Trauma is a word often seen in the press and on social media. There's a lot of talk about trauma, but not much is said about how to recover from it. As a result, it can sometimes be trivialized and misunderstood, though it certainly shouldn't be. Trauma, a word originating from Greek, means a wound. A wound on the human psyche.
Is every wound to the psyche easily categorized as trauma?
The answer is no. In a psychological sense, trauma is an injury. It's a 'mental state caused by the action of health and life-threatening external factors, leading to profound changes in human functioning.'[1] Consequently, recovering from such trauma, returning to previous responses and functioning, can be significantly complicated and not so easy.
It affects one's entire life. Trauma is preceded by a traumatic event, which has directly impacted us. This is referred to as a trauma tic stressor. What kind of situation might this be? Most often, it involves life endangerment: (...) sexual violence, or a somatic illness. Each situation is interpreted differently by each individual."
Symptoms of trauma – How to recognize if you are suffering from
Trauma and how to safely overcome it – How to recover from trauma?
