Question about Trauma

[Halo]

What do you consider to be a trauma? How does or does it differ in your mind from something bad or negative that has happened? When does it cross over from being a negative experience into a trauma? I know that this is probably a really odd question but it is something that I am trying to clarify and be very specific about and would like some others input.

Thanks in advance

 

[Banned]

Good question, Halo, and one I'm interested in having a conversation about as well.

I've been told repeatedly that I experienced "severe trauma" as a child...but...I still don't see it. I mean, my brother was a jerk, but does that mean it was trauma? Especially given that people process experiences very differently. What was traumatic for you may not be traumatic for me.

The dictionary defines trauma as:


trau⋅ma

1.Pathology. a.a body wound or shock produced by sudden physical injury, as from violence or accident.b.the condition produced by this; traumatism.2.Psychiatry. a.an experience that produces psychological injury or pain.b.the psychological injury so caused.

Origin:
1685?95; < Gk tra?ma wound

 

[Lana]

Just off the top of my head: Trauma leaves some type of psychological effect that negatively affects person's life. Bad/Negative event is unpleasant but generaly without the lasting psychological damage. An example of trauma would be....car accident...person is afraid to drive or develops phobia about being on the highway. A bad event would be to break your favorite vase...or to put a dent in a car at the mall...there is no psychological component to it so is less likely to have a lasting negative or debiliatating impact.

 

[Jazzey]

I think this may differ from one individual to the next Halo (although not an expert here )

For me - here's the distinction: bad experience will make me sad for a little while (or angry). But after a few days, the feelings attached to the experience subside.

Trauma for me, is having that bad experience constantly and unexpectedly creeping into your brain, making you react emotionally and physically. My bad thoughts come back at the most bizarre of times and usually over stupid things. Eg: I went to see a movie today to distract myself a little...there was a seen in the movie where 2 cousins (male and female) were dancing together at a festivity. The male cousin says to the female cousin - too bad we're cousins, otherwise I'd marry you. This brought on an influx of memories for me which I'm still trying to shake..for today.

Sorry - not trying to hijack your thread. Thought the timing of this question was just too perfect to not answer it today :blush:

 

[Daniel E.]

Similar to Lana's post:

Psychiatric trauma, or emotional harm, is essentially a normal response to an extreme event. It involves the creation of emotional memories about the distressful event that are stored deep within the brain.

Psychology Today's Diagnosis Dictionary: Acute Stress Disorder

 

[David Baxter PhD]

See also Trauma - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Halo]

Wow, I didn't expect so many responses so fast...thanks everyone

I really appreciate all of your definitions and explanations and it is helping me clarify better what is/was a trauma in my life....what I am working on right now.

Turtle, my thinking is almost exactly like yours here (although I think we already knew that :

I've been told repeatedly that I experienced "severe trauma" as a child...but...I still don't see it. I mean, my brother was a jerk, but does that mean it was trauma?

But then again I am beginning to realize that I have minimized a lot of my experiences and only now am willing to admit that a lot of them may have been traumatic and are affecting me today. This realization is a bit unsettling and scary.

Thanks again everyone
:thankyou:

 

[Banned]

I guess then for me there are two components I'm looking at - the actual incident, and also I how I respond to it. I guess even the second component could be broken down into smaller components such as physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, etc.

So as an example, when I was about 18 I was in a car accident and my car got totalled when I was making a left-hand turn. Although physically I was fine, it took me about two years before I'd make a left turn again. I'd drive miles and miles and miles out of my way to avoid making a left turn, or if it couldn't be avoided, making it somewhere where I felt much, much safer doing it (ie not at a major intersection). I also went through all the "what ifs" -- "what if the baby was in the car", "what if the gas tank had been full" (we likely would have been in flames, according to the police - i was turning left to get gas as I was basically driving on fumes), "what if we hadn't decided to go out that night to get pizza" and on and on and on they went...I could list another one hundred "what ifs"...

So...I guess that was traumatic for me? I'm fine now, but I still think about the accident alot, especially when I'm making a left turn and not feeling confident about it...

What would predispose someone to be more sensitive to trauma than someone else? There are obvious "big traumas" ie a plane crash, cruise boat sinks, etc...but this was just a car accident...they happen every day...

 

[Halo]

What would predispose someone to be more sensitive to trauma than someone else? There are obvious "big traumas" ie a plane crash, cruise boat sinks, etc...but this was just a car accident...they happen every day...

Good question Some things that I have thought were no big deal now am questioning whether I have been minimizing it and really it is a trauma in my life.

 

[Halo]

Reading over this again, I just wanted to say that I really like how you explained it Lana....thanks a bunch...you made a lot of sense :2thumbs:

 

[ladylore]

I have learned that there is a difference between trauma and abuse. In abuse someone has intent to hurt/harm someone else as in child abuse. With trauma that kind of intent necessarily isn't there (surgery). Unfortunately, our bodies can't tell the difference at times, especially when there has been a history of both in our lives.

There is also a major difference from someone being mean, and someone who is being abusive. It involves the degree of intent by a person.

