Trauma is an over-used term. Every week in the newspapers we can read about a celebrity being allegedly traumatised by poor film reviews or being snubbed by a leading director. But trauma is so much more than an insult, a slight or being temporarily distressed.
Trauma, in psychological or in psychoanalytic therapy terms is a deep level of distress that originates in severe emotional harm. For example, one person may be traumatised by childhood abuse that leaves an emotional legacy of mistrust and fear. Another person may be traumatised by a serious vehicle collision, especially if trapped in the car in a dangerous position for an extended period.
Military people, although highly trained, maybe traumatised by repeated exposure to danger, day after day, without sufficient time to recover in between.
Trauma is, in a way, unfinished business. The brain simply cannot process and put to memory an experience that is so frightening, so worrying and so overwhelming. The feelings and fears become stuck as though in a saucepan, really to boil up again and demand to be attended to.
At some stage, usually when life is beginning to go well, the sufferer will feel upset and perhaps frustrated that s/he is suffering flashbacks to the frightening event, a replay in the mind, or other symptoms including nightmares, avoidance of certain reminders or of people. In this instance, the person may be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. This requires a period of counselling, together with CBT, to help the person to process the distressing memories in a supportive and clinically capable environment.
Trauma, in psychological or in psychoanalytic therapy terms is a deep level of distress that originates in severe emotional harm. For example, one person may be traumatised by childhood abuse that leaves an emotional legacy of mistrust and fear. Another person may be traumatised by a serious vehicle collision, especially if trapped in the car in a dangerous position for an extended period.
Military people, although highly trained, maybe traumatised by repeated exposure to danger, day after day, without sufficient time to recover in between.
Trauma is, in a way, unfinished business. The brain simply cannot process and put to memory an experience that is so frightening, so worrying and so overwhelming. The feelings and fears become stuck as though in a saucepan, really to boil up again and demand to be attended to.
At some stage, usually when life is beginning to go well, the sufferer will feel upset and perhaps frustrated that s/he is suffering flashbacks to the frightening event, a replay in the mind, or other symptoms including nightmares, avoidance of certain reminders or of people. In this instance, the person may be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. This requires a period of counselling, together with CBT, to help the person to process the distressing memories in a supportive and clinically capable environment.
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