Preparedness
HOW TO TURN TRAUMA INTO MOTIVATION
How to turn Trauma into motivation after suffering with pain, obstacles and illusion in your Life! Or should we call it delusional pain? “Delusional pain hurts just as much as pain from actual trauma. So what if it’s all in your head?”~ Tracy Morgan
“Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence” ~ Peter A. Levine
Ok, let’s do this!! Let’s get into this deeper!
What is trauma? There are 3 types of trauma! I did not know that!! Did you?
- ACUTE TRAUMA- the results from one single stressful or dangerous event, usually a single event that happens in one’s life. This could look something like a car accident, theft, witnessing a violent event or an experience that threatens an individual’s physical or emotional safety.
- CHRONIC – This result is from repeated and/or prolonged exposure to highly stressful events. Some of these example would be child abuse, bullying, or domestic violence, rape, physical abuse, mental abuse. It could be a victim of a physical assault at school, then be in a car accident, then endure medical trauma related to the accident. Chronic trauma can have a cumulative effect.
“Unlike acute trauma, chronic trauma results from incidents that have occurred over and over again in a person’s life, including, for example:
- Long term child abuse
- War or combat situations
- Ongoing sexual abuse
- Living in a domestically violent environment
Survivors of this kind of trauma will likely require more treatment as the pain lasts much longer with chronic trauma. For example, if an individual has served in the armed forces and has been involved in a combat situation over a longer period of time, he may have a hard time making the adjustment to civilian life.
Post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) can be a very serious issue. In addition, PTSD than can affect survivors of not only combat experience, but also terrorist attacks, natural disasters, serious accidents, or assault or abuse.
Common Symptoms of Chronic Trauma
Unlike the cases of individuals who experienced an acute trauma, the symptoms of chronic trauma may not come to the surface for an extended amount of time — in some cases, even years after the event. According to the American Psychological Association, some longer-term reactions to trauma can include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea.3
Living with a chronic trauma often requires that a person take any of the following actions:
- Attempt to survive using a variety of survival mechanisms such as rationalization
- Adapt to the greatest extent possible
- Attempt to minimize the impact of the chronic trauma by ignoring it or going into denial about the problem
Because these strategies are reactive and defensive, a person suffering from chronic trauma may experience any of the following problems:
- Confusion
- Anger
- Sadness
- Anxiety
- Rage
- Overreactions
- Misperceptions of the individual’s environment
- Impaired memories
- Faitgue
- Lack of sleep
If you recognize any of these symptoms in someone who has survived chronic trauma, it is possible that some behavioral problems may develop. When a person does not receive treatment to deal with chronic trauma, he may demonstrate any of the following behaviors:
- Sexual avoidance
- Sexual promiscuity or participation in risky sexual encounters
- Fighting or violence
- Drug or alcohol abuse
- Unhealthy personal relationships
As a result of these behaviors, it is common for an individual to experience legal problems. For example, if someone is participating in alcohol abuse, he is also more likely to get into a fight or drive a vehicle under the influence. This individual may even act differently and may lose interest in normal activities that he once enjoyed. He may be very engaged when interacting with others or even avoid contact with others. It is possible that he is missing more work than normal or his physical appearance has changed due to the side effects of the chronic trauma.” https://skywoodrecovery.com/chronic-versus-acute-trauma/
3. COMPLEX – usually begins in the early stages of life, and may have a huge impact on the child’s development. This can also affect the ability to form secure attachment bonds in relationships which then affects the child’s safety and stability. Usually complex trauma will have very invasive and interpersonal Events around them. For example, there could be ongoing abuse by a parent or profound neglect.
Complex trauma is often related to relational trauma. That will occur when a parent or could be a close primary caregiver or nanny is the cause of traumatic stress, abuse, or neglect in the early childhood ages. Infants and young children really only rely on their parents and primary caregivers to meet their needs, including feeding, soothing and bonding- and so they should! When these simple primary needs are not met, or attachment bonds are unhealthy or broken, a child’s brain changes. These kinds of changes could negatively impact development of the mind and physical body as well as coping skills into adulthood.
A very interesting topic- Trauma and the Brain in this Youtube video:
With our Podcast interview this week on “How to turn Trauma into Motivation”, with Heidi Frances Lara is quite the story with many turns and twists so far in her life. Thank you Heidi for your strength and courage to speak up and help others! Here is the link to our interview on Youtube as well as the link down below for the audio version, on our Podcast.
Heidi Frances Lara
allthattrauma@gmail.com
@allthattraumapodcast
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