present during the trauma, people that talk about the trauma, the place where the trauma occurred, places that resemble the location of the trauma, activities and objects present at the trauma, thoughts and feelings connected to the trauma, and memories of the trauma, among other things. 

 

Arousal and Reactivity

Going through a traumatic experience can lead our body to respond by being on “high alert” in an effort to protect you. This might look like hyper-awareness of what is going on around you, difficulty concentrating, difficulty falling or staying asleep, and irritable or angry outbursts. 

 

Changes in Mood

Trauma can lead to significant changes in how you feel, and can result in persistent negative emotions, such as fear, anger, depression, guilt, or shame. These negative feelings can become so encompassing that you find it difficult to experience any positive emotions, such as joy, love, or satisfaction. 

 

Cognitive Changes

Another way that trauma can affect you is through your perceptions of yourself, other people, the world around you, and expectations of the future. Following a traumatic experience, you might notice those perceptions become more negative and impact your sense of hope for the future. 

 

Relationship Changes

Extending from changes in thoughts and perceptions of others, people who have gone through trauma often experience changes in their relationships with others. Some of this might be due to mood changes that cause people to pull away and isolate, but a large portion of the changes in relationships can be attributed to a reduced sense of trust. This change in trust is especially relevant when the trauma was perpetrated by a trusted other, but it can also occur when people feel their trusted other failed to protect them from the trauma. 

 

Blame

It’s only natural to try and make sense of our experiences, but traumatic experiences can lead us to make inaccurate conclusions about who is to blame following a trauma. Frequently, survivors of trauma falsely conclude that they are to blame and are responsible for the trauma. They might overemphasize the relevance of small details of what they did during the trauma and get lost in unrealistic fantasies of “if only I had ____.” Others might find relief in inaccurately blaming some other person or group. This can happen at times when it feels safer to blame someone else than to hold the true perpetrator responsible, as well as when it may feel better to blame someone than sit with the truth that the particular trauma they experienced was no one’s fault. 

 

Detachment from Reality 

One of the ways our body can cope with trauma, especially when that trauma is severe, is through something called dissociation. Dissociation describes the many ways we might detach ourselves from reality following a trauma. This can occur in many ways, such as by perceiving the world around you as unreal or like a dream, observing yourself or your body from a distance, and feeling numb or detached from our feelings. 

As you can see there are many different ways that people can respond to trauma. You might be able to relate to many of these symptoms, or just a few. It’s important to realize that these symptoms are frequently adaptive initially in response to trauma, as they help keep us alive. But things start to become problematic when the symptoms persist long after the threat of danger is past. 

The experience of trauma is an unfortunate reality in many people’s lives, but the symptoms in response to that trauma need not last forever. Therapy is the most effective resource to help you overcome the unwanted impacts of trauma and reclaim your life. If you’re dealing with the aftermath of trauma, seek out support from a therapist who specializes in trauma today.

 

QUICK LINKS

How to Build A Secure Attachment With Your Child

How to Avoid Passing Down Problems To Your Child

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Dana Basu, PsyD is a licensed clinical psychologist and founder of EverGROW therapy. She provides individual therapy, support groups, and online resources for parents in Orange County and throughout the state of California via online therapy. She specializes in working with people with difficult childhood experiences, trauma, parenting stress, and chronic guilt.