When we talk about trauma you might automatically think of warzones, abuse or violence. However, often we overlook the more day-to-day causes of trauma, and the side effects of that.
What might be classed as trauma?
Trauma is different for everyone and something that one person finds to be traumatic may be just a slightly perturbing experience for another. The key seems to be in how you felt at the time and in the aftermath of the trauma, and whether it is a one-off event or something which is ongoing.
The very nature of trauma is personal. This means that trauma informed training courses, like those offered by providers such as https://www.tidaltraining.co.uk/mental-health-courses/trauma-informed-practice-training, are extremely valuable to anyone needing to support clients who have experienced some form of trauma.
Trauma does not always have to be a direct experience, and people who witness an event, or learn about it afterwards, are also susceptible to trauma-based side effects. This is common in those who’ve sat on a jury for particularly difficult trials or people who have lived in a community which has experienced trauma.
Effects of trauma
The effects of trauma are not always immediately apparent, with many people finding that they block a traumatic experience from their memory until it resurfaces and causes issues many years later.
The impact of trauma is wide-ranging. Mental health issues such as PTSD and CPTSD are the most obvious long-term effects, but other mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and many others often have links back to a traumatic experience or period in a person’s life.
Trauma can make permanent, physical changes to the brain, which is all the more obvious in infants and children. While safe experiences encourage healthy brain development, traumatic ones do the opposite
While there is an old-fashioned view that children should leave their childhoods behind when they grow into an adult, the reality is far more difficult. The changes in brain chemistry mean that it can be permanently altered from a very young age.
