The Effects of Trauma

According to the national center for PTSD, approximately 6 in every 10 men, and 5 in every 10 women have experienced trauma at some point in their lives.

The reason why trauma is such a widespread condition is that there is no objective way to understand what can cause post-trauma symptoms.

However, there are a few circumstances that are common in many cases which can cause trauma. These involve situations that may result in a loss of control, betrayal, abuse of any kind of power, pain, and confusion.

Whatever the traumatic event may be, there are a number of negative effects it may have on a human being, and depending on the trauma, they can lead to permeant disorders as well. Let us discuss what trauma is and what effects it can have on a person.

What Is Trauma?

Before understanding the effects, a traumatic incident may have on someone, let us understand what trauma is and what exactly a traumatic incident entails.

By definition, trauma is said to be an emotional response that is triggered due to a terrible event occurring in their life. This can include witnessing/hearing about or experiencing an accident, assault, violent act, emotional/physical/sexual abuse, natural or man-made disasters, fires, animal attacks/accidents, the sudden loss of a loved one, the sudden loss of a pet and many more high emotion events.

Soon after the event has occurred, what usually follows is a sudden feeling of shock or numbness throughout your body and denial.

However, the events have long-term mental and physical effects as well. These can include sudden flashbacks, strained relationships, inability to focus, avoidance of people places or events that remind you of the event, nightmares, eating more/eating less, numbing with alcohol or drugs, irritation and anger, panic attacks and nausea as well. 

Although many people consider these feelings to be normal, these problems may persist in the long term, and people may have difficulty moving on and returning to their previous lives.

Effects of Trauma

As discussed earlier, trauma can be in the form of any traumatic event which might have occurred in their lifetime, and it tends to leave mental scars which may take time to heal.

Someone might be facing trauma but refuse or not know what to about it. This may lead to it developing into complex trauma, affect marriages, ability to parent,  work/school performance and friendships.

Let us discuss some of the effects trauma can have on a human being and what it results in.

Dissociation

This effect is prevalent in many individuals who have gone through a traumatic event and is often a result of complex trauma.

When a person is going through an incredibly horrifying experience, they may mentally detach themselves from that experience, and this detachment is known as dissociation.

When a person, including children dissociate, they may start to perceive themselves as an entity that has detached themselves from their bodies, and it is as if they are looking at their physical bodies from a different viewpoint. This is the the body’s response to protect a child from an event that is too overwhelming.

There are many different situations that may occur as a result of dissociation, which can include the possibility of losing all of your memories and sense of that experience, which may have happened to them, which may result in a gap in their memories.

This may start out as minor gaps in memories, but the worst-case scenario can lead to a child losing track of a part of themselves as well.

Initially, dissociation is not a state which people are generally capable of choosing at will but can become an unconscious defense mechanism that continues throughout their lives. 

Behavior

Someone suffering from complex trauma, multiple traumatic incidents, such as consistent physical/emotional/sexual abuse may develop defensive coping mechanisms in all parts of their life which can affect their social life, family life and work life very difficult to navigate. 

While it may seem that the person is overreacting in small situations/events, their body is sensing danger and reacts accordingly to what is perceived as a threat. Due to these well-exaggerated outbursts, people with complex trauma have the tendency not to be able to regulate their emotions at times.

Due to this, many medical professionals consider some people/children suffering from complex trauma to be highly volatile, rebellious, and unpredictable.

People suffering from complex trauma are more likely to engage in rather extreme, high-risk behavior, such as self-harm and excessive risk-taking as well as a way to emotionally regulate/numb/distract from their bodies constantly sensing threats and danger in their environment and from other people. 

Thinking and learning

People with a history of complex trauma tend to have problems thinking clearly, reasoning, or problem-solving as well, as the defense mechanisms are on such high alert for most of their day that being able to use both the logic and emotions parts of their mind in a balanced way is very difficult. It is exhausting when someone’s body is constantly on alert all the time. 

This is because, due to the response to a traumatic event witnesses or experienced their body and mind have learned to be in a constant state of stress response mode. It is exhausting when someone’s body is constantly on alert all the time.

This can result in them not having the ability to think calmly and rationally so that they can consider alternatives if a situation does not work out in their favor.

Additionally, people also may find themselves struggling to be attentive and have trouble keeping sustaining attention towards a particular person or object for long periods of time.

Emotional Response

Another effect people who are suffering from trauma tend to have is that they have difficulty identifying and expressing different kinds of emotions.

Due to the traumatic event they have been exposed to, people suffering from complex trauma would often find themselves internalizing or externalizing their stress reactions.

This can result in very unpredictable, panicked, confusing or even explosive reactions. An example of this may be that something may trigger a traumatic event, which may elicit a very intense emotions of anger, sadness, fear, panic and feeling out of control or helpless.

Wrap-up

These are just some of the ways in which trauma is capable of affecting a human being. There are many other effects that may occur as a response to trauma, which is partly why trauma is such a prevalent issue in society.

There are evidenced based and scientific therapies available to reduce the last effects of trauma which include EMDR, Trauma-focused CBT, Trauma focused IFS, Somatic Processing and others. Each of which work to reduce the present body fight, flight, freeze response to a past event.

There is hope, there is help, you can do this. Contact us at laketappscounseling.com to learn more.