Trauma is a term mental health treatment professionals use to refer to the psychological damage and emotional pain a person experiences as a result of a particular event. The event could be a natural disaster like a hurricane or tornado and the aftermath of that occurrence. Or, the event could be the betrayal of a spouse or becoming the victim of an abuser.
Relational trauma is believed to be the most painful kind of trauma due to the loss of trust the victim experiences as a result. However, in understanding relational trauma, it is helpful to understand what trauma is at its core.
Understanding Trauma
Physiological trauma and psychological trauma are the two main types of trauma. But while both involve event-related injuries, one revolves around the physical nature of a person and other revolves around the psyche.
Physical traumas, such as almost drowning in a flood or breaking a leg in a car accident, cause wounds that will likely heal as time goes on. However, psychological traumas are – for the most part – invisible. The damage can be even more severe than the damage caused in physical traumas and it is much harder to heal. In addition, psychological trauma is frequently misunderstood, overlooked, and thought to be something else entirely.
In the book, Your Sexually Addicted Spouse: How Partners Can Cope and Heal, authors Barbara Steffens, Ph.D., LPCC and Marsha Means, MA state that events like sexual abuse, domestic violence, and emotional and verbal abuse, “…cause intense psychological pain and overwhelm our ability to cope or to readily integrate the violations and emotions produced by these experiences.”
Traumatized individuals no longer feel safe. They experience a level of shock that others cannot understand, and their symptoms tend to impact every aspect of their lives.
Symptoms of Trauma
The trauma symptoms a person experienced depend on many factors, including the type of trauma they endured, the level of support they received, and whether they continue to feel unsafe.
Some of the more common symptoms of trauma include:
Trauma is very serious, and it is not something that will go away just because a person wants it to. Traumatized individuals need support to help them heal properly. Otherwise, they are likely to develop long-term, chronic symptoms that become much more difficult to heal.
Over time, trauma has a way of impacting every area of a person’s life, including their personal relationships, families, jobs, and even how they relate to themselves. Trauma can be crippling, and it requires specialized treatment.
Get Help for Trauma Today
Sometimes people are aware of the traumas they have endured, but there are also instances when the mind suppresses trauma as a way to protect itself. As a result, the event gets buried deep in the mind, but it still causes serious problems, and can show itself through the symptoms on the list above.
If you have been through a traumatic event, therapy can help you through the healing process. Contact me today to make an appointment.
