Trauma. Webster’s dictionary defines trauma as “a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from severe mental or emotional stress or physical injury.” As formal and specific that sounds, the direct definition does not grasp the severity of the word. Someone who is traumatized is not cured with a Band-Aid and a kiss on the cheek. It’s a long battle to overcome that state. A state of fear. A state of agony. Author, and holocaust survivor, Victor Frankl details his experience in the Nazi concentration camp as “the hard fight for existence which raged among the prisoners. This was an unrelenting struggle for daily bread and for life itself, for one's own sake or for that of a good friend.”(8) When a man is pushed to his limits, and questions …show more content…
He writes “another sensation seized us: curiosity. I have experienced this kind of curiosity before, as a fundamental reaction toward certain strange circumstances. When my life was once endangered by a climbing accident, I felt only one sensation at the critical moment: curiosity, curiosity as to whether I should come out of it alive or with a fractured skull or some other injuries.” (16) Frankl believes that trauma cause a man to experience a kind of cold curiosity. A better term for this would be a slow panic. A constant barrage of questions enters a person’s mind as the stray from the everyday life they are used to. Such as the question that arise after the loss of close friend. We all have that one friend in our neighborhood who we can count on to be there on lonesome Sunday afternoon. That friend whose house you can walk into without knocking on the door or calling beforehand. For me, that was a boy by the name of Amoni Bell. Amoni moved to Georgia during middle school. Being that school had already begun, making friends was not easy for him. However, we quickly became friends, due to the long bus ride home. Our friendship would last until our senior year in high school. Life during that time became busy. I was dual-enrolling. We had no classes together. We talked between classes, but that never lasted too long. We were still great friends, but life just gets in the way. However, one day I was going about my regular business. I remember I was getting my car fixed up before work. I don’t remember much of the conversation, but I do remember talking my school counselor. It took me a minute to realize what she said. I just sat at the mechanic’s store, went home, and completely skipped work. Of course my boss understood the situation. One of my best friends, who lives less than a mile down the road, ended his own life. I had never
The article, “A New Focus on the ‘Post; in Post-Traumatic Stress” by David Dobbs, talks about trauma as a whole and how some react to it. Dobbs writes, “Both culturally and medically, we have long seen it as arising from a single, identifiable disruption. You witness a shattering event, or fall victim to it-and as the poet Walter de la Mare put it, ‘the human brain works slowly: first the blow, hours afterward the bruise.” Holden experienced trauma ex...
The “Trauma” is a. It doesn't eke itself out over time. It doesn’t split itself manageably into bite-sized chunks and distribute it equally throughout your life. Trauma is all or nothing. A tsunami wave of destruction. A tornado of unimaginable awfulness that whooshes into your life - just for one key moment - and wreaks such havoc that, in just an instant, your whole world will never be the same again”(Holly Bourne, The Manifesto on How to be Interesting).
“The essential psychological effect of trauma is a shattering of innocence” (Margolies). A shattering of innocence means that a person can never look at the world in the same way because they are always afraid of another traumatic event. “In order to be diagnosed with PTSD, a person must have three different types of symptoms: re-experiencing symptoms, avoidance and numbing symptoms, and arousal symptoms” ("Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."). Re-experiencing symptoms include ones that are triggered by past memories of the situation. Avoidance and numbing symptoms occur when the person is trying to avoid everything related to the event such as certain locations or television shows that could have a possible relation to the traumatic event. Arousal symptoms happen when the victim is constantly alert for another traumatic event. One of the most serious effects of PTSD is that the victims “may develop additional disorders such as depression, substance abuse, problems of memory and cognition, and other problems of physical and mental health” ("Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."). Substance abuse, for example, can drastically change the human body mentally and physically. These effects and symptoms usually last longer than 3 months
Clients who have experienced trauma are literally living in a world of pain which plays out in their challenging behaviors. Maltreated and abused individuals often experience a wide range of psychological and physical problems such as, emotional avoidance and negative post-traumatic cognitions. When an individual has experienced multiple, severe forms of trauma, the psychological results are often multiple and severe as well; a phenomenon sometimes referred to as complex posttraumatic disturbance. Complex trauma can be defined as a combination of early and late-onset, multiple, and sometimes highly invasive traumatic events, usually of an ongoing, interpersonal nature. In most cases, such trauma includes exposure to repetitive childhood sexual,
“Trauma is used when describing emotionally painful and distressing experiences or situations that can overwhelm a person’s ability to cope” (John A. Rich, Theodore Corbin, & Sandra Bloom, 2008). Trauma could include deaths, violence, verbal and nonverbal words and actions, discrimination, racism etc. Trauma could result in serious long-term effects on a person’s health, mental stability, and physical body. Judith Herman, from Trauma and Recovery, said “Traumatic events are extraordinary, not because they occur rarely, but rather because they overwhelm the ordinary human adaptations to life” (John A. Rich, Theodore Corbin, & Sandra Bloom, 2008). Trauma does not involve the same experiences for everyone; each individual is unique in that they, and only they, can decide what is traumatic for them.
