When most people hear the word trauma they initially expect to hear about some physical impact upon the body.

But any trauma that happens impacts us more than just in a physical manner. We can and do experience psychological and emotional trauma too. Just like our physical bodies they also need help and expertise at times to heal.

What Is Psychological And Emotional Trauma?

Emotional and psychological trauma can be the result of stressful or physically traumatic event. These traumatic events may shatter our sense of security.

Traumatic experiences can be life-threatening. Any situation that leads you to feel there is a threat to your safety, life, or leave you being overwhelmed, isolated can be traumatic. They don’t necessarily always have to involve physical harm. You can also witness a traumatic event to experience the need for treatment.

It’s not the facts of what happened that determine whether an event is traumatic, but your own subjective emotional experience of the event. The more frightened and helpless you feel, the more likely you are to be traumatized.

These events can be one-time events like: an accident, injury, natural disaster, or violent attack. They can be an ongoing and stressful event such as: living in a crime-ridden neighbourhood, domestic violence, sexual abuse, living with an addict or battling a life-threatening illness.

Even events we offend overlooked for example:  surgery (especially in the first 3 years of life), the sudden death of someone close, the breakup of a significant relationship, or a humiliating or deeply disappointing experience.

These events  can include ones that may have cause you to suffer from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)

Signs and Symptoms of Trapped Trauma

Psychological And Emotional Signs

• Shock, denial, or disbelief
• Confusion, difficulty concentrating
• Anger, irritability, mood swings
• Anxiety and fear
• Guilt, shame, self-blame
• Withdrawing from others
• Feeling sad or hopeless
• Feeling disconnected or numb

Physical Signs

• Insomnia or nightmares
• Fatigue
• Being startled easily
• Difficulty concentrating
• Racing heartbeat
• Edginess and agitation
• Aches and pains
• Muscle tension

When To See A Psychologist For Help.

You will need a qualified expert to help you through after these experiences. This person should be well versed in using a variety of techniques including – but not limited to – CBT, DBT, EMDR, Somatic techniques and talking therapies. 

Recovery from any trauma does take time and when you notice the following symptoms you really should seek help. Or if you feel that you need help at any time, but are unsure, speak to your GP first.

1. Having trouble functioning at home or work
2. Suffering from severe fear, anxiety, or depression
3. Unable to form close, satisfying relationships
4. Experiencing terrifying memories, nightmares, or flashbacks
5. Avoiding more and more things that remind you of the trauma
6. Emotionally numb and disconnected from others
7. Using alcohol or drugs to feel better

Helping Yourself

Look after your health in general

1. Reduce stress. A pretty obvious one to some. But it is vital that you don’t add anything else to your stress overload right now. Please find out as much about stress as you can so you can understand better how your body and mind have been affected.
2. Get plenty of sleep. You need a minimum of seven hours a night. Anything less will cause you to have further mental and physical difficulties. I have eleven quick tips to help you improve your sleep. You can click this link for more information.
3. Eat 3 healthily meals a day or 5 smaller one. Again another obvious one but a lot of the time we can so obviously neglect what we are eating. Caffeine and sugar are two things we can crave but again both will have a negative impact on our mental and physical health. Try to reduce your consumption of these and if you need to seek advice on healthier nutrition. 
4. Exercise, even a 15 minute walk daily will help reduce your stress and anxiety symptoms. Plus improve your overall mood and help calm the mind. Trauma disrupts your body’s natural equilibrium, using the freeze, flight or fright so that your nervous system gets “stuck.” As well as burning off adrenaline and releasing endorphins to increase happiness, exercise and movement can actually help your nervous system become “unstuck.” (Use this alongside grounding techniques see below)
5. Avoid alcohol, drugs and smoking as these will only make your symptoms worse. They are also very unhealthy coping mechanisms, if you think you need help stopping then please seek advice from your GP or main doctor.

Self-regulate your nervous system.

1. You can do a lot of self-help in this area including using meditation and use self-soothing, or healthy habits, to build in some positive coping strategies.
2. Try to allow yourself to experience everything you feel. I know this is hard to do when we may have developed coping mechanisms that allow us to dissociate instead. But a good therapist can help you do this as will meditation.
3. You can also use grounding techniques such as the 54321 game. It uses our senses to raise our awareness back into the here and now. Thus allowing us to relax or enable us to get through a difficult moment. You should feel reoriented and calmer after doing this but repeat again if needed. PROCEDURE       

• Name 5 things you see right now.
• Name 4 things you can feel right now.
• Name 3 things you can hear right now.
• Name 2 things you can smell right now.
• Name 1 thing good thing about yourself. 

Peter Levine’s book Healing Trauma is an excellent resource to use. It comes with a CD of techniques you can use to get started with grounding techniques.

Don’t isolate yourself.

 Trauma tends to isolate us. So reaching out to a positive support system will counteract this. It will help you feel supported, understood and listened to.

Make contact with positive family and friends, volunteer, join support groups, take up interests and hobbies and make new friends. But always make sure these supports are positive for you.

Please ditch the negative vampires as these will only make the situation worse.

Helping a loved one deal with trauma

Your support can be a crucial factor in the recovery of a loved one from trauma. But how can you help?

Be patient and understanding. 

Healing takes time, being patient is crucial to your loved one’s recovery. At times the pace of recovery can seem very slow and it’s important to remember that everyone’s response to trauma is different.  Never judge or compare your loved one’s reaction and ability to recover to another person.

Offer practical support.

This may include such things as collect shopping or children from school, cooking a meal, being there to just listen, taking them to appointments, etc. They may not express it at the time but this kind of support will be very much appreciated. 

Never put pressure on your loved one to talk but be available if they want to talk. 

Some trauma survivors find it difficult to talk about what happened. Never force them to open up to you but just wait for them to do so. This may never happen and that can be a very normal response. So don’t feel left out if this is the case.

Help them to socialize and relax, but don’t force them either. 

Encourage them to exercise, meet with friends, and take up hobbies and interests. Meet up with friends and family together to give them moral support if they feel anxious about doing so. This can be a very practical support for them also.

Remember never take the trauma symptoms personally.

Becoming angry, irritable, withdrawn, or emotionally distant is a normal response to trauma (see list above also). But never put up with bad behaviour towards you either. Encourage them to seek help with a psychologist and perhaps consider therapy for you and the relationship also.

Healing trauma recovery work is a difficult road at times but I can’t recommend it highly enough. Imagine your life free from all those symptoms and you living a serene and happy life the way you want to. Well, that’s possible with the correct treatment, so don’t let fear stand in your way. You have already survived the worst part now move on to thriving in your life.

Work With Me.

Remember you are allowed to ask for support. No one is an island. If you need extra support then you can also work with me. We all struggle with stress and overwhelm from time to time. If you find this has become a problem for you and you’d like some support then schedule an appointment with me.