 

[Banned]

That's a really good point, Robyn...differentiating between trauma and abuse. Thanks for putting that out there.

 

[ladylore]

Your very welcome. It's something I have learned during the past year, which greatly helped me.

 

[suewatters1]

I am glad you asked this question Halo because I was wondering also if some of the stuff I experience in my life time was trauma or not and now I have a better understanding of it. And yes most of what I was thinking was/is trauma.

Sue

 

[Into The Light]

i've wondered about the same thing, halo. i still have a hard time seeing that some things that have happened to me were traumatic. even until recently i never thought of my bad dreams as nightmares but realized that they are.

i think it is very difficult to see and when i think about it my immediate reaction is "trauma? don't be silly, that wasn't trauma." i still can't really see it that way. i'm not sure if i ever will.

how are you experiencing this idea that you've lived through trauma?

 

[amastie]

...I am beginning to realize that I have minimized a lot of my experiences and only now am willing to admit that a lot of them may have been traumatic and are affecting me today. This realization is a bit unsettling and scary....

Yes, it can be very scary when we've been able to take things for granted, then find ourselves finding that events have had at the deeper impact on our life that we realized. Normally, we have unconsciously pushed those things away so it is especially hard to find ourselves facing them.

I agree with Lana. Bad things happen and it is only when it has an emotional component that it can be called trauma. The emotional legacy will vary in intensity and duration with different people. For some the element of trauma might be able to be resolved more quickly if they have very good support or counselling/debriefing. For example, they might be able to turn their pain into anger which they use to accomplish changes which effect the future outcomes for people traumatized in the same way. Action for change can often help to diminish trauma. Anger can also help to dissolve it because our anger helps us to restore in us a sense of our fundamental worth (despite the events which may have left us feeling worthless.) It puts the blame on what happened on the perpetrator instead of ourselves.

But the answer for trauma is always different from the answer to events which were simply painful at the time, however painful they were. One person who walks out of a car wreck is almost certainly going to be traumatize for a time, but may also walk out of it feeling lucky to be alive. (I don't think that, in such a case, the two feelings are necessarily mutually exclusive).

From a very brief consideration, it seems to me that the singularly defining characteristic of a traumatic event is when a person experiences ongoing flashbacks or other events which flow from that original event. One example, is to find yourself repeating the event in different guises, or driven to react now as if that even were still happening.

Another point that is personally relevant is that the traumatizing event doesn’t have to be catastrophic as might be expected from someone who has lifelong flashbacks etc. It is not what *happens* that causes a degree of trauma. it is what it *means* to the person, how the combination of circumstances conspire to give that event much more meaning than it might otherwise have had. It's al in how the person, whatever their age, interprets it, and tries to accommodate it in their own lives.

 

[Halo]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts, definitions, examples etc. I really appreciate any feedback that I could get on this and think that I have a better understanding now of what consists of trauma in my life. I have been through a lot of "traumas" but as I said earlier I believe that for so long now I have been minimizing things and saying it was "no big deal" and not realizing that it was a traumatic event.

One question that I do have is for Ladylore. You said that there is a difference between abuse and trauma and that is something that you learned this past year however.... isn't abuse traumatic? I guess I don't understand how the two can be separated. In my mind, any kind of abuse is traumatic and leaves lasting impressions, triggers, flashbacks etc and therefore wouldn't it be considered a traumatic event that a person went through? I am not challenging your theory but just hopeing that maybe you will explain how you came to this conclusion so I may understand better as well.

Thanks

 

[ladylore]

One question that I do have is for Ladylore. You said that there is a difference between abuse and trauma and that is something that you learned this past year however.... isn't abuse traumatic? I guess I don't understand how the two can be separated. In my mind, any kind of abuse is traumatic and leaves lasting impressions, triggers, flashbacks etc and therefore wouldn't it be considered a traumatic event that a person went through? I am not challenging your theory but just hoping that maybe you will explain how you came to this conclusion so I may understand better as well.

Thanks

Great question! And one I spent many sessions on. All abuse is traumatic. What I had to understand was that not all trauma was abusive. I had the view that many of my past experiences were under the heading of abusive.

I am still working with this one, so please bear with me. For instance, I was hit by a car about 4-5 yrs ago. I remember the driver looking at me and still turning right the moment I got off the sidewalk. I put that under abuse, my therapist put it under the heading of trauma.

Many of the surgeries I have had I have deemed unnecessary and therefore abusive. But when I started to see thought the perspective of the doctors and my parents, the intention was good. Therefore, the surgeries come under the the heading of trauma. In one or two cases incompetent but not necessarily abusive.

The premise is that the words we use around certain to categorize experience is important to help make new paths in the brain.

But like I said Halo. Still working on this one.

 

[Halo]

Thanks Ladylore :thankyou:

I don't think that I am having as much of a difficulty determining whether something was abusive or traumatic but more that a lot of abusive and traumatic things have happened to me in my past which I passed off as being no big deal when in reality, they are.

Again, I want to thank everyone who responded....you all have helped me a great deal :hug:

 

[Into The Light]

does being unable to put an event into words mean the event was traumatic?