What is Trauma?

If you have suffered through a traumatic experience, you may be encountering emotional, physical, and psychological side effects as a result of this. Trauma is classified as any type of damage to the psyche that transpires as a result of a severely difficult or painful event. Individuals who have suffered through traumatic events or circumstances may experience extreme stress that overwhelms their capacity to cope. Trauma may also be able to leave a person fearing several things, such as annihilation, psychosis, or death. More commonly, a person who has suffered through trauma may feel overwhelmed in several aspects, such as emotionally, physically, or cognitively.

Traumatic events can vary among individuals, but usually they result in feelings of insecurity and confusion. Examples of trauma include bullying, domestic violence, sexual abuse, being the victim of a parent who is alcoholic, experiencing a life-threatening disease, surviving a catastrophic event, such as war, extreme weather episodes, earthquakes, mass violence, exposure to poverty, or verbal abuse. While each of these situations can be considered traumatic, it is important to note that individuals may react differently to comparable events. Situations or events can become traumatic to an individual when they have become psychologically traumatized because of what they have experienced. Trauma can be emotionally, physically, and psychologically binding, causing a man, woman, adolescent, or child to feel helpless and vulnerable in the distressing world that surrounds them. If you or a loved one has been the victim of trauma, it is important that you seek the necessary professional help you need to heal from your suffering.

Trauma Statistics

Gathering more information about trauma is helpful in better understanding this condition and those who it can potentially affect. The following are important statistics about trauma that give greater insight into details about how sufferers are impacted:

• In a study, two-thirds of the children reportedly experienced at least one traumatic event by age 16, including 30.8% with exposure to one event and 37% to multiple events. The most common events were witnessing or learning about a trauma that affected others – known as “vicarious” events [1].
• Children who experience trauma are often those with depressive, disruptive behavior disorders and high anxiety [1].
• Each year there are about 207,754 victims of sexual assault with someone in the United States being sexually assaulted every 2 minutes [2].
• In the United States, approximately five million children experience some form of traumatic event each year [3].
• More than two million children in the US are victims of physical and/or sexual abuse [3].
• In many countries that have experienced war, more than 60% of the children are displaced and traumatized [3].

Causes of Trauma

Psychological and emotional trauma can be influenced by several things, such as a single event, a violent attack, a horrifying accident, a natural disaster, a life-threatening disease, or even living with persistently high levels of stress. These types of circumstances can likely lead to trauma, especially if under these conditions:

• The event occurred in childhood
• The individual was unprepared for the event, or it occurred unexpectedly
• The individual felt defenseless or unable to prevent it
• The event occurred repeatedly

Trauma may also be caused by other situations that are more commonly overlooked. Such circumstances may be as follows:

• Sports injuries, or injuries that debilitate quality of life
• Divorce or break-ups in significant relationships
• The sudden death of a loved one
• Car accidents
• Falls
• Surgeries
• A humiliating or severely embarrassing situation

Traumatic events can vary depending on the individual encountering each specific situation. What may be identified as a traumatic event for one person may be entirely different for another person. Having the necessary professional support after suffering a traumatic event can greatly assist the trauma healing process.

Signs and Symptoms of Trauma

When a man, woman, adolescent, or child has suffered a traumatic event, particular signs and symptoms will be evident, typically displayed after the traumatic experience. The severity of the symptoms can be widely varied, largely depending on the individual. The following are possible symptoms that trauma has occurred:

• Abuse of drugs or alcohol, typically to “numb” pain felt by the traumatic event
• Flashbacks of the event
• Depression
• Anxiety/Panic attacks
• Intense feelings of anger, outbursts
• Repressed memories
• Emotional detachment
• Loss of self-esteem
• Disassociations
• Suicidal ideations
• Inability to concentrate
• Irritability, moodiness
• Withdrawal from others, seeking isolation

If you or your loved one has been experiencing any of these above symptoms as a result of trauma, consider seeking support from a trauma professional that can help guide you through this difficult time period in your life.

Statistics on PTSD

An estimated 70 percent of adults in the United States have experienced a traumatic event at least once in their lives and up to 20 percent of these people go on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD [1]. Additional relevant statistics as they relate to post-traumatic stress disorder include:

• An estimated 1 out of 10 women will get PTSD at some time in their lives. Women are about twice as likely as men to develop PTSD [1].
• The Department of Health (1995) estimated that 91 million working days each year in the UK are lost through stress-related illness, at a cost to industry of £3700 million. In 2003–4, social and welfare costs of claims for incapacitation and severe disablement from severe stress and PTSD amounted to £103 million, which is £55 million more than was claimed 5 years previously. Therefore, PTSD presents an enormous economic burden on families, the national health services and society as a whole. [2].
• The Department of Veterans Affairs has quietly released a new report on post-traumatic stress disorder, showing that since 9/11, nearly 30 percent of the 834,463 Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans treated at V.A. hospitals and clinics have been diagnosed with PTSD [3].

Causes of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post traumatic stress disorder is understood to be caused when someone experiences a trauma (views it or participates in it) that produces powerful feelings of fear, terror, vulnerability or horror. This can include observing a type of sexual, emotional, or physical abuse. Witnessing a multitude of other horrifying events such as an accident, physical assault, murder, sexual assault, war events or natural disasters can also lead to post traumatic stress disorder. Unfortunately, children can develop post traumatic stress disorder through being bullied, family violence or abuse.

Signs and Symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Signs of PTSD may not appear right after a traumatic event. It may take several months for the signs of post traumatic stress disorder to become evident. There are a number of symptoms that may be experienced that can help determine if the sufferer needs to seek assistance. These indicators include but are not limited to the following:

• Nightmares
• Extremely aggressive reactions to loud noises or bangs
• Feeling emotionally numb
• Abusive
• Avoids being in social situations