Trauma is a stigmatized topic and is not talked about often in our society. But trauma, when not treated, not only affects the mental health but also physical and social well-being of an individual.

And it is not just people who come back from war, or those who have met with a major accident that have trauma. People living everyday lives over time accumulate and carry these burdens along with themselves unknowingly.

Read on to find out what trauma is and how it affects your life.

What is Trauma?

Trauma occurs due to inability of a person to process the events or situation in their environment at a particular time. Trauma is identified by the dysfunctional life and post-traumatic stress that occurs in the lives of people who have been through these overwhelming situations.

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Some of the factors that determine the severity of trauma that an event can cause are:

Threat to well-being: The severity of a threat that an event or situation is to your survival and well-being has a major influence on how traumatic that event is and how much you could be affected by it.

Perceived Impact: How an individual perceives an event in their mind also has a huge impact on how that event affects the person.

In modern life it is highly unlikely that there is a physical threat to your life, but still we spend a huge part of our life stressing about things such as finances, love, self-esteem and what other people think about us.

If these situations are perceived as a threat, they will activate same biological response of stress that you would have if you were being chased by a tiger, just in a lower magnitude.

Capability to handle: A person going through stressful time has less resilience towards traumatic events and can possibly get traumatized by more trivial situations. Children also have less control over their surroundings and can therefore be overwhelmed and threatened by things that normally wouldn't affect an adult.

Along with all of these factors, your resilience towards trauma affects how much you are impacted by a traumatic event. Resilience is built by emotional health, along with your connection with your body, which is at the core of our Somatic therapy program.

What can cause trauma?

Any event that you perceive as life-threatening can traumatize you. This perception can happen knowingly or in a subconscious manner. Common factors affecting perception are your age, life experience, and even your mental state when you experienced the event.

For example, sudden loud noises, such as thunder or the angry shouts of adults, can traumatize infants and young children. Of course, thunder and shouting are rarely life-threatening, but, when it comes to trauma, the critical factor is the perception of threat and the lack of capacity to deal with it.

But what may surprise you is that the actual cause of trauma does not matter. The mechanism in which trauma harms your body and your mind remains the same, regardless of what has caused the trauma. Thus, it is important to understand that trauma is trauma, no matter what caused it.

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Effects Of Trauma

  • - Feeling anxious and hyper-vigilant at all times
  • - Intrusive imagery, thoughts or flashbacks
  • - Easily and frequently stressed out.
  • - Addictive behaviors
  • - Abrupt emotional meltdowns (sudden rage, crying, paralyzing fear, etc)
  • - Shame and lack of self-worth
  • - Inability to love, nurture, or bond with others
  • - Diminished emotional response.
  • - Impaired memory, concentration and brain function.
  • - Chronic fatigue and lack of vitality/energy
  • - Extreme sensitivity to lights, noise and startle responses.
  • - Isolation, alienation and detachment from life
  • - Suicidal tendencies.
  • - Being stuck, not feeling like yourself
  • - Disorders like anorexia, obsessive compulsions
  • - Psychosomatic disorders, muscle tightness, unusual body sensations.

How can I identify Trauma

Traumatic event acts as a seed for the symptoms that affect the mind and body of an individual. That is, the symptoms of trauma do not show up all of a sudden after a traumatic event, but rather manifest and build up over time, long after the event has happened.

Slight discomfort and minor issues that you might brush off after a traumatic event can snowball over time, affecting more and more areas of your life while further increasing their severity, if not dealt with properly.

Because can cause trauma is subjective to your experience and interpretations, it is better to use symptoms to identify if you have trauma. Read more in detail at Symptoms page.

What Can I do to heal Trauma

At Somatic Being, we offer a self-help somatic therapy program for people who seek help regarding their recovery from trauma and all of the issues that come with it. We work with techniques and methods that are centered around the body, where most of trauma is stored, allowing for effectiveness of healing that is not possible through traditional therapy.