TRAUMA: WHAT IS IT?

By Kristin Swinford

Casey often talks about how she has a hard time just doing her daily routine. She is always on the lookout for something bad to happen, waiting for the other shoe to drop. She tells me how sometimes, even when she is trying to relate to me, she has difficulty trusting what I say. Casey cannot pinpoint to any specific “trauma” between her and I. What she recalls often in therapy are multiple disappointments by trusted friends and significant others in her life.

Thankfully, therapy has helped her learn to recognize trauma with a small “t” as being equally important as what we would call “big T” trauma.

Let’s start with some basics. Trauma is an emotional response to a stressful event or experience, incapacitating to one’s way of coping. Trauma can, generally speaking, be experienced as either with a big T (plane crash, car accident, sudden loss of a loved one), or a little t (a rude customer service representative, getting yelled at by an authority figure).  Another good way to distinguish the two is that big “T” trauma can be physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual.

Many people who experience trauma (big or little) have difficulty managing everyday life because of difficulties with intrusive thoughts, nightmares, panic attacks, difficulty concentrating, anger, difficulty with relationships, confusion, depression, anxiety and many other symptoms. People often have a difficult time seeking help for traumatic experiences because of guilt surrounding the experience. Working through that guilt, among other things, with the help and guidance of a therapist, is just one way to try and heal from traumas.

If you feel you’ve been impacted by trauma or Trauma, and are ready to learn news ways to cope in order to create a new normal for your life, then contact us to make an appointment today.