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What is Trauma?

Psychological trauma is a profound response to distressing events that overwhelm an individual’s ability to cope, leaving lasting emotional, mental, and sometimes physical scars. It can result from experiences such as:

  • Physical, sexual, and emotional abuse

  • Childhood neglect

  • Serious accidents

  • Combat, war or loss

  • Violence

  • Discrimination or oppression

  • Sudden unexplained separation from a loved one 

  • Anything that significantly impacts on a person’s sense of safety, identity, and connection to others

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The psychological impact of trauma often permeates multiple aspects of life, affecting relationships, self-esteem, physical health and the ability to trust or feel secure. Without intervention, these effects, including cycles of dissociation, can persist for years, shaping life choices and behaviours in ways that reinforce pain, disconnection, and inner turmoil.

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Not everyone who experiences trauma will develop PTSD, but if symptoms persist for more than a month following a traumatic event and significantly impairs daily functioning, a diagnosis may be warranted 

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What is PTSD?

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric condition that may occur in people who have had exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence through direct experience, witnessing, learning of trauma experienced by those close to you, or repeated or extreme exposure to aversive details of trauma, typically experienced by first responders, medics, police officers. They experience one or more intrusive symptoms associated with the trauma, such as 

  • Recurrent distressing memories

  • Recurring nightmares

  • Flashbacks, or dissociative reactions in which the person feels the trauma repeating

  • Intense or prolonged psychological distress in the face of reminders

  • Physical reactions in the face of reminders

They avoid distressing memories and thoughts  about the trauma and/or avoid distressing external reminders of the trauma, like people, places, conversations, and activities.

They experience negative alterations to mood and cognition, as evidenced by two (or more) of the following:

  • Inability to remember important aspects of the trauma

  • Exaggerated negative thoughts about oneself, others, or the world

  • Blaming oneself or others for the trauma

  • Persistence negative emotional state, like fear, horror, anger, guilt, or shame

  • Diminished interest in activities

  • Feelings of detachment or estrangement from others

  • Inability to experience positive emotions

They experience alterations in arousal and reactivity, as evidenced by two or more of the following:

  • Irritability and angry outbursts with little or no provocation

  • Reckless and self-destructive behaviour

  • Hypervigilance

  • Exaggerated startle response

  • Problems with concentration

  • Difficulty sleeping

Often a person can also experience high levels of either of the following in reaction to trauma-related stimuli:

  • Depersonalisation. Experience of being detached from one’s self or body, as if one were in a dream.

  • Derealisation. Experience of unreality, like the world were unreal, dreamlike, distant, or distorted

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Common Symptoms 

Symptoms of trauma can affect someones physical, emotional, cognitive and behavioural functioning. While not an exhaustive list, common symptoms include, re-experiencing the trauma (such as flashbacks or unwanted memories), hyper vigilance, emotional numbness, intrusive negative thoughts, difficulties regulating emotions, sleep problems (including nightmares), low self-esteem, mood problems, shame, difficulty concentrating, exaggerated feelings of blame, avoiding certain people, places or memories, distancing from pleasant activities etc . Dissociation is another common response, where individuals may feel disconnected from their thoughts, emotions, or surroundings as a way to mentally escape unbearable distress. This may be experienced as depersonalisation (experience of being detached from one’s self or body, as if one were in a dream) or derealisation (experience of unreality, like the world were unreal, dreamlike, distant, or distorted). 

Risk Factors

Several factors play a role in developing PTSD, such as individual personality, the severity of the event, proximity to the event, the people involved in the event, duration of the trauma and the amount of support the person receives afterward. You may be at higher risk if you:

  • Were directly involved in the traumatic event

  • Were injured or had a near-death experience

  • Survived an especially long-lasting or severe traumatic event

  • Truly believed your life or that of someone around you was in danger

  • Had a strong emotional or physical reaction during the event

  • Received little or no support following the event

  • Have multiple other sources of stress in your life

Moral Injury 

Moral injury is a specific trauma resulting from a perceived injury to an individuals moral conscience and/or core values, such as loyalty, fairness and justice. It can have lasting emotional, psychological , social, behavioural and spiritual impacts. Individuals may questions their identity, sense of morality and/or relationship within society. They can include

a deep sense of shame, guilt, or betrayal stemming from actions or decisions that conflict with one’s moral or ethical beliefs, often encountered in military or high-stakes environments. Moral injury often emerges after exposure to several morally troubling events that are either perpetrated, witnessed or been victim of. 

Trauma & Attachment

Attachment trauma in childhood can profoundly affect attachment patterns in adulthood which can lead to ambivalent, avoidant or disorganised attachment. This can lead people to have difficulty forming healthy adult attachment relationships; often experiencing a fear of abandonment, becoming overly dependent on others, or fearful of forming close relationships. Individuals who have experienced attachment trauma can experience relationship difficulties, chronic pain, hyper vigilance, difficulty regulating emotions, resistance to affection, have the experience that they do not belong, withdraw from or self-sabotage relationships. 

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