Question about Trauma

[Halo]

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

ITL, I am not an expert here on trauma (obviously if I am the one that started this thread ) but I am wondering...are you thinking about it but avoiding anything related to it? Can you say it outloud to yourself or write about it to yourself but are having difficulty verbalizing it to your therapist?

The reason that I ask is because I am doing some exercises having to do with PTSD and Trauma and I was absolutely floored at things in my past that were considered traumas. Events and incidents that I have all these years said were no big deal or minimized them were in fact traumas that I know that I need to deal with.

 

[amastie]

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

It seems to me that it might be one reason but maybe not the only reason. I expect that it can sometimes happen that our age at the time of an event or our lack of understanding around it at the time can make an event hard to decipher and therefore hard to put into words. But if it keeps having a painful effect on us, especially long after it happened, then, regardless of whether we can put it into words, it was traumatic.

I also want to agree with Robyn, trauma may not be abuse necessarily. I see trauma not as what *did* happen but what was felt by what happened. What happened may or may not have been abusive, but what one feels after can depend on a number of factors. What happened to me was abusive but the greater trauma, I think, was created when I wasn't able to tell anyone about it. I wasn't supported. Those who would have supported me didn't know and I couldn't bring myself to tell them. That had a life-long legacy. On other occasions, I might be traumatized by an event only because it triggered memories of earlier abuse or associations with something that hurt me but wasn't abusive. Seems all complicated <lol>

 

[Jackie]

Trauma for me is something that stays with you the rest of your life, and affects your life and how you live it, the way you interact with others, trauma to me disables you from living life normally, makes you avoid the situation that caused the trauma and anything associated with, it could be something big or small but its there ready to jump at you whatever your doing and is difficult to get rid of, even with therapy. A negative experience passes after a few days or weeks. That's how I see trauma from my own experiences.

 

[Into The Light]

are you thinking about it but avoiding anything related to it? Can you say it outloud to yourself or write about it to yourself but are having difficulty verbalizing it to your therapist?

i can't say it out loud to myself or write about it either. i think about it, it's in my head, but that is all i can do with it. i have been avoiding addressing it too but we are going to do that next session and i'm scared. i don't know that i'll be able to say it.

 

[suewatters1]

ITL I had one visit with my Psychotherapist where I didn't know how to talk to him about what was in my head and what was the most important thing to bring up first. So i had it printed out from my computer (I use Microsoft Word) and I gave it to him. He read it then he went through each topic one by one and asked me about them. It made it easier for me then to actually have it come out of my mouth.

Sue