Everyone deals with stress across life. This stress takes many different forms, but can usually be characterized as a normal, natural response to certain situations. However, stress can become so extreme that it becomes something more: trauma. There could be numerous blogs written about what trauma is, but for our sake think of it as a stress overload. Whenever we face an event that restricts our free will or debilitates us significantly, we are encountering trauma. As the definition suggests, there are different levels to this. However, when discussing trauma, it’s all too common to fixate on the prompting event. Much more important than what someone experiences in the formation of trauma, is how they experience it. The first point of addressing trauma is not to be exclusive about what constitutes trauma. It isn’t one size fits all, so what is traumatic for one person may not be for another.
While it is not easily quantifiable, make no mistake, trauma causes distress across areas of life. While it may not always show up immediately, trauma makes an impact. When we are unable to address trauma in a healthy way, it begins to restrict the ways that we experience life. It rears its heads without our invitation. It can even begin to warp our view of self, others, and the world around us. It’s important to both normalize that response, while also seeking support when we need it.
This trauma can oftentimes result in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. Many people’s minds go to the shellshocked war veteran when thinking of this disorder (Ironically, PTSD was first referred to as “Shell Shock” in the early 1900’s). While that’s accurate to an extent (PTSD rates are high among that veterans and active service members), remember what our first point. Since the cause of trauma is more about the individual’s response to what they experience, people can develop PTSD as a result of relational abuse, betrayal, health scares and countless other events as well.
DISCLAIMER! Before jumping into some of the ways PTSD can manifest, I want to distinguish something about PTSD as a diagnosis. Receiving this diagnosis can be helpful in many ways. Firstly, it helps people to understand that what they are experiencing is a normal response to trauma and that they are not “crazy” or “broken”. That can be indescribably comforting. It also gives language to experience, and direction for healing. However, diagnoses are complicated at times. People are bigger than diagnoses. A mental health diagnosis is meant to serve as a means to gain understanding and support. However, everyone’s experience is different. So, if what I go over doesn’t line up with your experience completely, that’s okay. If you’re dealing with trauma, but don’t have PTSD, you can still learn about how to heal from and manage it. And most importantly, you are you, not your diagnosis. That means that while you may not feel like yourself when managing PTSD, you are still a human being who is worthy of healing. That can be a hard fact for us to accept sometimes but is vital to moving forward.
Now that I’ve safely stepped down from my disclaimer soapbox, let’s discuss how PTSD can manifest. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it does cover a fair amount of presentations. The point of this is to understand how trauma can impact individuals dealing with PTSD.
- One set of results from PTSD includes intrusive symptoms. These can look like stressful memories resurfacing, recurrent nightmares, flashbacks, and physical/emotional distress when exposed to triggers. The key with this set of symptoms is to recognize that trauma invades our lives when dealing with PTSD and similar disorders.
- The next type of symptomology is increased avoidance. It makes complete sense that our mind and body would want to keep us away from things that remind of us our trauma. It’s obviously unpleasant to relive hard memories and feel unsafe. However, that avoidance can be exhausting, restricting, and in some cases downright impossible.
- Other symptoms feature alterations in our beliefs about self, others and the world.
- Changes can also focus more on what emotions we find ourselves regularly experiencing.
- Furthermore, individuals can have difficulty with remembering, concentrating, and participating in life events and activities of daily living. That consistent stress and pain often impacts individuals by fueling excessive worry/caution, angry outbursts, or hindering sleeping/earing patterns.
It’s evident that PTSD and trauma in general is aggressive. It interrupts daily living and brings a host of distressing problems with it. However, there is hope.
While we need to acknowledge the reality and severity of PTSD and related trauma, it wouldn’t be very encouraging nor accurate to leave it there. That’s why it’s important to consider different processes for healing. Research has demonstrated various forms of therapy to be extremely effective in addressing and healing trauma. Methods such as EMDR rely on rapid eye movement in order to process past pain in a manner that promotes feelings of safety, distinguishing the painful past from the present. Through interventions like cognitive processing, we can take a rightful view of our experiences and reframe our faulty cognitions. Even forms of counseling such as DBT offer skills to help coping with and managing those aforementioned symptoms. Various medications have been demonstrated to be effective too. Studies promote the combination of medication and psychotherapy to treat PTSD, and have been proven to be highly effective.
While it’s encouraging to know that research illustrates the various forms of effective healing, the more important piece of the puzzle is to acknowledge how impactful support is. It’s significant to research various forms of therapy and choose a treatment plan that aligns with your goals. It is more significant to know that you deserve support, and that support is available. Finding a trusted family member, friend, or therapist is one of the most freeing things you can do. While that’s true, this is a delicate process, and is not meant to be rushed or forced. It takes time, effort, and often mistakes before you start seeing progress. Remember that what you’re dealing with is frustrating enough, so don’t add to it by being hard on yourself.
With hope for the future, there needs to be an emphasis on safety. Just as healing cannot be rushed or forced, it cannot be unsafe. That’s why therapy for PTSD involves building skills to ground ourselves throughout the process. Safety does not just refer to coping skills, but also trust, willingness to share, and readiness to move forward. As the process becomes more safe, true healing from trauma can and does occur. For individuals with PTSD and dealing with trauma, there is hope not just for a more peaceful present, but a life worth living ahead. So be patient and kind with yourself, seek support, and take heart.
Jackson Van Meter
