Are you experiencing traumatic stress?
Have you ever experienced a situation that left you feeling helplessness, fearful, threatened or overwhelmed? You may attribute these feelings to “normal” stress, but you may actually be experiencing traumatic stress. Traumatic stress results from two types of traumatic experiences, a genuine personal crisis or a crisis ridden experience.
A genuine personal crisis is not ongoing and involves a period of distress and readjustment. For example, you may have been in an extremely terrifying car accident. You may have feelings of fear or anxiety about riding in a vehicle again (period of distress) but with time, these feelings will not be so intense (period of readjustment). A crisis ridden experience is ongoing and involves no changes in coping or behavior and it may feel like a roller coaster of ups and downs. This experience is related to a life circumstance in which one emergency occurs right after another that creates an ongoing experience of traumatic situations. Being in a car accident, being robbed or assaulted, a loved ones passing, systemic marginalization-microaggressions, neglect, physical, emotional, sexual, and verbal abuse, hospitalization, or witnessing violence are all events that can result in traumatic stress. If any of these events occurred continuously or one right after the other, this would be considered a crisis ridden trauma experience.
Why is it important to understand traumatic stress? Well first we must understand what a traumatic experience is. A traumatic experience can be defined as an event or circumstance that overwhelms the coping system. When your coping system is overwhelmed your mind and body are not able to respond like they normally would. A traumatic experience injures the nervous system and affects the brain’s ability to understand, make sense of and integrate experiences (Radohl, Morrison & Lamer, 2020). You may be encountering symptoms of traumatic stress if you feel a real or perceived threat to your physical or emotional well-being, you feel overwhelmed, or have intense feelings of fear and lack of control. You may also begin to feel helpless or you may recognize changes in how you understand the world, yourself, and others. Other responses include avoidance, fear, hypervigilance, irritability, poor sleep and eating, flashbacks, physical or somatic symptoms, and regression.
These are known psychological, emotional, and physical reactions that individuals have to trauma. It is important to understand traumatic stress so that you do not feel alone or different because you are experiencing the effects of trauma. With treatment you can heal from these events. Working with professionals through this process of identifying and coping with trauma has been helpful and effective for many people. Resolve Counseling and Wellness provides therapeutic services to all individuals, families, and couples; discounted counseling is an additional service that is provided by Graduate level interns like me who can provide support and guidance through the healing process. These experiences do not have to define you; there is hope for healing and growth.
(Radohl, Morrison & Lamer, 2020).