Trauma can be a single event or a series of traumatic events that are repeated over time causing an individual to become overwhelmed with painful,frightening or loathing emotions. Over the last few years, the definition of psychological trauma has been broadened to include traumatic experiences such as physical abuse, sexual abuse and verbal abuse.
Trauma survivors may have experienced emotional trauma in the form of an abusive parent or loved one. This type of abusive trauma may take the form of demanding, demeaning verbal attacks, or it could be in the form of physical or sexual abuse.
Just as two people may not experience an event in the same way, no two people react to a stressful, traumatic event in the same way. While one person may find the ability to cope with a traumatic event, another may be unable to deal with the trauma by themselves in a productive manner.
What are the effects of trauma?
When a person is unable to deal with traumatic events, he or she will often feel alone and struggle with recurring feelings of worry, fear and worthlessness. Trauma sufferers often have difficulty in relationships and in dealing with emotional challenges, as well as low self-esteem due to the traumatic experience and feelings associated with the trauma.
Trauma victims are haunted by memories that feel completely real and can cause the victims to become silent sufferers who believe that their lives are destined to repeat past events. Experiences in a person’s life can trigger a recurring experience of the original trauma, which makes healing from the original trauma an extremely important goal. Many trauma sufferers choose to deal with their feelings alone, instead of seeking appropriate professional treatment. These people may turn to substance abuse to dull the feelings associated with the trauma and the pain that comes with those feelings. It is common for trauma survivors to also have issues with drug addiction, alcohol addiction or other addictions as they attempt to cope with the original issueinstead.
LeiaHughey, Ph.D. has helped many individuals work through these challenges with EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) techniques to ease Post Traumatic Stress symptoms.