Trauma isn’t always forever
Traumatic events take a toll. They leave a wound, and sometimes a physical scar, too. But the hardest wounds to heal are always invisible. We often think of trauma in the context of extreme or catastrophic events, such as natural disasters, violent attacks and torture, sexual abuse or rape, serious injuries and accidents, or war. But these kinds of shocking events are only part of the trauma puzzle.
Traumatic stress can also occur due to health issues, medical procedures or abuse, psychological manipulation and control, childhood neglect, bullying and harassment, embarrassing or humiliating situations, relationship breakups, and the death of a loved one, for example.
While certain events are cataclysmic they, themselves, are not trauma — they are root causes. Trauma is a personal, psycho-emotional and physiological response generated in the brain, at first, and then registered in the body. It occurs due to an overwhelming amount of negative stress, which undermines a person’s normal, and reasonable, coping capacity.
The stress can happen quickly, and quite forcefully (acute trauma), or subtly, over time, due to an accumulation of detrimental psychogenic experiences (chronic trauma), and it can also be complex. Complex trauma is, essentially, a stacking of multiple acute or chronic stressors.
Trauma erodes the psyche, and the self, and leaves the brain, and body, in a state of shock, frozen, or in hyperarousal, constantly responding to danger — it’s like the switch is locked on. It’s a subjective experience. Not everyone who lives through the same circumstances will be affected in the same way. It can take many months or years to recover and regain a sense of authentic identity and healthy functioning. Some people may experience recurring symptoms over the course of their life.
Trauma alters its function, structure and chemistry of the brain, in different ways, during the different stages of a person’s life cycle and brain development. It affects the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. These three areas are linked to emotions, memory imprinting, processing and recall, and survival.
The amygdala can be hijacked, stuck in fear, and the prefrontal cortex can have a hard time regulating emotions. The hippocampus in people with post-traumatic stress disorder, can be smaller in size, affecting memory recall.
Studies have revealed that up to 75 per cent of Australians will experience a traumatic event in their lifetime (a pre-pandemic figure) and around half of traumatic experiences occur in childhood. We know there is a direct correlation between trauma and, for example, anxiety and depression, personality disorders, psychosis, eating disorders, and substance use.
In this sense, these conditions are more than standalone diagnoses. They may be, in fact, the result of prior, and sometimes forgotten or hidden, traumatic experiences. It’s important to understand this, to get to the root cause of people’s suffering, and mental health conditions, and then establish the right treatment plan.
Fortunately, a lot of progress is being made in terms of understanding the impact of trauma on people’s brain, body, and life, and trauma-informed care and practice is becoming more embedded in the design and delivery of services. Though we still have a long way to go.
Meditation, exercise, sleep, socialising, time in nature, creativity and learning have neuroprotective factors. These kinds of activities, together with other appropriate medical treatments, are an important part of trauma recovery.
Trauma needs to be understood, with compassion. It needs to be witnessed, processed and integrated, for the brain and body to feel safe again. Healing is possible, and with the right support people can make a full recovery, and derive meaning from life, once more.
Lifeline: 13 11 14, Blue Knot Helpline and Redress Support Service: 1300 657 380
This article was first published in The West Australian in Renée Gardiner’s weekly column in Agenda, 26 March 2022.