PTSD is a debilitating mental illness that occurs when someone is exposed to a traumatic, dangerous, frightening, or a possibly life-threating occurrence. “It is an anxiety disorder that can interfere with your relationships, your work, and your social life.” (Muscari, pp. 3-7) Trauma affects everyone in different ways. Everyone feels wide ranges of emotions after going through or witnessing a traumatic event, fear, sadness and depression, it can cause changes in your everyday life as in your sleep and eating patterns. Some people experience reoccurring thoughts and nightmares about the event.
Trauma is defined as “a very difficult or unpleasant experience that causes someone to have mental or emotional problems usually for a long time” (Merriam-Webster). Many veterans experience trauma from the traumatic events they see in war or from the multiple terms they served in. An example of a traumatic event is depicted in an article titled “Caring for Veterans”.
The weight of constantly listening to difficult, harrowing, and upsetting events in other people’s lives can have negative impacts on therapists, especially for those who are inadequately trained or who have poor coping mechanisms. While most therapists deal with this strain, it is particularly true of those who work consistently work with patients who have experienced trauma. Trauma refers to an individual's exposure to actual or threatened harm, fear of death or injury, or witnessing violence. Common forms of trauma seen in therapy environments are rape, abuse, victims of crimes, accidents, and disasters. Trauma work requires specialized training and support in order to be effective for the clients and to help to deal with, minimize, and
Thesis Statement: Trauma is more than just a word to describe scientifically what we are feeling. It is a part of people’s everyday lives.
According to the American Psychological Association, trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event. Some terrible events that happen all too often are rape, natural disasters or an accident. Immediately following the event shock and denial are likely to occur, but in the long-term flashbacks, unpredictable emotions and troubled relationships can arise. Defining emotional trauma on a child. Emotional trauma in a child can be created by bullying, emotional abuse, death of loved ones, separation from parent, or chaos and dysfunction in the household. Child symptoms of trauma can be very similar to depression symptoms. They can over sleep or sleep to little, unexplained anger, trouble focusing, obsessive worrying and some anxiety. How a child experiences an event and how it’s handled by those around him have an effect on how traumatizing it can be, notes Dr. Jerry Bubrick (Child Mind Institute , 2017). People grieve at different speeds and the way the child grieves is not the correct indicator on how the child will cope later. Defining physical trauma on a child. Physical trauma on a child is considered non-accidental or the cause of physical injury. Some households that suffer from alcoholism/substance abuse and anger issues have higher occurrences of child abuse as compared to households without according to psychology today. Sometimes kids that are abused are unaware that they are being abused and are victims of child
POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological health condition that is caused by frightening and terrifying events that one can experience or even witness. Symptoms may include, nightmares, flashbacks and severe nervousness and anxiety, as well as overwhelming thoughts about the occurrences. The common sources of trauma are physically violent in nature, others are psychological and also include; domestic violence, rape, the death of a loved one, natural disasters, severe illness or injury and witnessing an act of violence. Preparation includes both the ability to respond in the moment and reacting necessarily by utilising coping strategies and social support after the incident.
Trauma can have so many awful effects on the mind. Even if the trauma happened a very long time ago and we might not remember it, our subconscious probably will. But what is even trauma? It is the psychological distress from a particular event that can scare an individual for a long time. There are three broad categories of trauma.
Trauma relates to a type of damage to the mind that comes from a severely distressing event. A traumatic event relates to an experience or repeating events that overwhelmingly precipitated in weeks, months, or decades as one tries to cope with the current situations that can cause negative consequences. People’s general reaction to these events includes intense fear, helplessness or horror. When children experience trauma, they show disorganized or agitative behavior. In addition, the trigger of traumas includes some of the following, harassment, embarrassment, abandonment, abusive relationships, rejection, co-dependence, and many others. Long-term exposure to these events, homelessness, and mild abuse general psychological
Even through suffering, Frankl believes that has not made it impossible for an individual to find their significance in life. The changing of an outlook is the most vital piece in improving a situation, and people must remember that anything has a possibility if you put your mind to it. When in the concentration camp, Frankl could have given up and accepted defeat, although he capitalized on his circumstance focused on helping others through open lectures about the mind, body and
Introduction The word trauma coined from the Greek word that means "wound", it is not the wound of the body that is simple and healable, but it is the wound of the mind the breach in the experience of the mind concerning self, time, and the world. There is a consensus that if trauma is considered as a wound, it is a "very peculiar kind of wound". The precise definition for this concept differs according to the discipline and context. Trauma is not an object that is only studied in the three traditional branches (social science, natural science, and humanities) but also in medicine and law .it has a paradoxical relationship to the other disciplines including (psychiatry, psychology, sociology, history, public health, and literature).