Inner Anxiety

Trauma is beginning to be talked about and recognized more and more as a major contributor to mental illness.

What is trauma and how does it affect mental health?

One definition of trauma is:

Psychological trauma is the unique individual experience of an event or enduring conditions in which: The individual’s ability to integrate his/her emotional experience is overwhelmed or the individual experiences (subjectively) a threat to life, bodily integrity, or sanity. (Pearlman & Saakvitne, 1995, p. 60)

Trauma occurs when one feels there is a threat to life, bodily integrity, or sanity.

Examples of trauma are or can be things like:

	Emotional abuse
	Sexual abuse
	Physical abuse
	Physical illness
	Bullying
	Shaming
	Receiving a diagnosis of having a mental illness
	Not receiving a diagnosis of having a mental illness
	Death in the family

Trauma can be ongoing, past or current. Trauma can recur when post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) occurs. PTSD occurs when an event is experienced again and again and again.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may occur soon after a major trauma, or it can be delayed for more than 6 months after the event. When it occurs soon after the trauma, it usually gets better after 3 months. However, some people have a longer-term form of PTSD, which can last for many years.

Trauma is individual; whether what you went through or are going through was or is traumatic, is something you have to decide for yourself. Trauma is about what you feel, what your experience is regarding that event. That is why, for some people, it is more traumatic to receive a diagnosis and for others it is more traumatic to not receive a diagnosis.

There are many people who are on the recovery journey that realize trauma they went through was a contributing factor in their mental illness.

Whenever one incurs the threat or experience of trauma, the possibility of life remaining the same is lessened.

People who have been through a traumatic event or experience often have problems feeling safe, establishing boundaries, feeling afraid of not being able to leave, and needing to feel accepted and not judged, as they learn how to better deal with the trauma they are struggling with.

There are a number of treatments used in the state of Michigan that help people deal with trauma.

They go by many different names, so you will need to ask your treatment provider how to connect up with trauma treatment.

There are also a number of books on post-traumatic stress disorder can help you learn more.