The impact of Trauma

Psychological trauma is an emotional or physical response to a distressing event or series of events, such as accidents, assaults, or natural disasters.

Many people experience trauma in their lifetime and everyone can experience this differently and there is no ‘right way’ to respond to a traumatic event. The overarching experience is that an individual’s situation overwhelms their ability to cope. Trauma responses can be subtle or obvious. Many people who have experienced a traumatic event continue to experience the event through flashbacks, memories, nightmares, or distressing thoughts, especially when they are exposed to events, people or objects that remind them of the event. Some people may find that symptoms resolve after weeks or months, for others these symptoms may last a number of years.

Normal memories that have been fully processed have a label or timestamp that enables us to sort out when they happened and logically what happened. This label can include images, sounds, tastes, smells. It can include information of who else was involved or present and the location or environment. Once the memory is properly processed in this way, it is stored in long-term memory and when we recall the memory, we can understand that this occurred in the past. When a person experiences a traumatic event, their normal coping skills can become overloaded. Often this can result in the traumatic event being unprocessed in the brain, the brain no longer see’s this as past but current and therefore constantly being reexperienced.

Unprocessed memories get stored in a part of the brain called the ‘limbic system’ in the form of memories and feelings. They are stored in a raw form that can be easily triggered by similar events, environments or emotions. When this happens, a persons fight or flight system (their internal alarm system) gets stuck to the ‘on’ position, and they begin looking for threat or danger all around themselves.

Personally, I love the Linen Cupboard metaphor to explain trauma.

Think of memories the linen cupboard at home. A fully processed memory is the neatly folded towels, stored in order, the cupboard is organised and logical. An unprocessed traumatic memory can be thought of as the disorganised and untidy linen cupboard, where items fall out every time you open the door. More-so, any type of associated experiences, sights, sounds, smells, tastes, that remind us of the event, open that linen cupboard without us having a full sense of control.

Traumatic events can have a significant impact on the way that we see ourselves, others and the world around us. These changing relationships often cause ongoing distress for an individual and impact our feelings of safety.  

Based on my experience of working with people who have experienced a traumatic event, we can break symptoms down into two categories, short term or early responses and delayed or long term responses.

If you have experienced a traumatic event that has left you with any of the above symptoms, whether it has been one day or several months or years since the event, I recommend you speak to your GP or psychologist. The great news is that with treatment, traumatic memories can be processed and stored effectively in the brain so that you do not need to keep being triggered by them. Research also tells us that with a reduction in trauma symptoms, long term physical health problems are also reduced.

So please, if this rings true for you, speak to one of our psychologists and we can help you.