Psychology Facts

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》  Trauma refers to a serious injury or emotional pain, as from being involved in a disturbing or horrible incident, as in The trauma caused by years of war still gives the soldier nightmares.

》  After a traumatic event, you may experience strong emotional or physical reactions. Most people will notice that these feelings are vanishing after a few days or even weeks. However, this does not happen to everyone. Some people experience terrible and longer-lasting negative emotions.

》  The common symptoms are:

Behavioral:
Social withdrawal
Avoiding the activities that remind you of the event
Losing interest in things you liked doing

Cognitive:

Nightmares
Confusion
Disorientation
Mood swings
Concentration problems
Loss of memory

Physical:

Easily Startled
Insomnia
Edginess
Sexual dysfunction
Fatigue and exhaustion

Psychological:

Shame
Anxiety
Irritability
Fear
Emotional numbing

》  More than 25% of American youth experience a serious traumatic event by their 16th birthday and many children suffer multiple and repeated traumas.

》  Potentially traumatic events can be caused by a singular occasion, or by ongoing, relentless stresses. A potentially traumatic event is more prone to leave an individual with longer-lasting emotional and psychological trauma if:

The individual was unprepared for the event

The event occurred out of the blue

The person felt powerless to prevent the event

The event occurred repeatedly (such as child abuse)

If the event involved extreme cruelty

If the event occurred during the childhood years

》  You might be familiar with the body survival instincts called fight or flight, but you're also equipped with two others — the submit and attach survival defenses.

》  An attach or social engagement, "cry for help" or "friend" survival defense involves trying to appeal to the natural urge of humans to connect with each other, like a newborn baby crying to bring an adult closer to get their needs met. This could be crying in a difficult situation to hopefully gain sympathy from an attacker or trying to lighten the mood and crack jokes to distract an angry parent.

》 Commonly overlooked causes of potential emotional and psychological trauma can also include:

Breakup or divorce in a significant
relationship
Significantly humiliating experienced
Surgery
Falls or injuries due to sports
The sudden, unexpected death of a loved one
Diagnosis of a life-threatening or disabling condition

》Examples of events and situations that can lead to the development of psychological trauma may include:

Natural disasters such as fires, earthquakes, tornados, and hurricanes , Interpersonal violence like rape, child abuse, or the suicide of a loved one or friend, Involvement in a serious car accident or workplace accident, Acts of violence such as armed robbery, war, or terrorism

》  Traumas indeed come in all forms. However, to make work easier, these traumas can fall either in the "Big T" and "little t" category.

Big T events are significant events like car accidents, natural disasters, sexual assault, or war. In other words, these are life-threatening events, and you might have little or no control over the circumstance. The effects after the events are typically life-altering and have lasting mental effects.

Little T traumas include events that aren't life-threatening but are challenging to deal with and are distressing. These traumas can be anything like abrupt relocations, conflict with loved ones, divorces adoption, etc.

》  Approximately one-half (50 percent) of all individuals will be exposed to at least one traumatic event in their lifetime.

》  Although the majority of individuals will be able to absorb the trauma over time, many survivors will experience long-lasting problems. Approximately 8 percent of survivors will develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

》  Even though we most often associate trauma with mental health conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and cause a range of physical symptoms too, like chronic pain. This is because your natural response to trauma very much happens in your body, specifically your nervous system.

》  Some of the most common effects of untreated trauma include:

Substance abuse

Alcoholism

Sexual problems

Inability to maintain healthy close relationships or choose appropriate people to be friends with

Hostility

Constant arguments with loved ones

Social withdrawal

Constant feelings of being threatened

Self-destructive behaviors

Impulsive behaviors

Uncontrollable reactive thoughts

Inability to make healthy occupational or lifestyle choice

Dissociative symptoms

Feelings of depression, shame, hopelessness, or despair

Feeling ineffective

Feeling as though one is permanently damaged

Loss of former belief systems

Compulsive behavioral patterns

》  It's often hard to know how to cope with the aftermath of trauma, which can include intense and uncomfortable feelings or intrusive memories. Including the common symptom of dissociation.

》Dissociation can make you feel disconnected from your thoughts, memories, or sense of identity or feel like things are just a bit — off. Although most people at one point or another may get "lost in a book" or not remember part of a drive home, usually lasts longer and can be very disruptive.

》Derealization is when you feel like the world around you isn't quite real or is distorted, like you're in a movie or perceive a room or furniture as smaller or bigger than usual as well as visual distortions where everything might look flat or two-dimensional. Feeling disconnected from yourself, including your feelings, thoughts, senses or body, is what happens with . It can also feel like you're an outsider looking in at yourself.