Learning about Trauma

What is trauma? 

  • An experience that is shocking, threatening and/or overtly harmful—emotionally, physically, spiritually

  • An event (or events) that initiates our Fight/Flight/Freeze response

Often, these events are unexpected and unavoidable (e.g.:  a house fire or verbally abusive attack from someone else), though this is not always true (e.g.:  domestic violence, childhood sexual abuse often happens repetitively).

What is the Fight/Flight or Freeze Response?

When faced with threatening conditions, our brain and body make adrenaline, cortisol and other chemicals that are expressed in response to danger and help us mount a meaningful response to the threat.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Can occur following a traumatic experience, tends to continue to occur weeks and months after the trauma, and the symptoms tend to cluster into 4 categories:

  1. Intrusion:  Reminders of the trauma break through into survivors’ lives through intrusive or unwanted thoughts, dreams or flash backs.

  2. Avoidance:  Survivors attempt to avoid thoughts, places, persons or things that remind them of the trauma.

  3. Negative Alterations in Thinking/Problem Solving and Feeling in the aftermath of the traumatic event(s):

    1. Survivors’ thoughts about self and world become very negative:  I am all bad, no parent can ever be trusted, I am ruined, I will never recover.

    2. Distorted thinking about the causes or consequences of the trauma is also apparent--often blaming themselves or strenuously blaming someone else for what happened.

    3. Persistent negative states like living in fear, shame, anger, guilt, or horror

  4. Alterations in physiological arousal:

    1. Survivor may become easily agitated, argumentative, angry, hyper-vigilant, and struggle with sleep

    2. Survivor may also when facing new challenges shut down, become cognitively foggy, want to sleep

There are also several different forms of PTSD.  Trauma during childhood has impacts that are different than when trauma is experienced as an adult.  This description is meant to highlight well known symptoms.  You can learn more here.

Childhood Abuse

Child abuse includes all forms of harm or wrongful treatments done to children. Often this harm comes at the hands of caregivers of all kinds (e.g.:  older sibling, parent, teacher, neighbor). These harms include physical, sexual, emotional abuse and neglect. Elements of power are involved in all these harms because young children require protection, care and feeding from adults who also abuse them. 

Physical abuse includes all forms of physical/violent harm done to children including hitting, kicking, biting, burning, bondage, beating and all other forms of bodily harm that is not expressly sexual. 

Sexual abuse describes a range of behaviors towards children that can involve contact and non-contact acts and the list is very long. Non-contact sexual abuse includes adults exposing children to sex acts, showing children pornography, verbally sexualizing children by describing sex acts or commenting on how a child’s body impacts the sexual response of the adult. Contact sexual abuse includes touching a child inappropriately, putting items inside a child or overtly raping a child.
Learn more:

Emotional abuse is perhaps the most difficult form of abuse to recognize because the harm is directed at eroding child’s very sense of self.  Comments and behaviors that blame, belittle, reject, terrorize, and threaten the child.
Learn more:

Neglect is ongoing failure to provide the large range of care needed by children.  Examples include the failure to feed, to wash, to house safely, or emotionally care for children. 

All forms of child abuse can have significant short-term and long term impact. Early abuse can impact our ability to understand ourselves, to relate to other children and adults, can increase the likelihood that children develop PTSD, to develop mental health disorders and even permanently change the brain. We should live in a world where all children are kindly, compassionately cared for by their parents, older siblings and other adults.

Adult Abuse

Domestic abuse/violence occurs when one person in a marriage or intimate relationship tries to dominate and control the other.  This can occur through the use of physical, sexual and emotional abuse.  Verbal intimidation, physical battery, threats of physical or sexual harm can be used to bend the victim to the will of the other partner.  Long term effects for partners who stay include the development of PTSD, major depression and anxiety disorders.  No one deserves to be terrorized in their own homes.  Learn more including where you might turn if you or someone you love needs help:

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Elder abuse is intentional or negligent acts that cause harm to an elder adult (age 60 or older in Virginia), or to an 18 year-old adult who is incapacitated (in Virginia) (for example adults with developmental disabilities that can’t live dependently, requires on going care in order to eat, sleep and receive personal care). This harm can include physical abuse, emotional abuse, financial exploitation, neglect and abandonment and sexual abuse. It is important to investigate what the rules are in the state where you live for not all states have the same guidelines or same age limitations as noted here.