Trauma-informed therapy
Trauma & PTSD Information
Experiencing trauma can be a scary time and trauma symptoms can vary. Understanding your experience is the first step toward healing. The information below may help you clarify your experiences.
“It is important to remember that trauma symptoms are your mind and body’s attempt to integrate a traumatic experience or experiences.”
About Trauma
What is trauma?
The definition of trauma is anything that is ‘deeply distressing or disturbing.’ The definition is broad because trauma is defined by a person’s subjective experience of it rather than the event itself.
Psychological trauma concerns an overwhelm in terms of a person’s ability to integrate or process their experience. These experiences may include, but not be limited to, a threat to life, sanity or body integrity.
A situation which results in psychological trauma may leave an individual feeling unable to cope with the feelings that have been evoked.
You may have experienced multiple traumas over a sustained period of time, possibly in a relationship (known as relational trauma). This is sometimes referred to as complex trauma or complex PTSD.
Trauma Symptoms
Trauma symptoms vary from person to person. They can manifest immediately after an incident or take a number of years to manifest. Trauma symptoms are emotional, psychological and somatic.
Psychological
Intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, difficulty concentrating
Emotional
Mood swings, fear, shame, numbness
Somatic
Fatigue, tension, racing heart, feeling on edge
Trauma symptoms are normal reactions to abnormal events.
Psychological Symptoms
Intrusive thoughts, memories or reminders of the trauma. You might experience denial of what happened and try to forget about it or go over the circumstances repeatedly. You might feel confused, have difficulty concentrating or feel detached from yourself, your loved ones or the world around you. You might blame yourself for the experience or blame someone else for what happened. You may have a negative world belief as a consequence — for example, the world is completely dangerous or people cannot be trusted.
Emotional Symptoms
If you have experienced a recent trauma you might lose control of your emotions quickly. This is your nervous system trying to keep you safe and you are in a hyperaroused state. Examples might include angry outbursts, irritability and mood swings. You might experience fear, shock, horror, anger, helplessness, guilt or shame, or immense sadness. You might struggle to feel happy or have loving feelings for people close to you and this would be a hypoaroused state. You might also feel emotionally numb and feel a sense of disconnection or emptiness.
Somatic Symptoms
Somatic symptoms are what you experience in your body post trauma. You might experience emotional numbness, lethargy and fatigue, feel jumpy, increased heart rate, muscle tension, stress, dizziness or sickness, or feeling on edge. You might feel a disconnection from your body which can manifest as numbness in the body or being overly busy all of the time to distract yourself.
“Trauma symptoms are often an attempt by our survival system to protect us from further harm.”
Types of Trauma
Trauma is experienced in a number of different settings. Settings might include home life, school, the workplace, the wider community, an emergency scenario, or — as is most commonly connected with PTSD — a war zone. Traumas are sometimes categorised into different groupings.
Type 1 Trauma
Type 1 refers to single-incident traumas which are unexpected and come out of the blue. Examples include:
- •Severe illness or injury
- •Violent assault
- •Sexual assault
- •Traumatic loss
- •Mugging or robbery
- •Being a victim of or witness to violence
- •Witnessing a terrorist attack
- •Witnessing a natural disaster
- •Military combat incident
- •Road accident
- •Medical trauma
- •Hospitalisation
- •Psychiatric hospitalisation
- •Post suicide attempt trauma
- •Childbirth
- •Life threatening illness
Type 2 Trauma
Type 2 traumas are more likely to be experienced over a length of time and repeated. They could be experienced as part of an interpersonal relationship or with a close attachment figure in childhood.
- •Sibling abuse
- •Childhood emotional abuse
- •Emotional abuse
- •Domestic violence
- •Domestic physical abuse
- •Emotional neglect and attachment trauma
- •Abandonment
- •Verbal abuse
- •Coercion
- •Bullying at home, at school or in a work setting
- •Sexual abuse
- •Physical neglect
- •Long term misdiagnosis of a health problem
- •Overly strict upbringing, sometimes religious
Historical, Collective & Intergenerational Trauma
A prominent example of collective, intergenerational trauma is the holocaust experienced by the Jewish community in World War 2. Historical trauma can affect communities or groups of people in a physical, emotional and psychological way. Adaptive coping patterns can be passed down generations of families, groups and communities.
- •Racism
- •Slavery
- •Forcible removal
- •Genocide
- •War
Vicarious or Secondary Trauma
This type of trauma can occur when someone speaks to someone who has experienced a trauma or witnessed a trauma first hand. The person listening can experience secondary trauma and experience symptoms similar to those of the person explaining the trauma. This is common among carers, therapists, emergency workers and close family members.
Unprocessed trauma may result in associated distress. For example: chronic stress, anxiety, depression, self-harm and addiction.
“In most cases these symptoms get better naturally over the space of a few weeks. If an event is particularly traumatic, involved loved ones or repeatedly over time, they can stay with us for longer.”
Helpful Trauma Information
Understanding what is happening in your body and mind after trauma can be a powerful part of healing. Many people find that learning about trauma responses helps normalise their experiences and gives them tools to work with their reactions rather than feeling controlled by them.
If you recognise some of these experiences in yourself, please know that support is available. Trauma-informed therapy can help you process difficult experiences and develop effective coping strategies. You do not have to go through this alone.