Affects of Trauma
In part one of "On the Road to Recovery: Understanding Trauma" I contemplated my perception of trauma. I noted that trauma is the cause of any form of harm we are exposed to and which results in the pain we have to endure. Part one also explored types and causes of trauma, as well as typical ways we respond to it. Knowing this surely contributes to a better understanding of the overwhelming force we are fighting, as well as our initial reactions to it. However, this knowledge is insignificant compared to the affects of trauma: the devastation it causes in our lives.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the United States (SAMHSA, 2014), the affects of trauma could impact the emotional, physical, cognitive, behavioral, social, and developmental domains of our lives.
Emotional Affects
Trauma "[...] tends to evoke two emotional extremes: feeling either too much (overwhelmed) or too little (numb) emotion" (SAMHSA, 2014). Since regulating emotional control is something which could be very difficult for human beings, we often tend to engage in destructive methods, or "self-medication," which are essentially attempts to regain control of our emotions. These methods include substance abuse, self-injury, eating disorders, compulsive behaviors (like gambling or overworking), and repression/denial of emotions.
Physical Affects
One way trauma could affect us physically is known as somatization, which occurs when emotional distress is projected onto one's physical wellbeing and expressed as bodily symptoms or dysfunctions. Somatic complaints are essentially generated by psychiatric conditions. Another physical reaction arising from trauma is hyperarousal, which is "[...] characterized by sleep disturbances, muscle tension, and a lower threshold for startle responses [...]" (SAMHSA, 2014). Except for somatization and hyperarousal, the affects of trauma could also manifest as neurological, respiratory, dermatological, and various other types of health disorders.
Cognitive Affects
Trauma could have tremendous affects on cognition, which refers to the mental process of understanding through thoughts, experiences and senses. Very often, this leads to the perceptions that our traumatic experiences are unique and incomprehensible. "To clarify, trauma can lead individuals to see themselves as incompetent or damaged, to see others and the world as unsafe and unpredictable, and to see the future as hopeless—believing that personal suffering will continue, or negative outcomes will preside for the foreseeable future [...]" (SAMHSA, 2014).
Examples of changes in thought-processes, resulting from exposure to trauma, include: cognitive errors (misinterpreting a current situation as dangerous due to its resemblance to a previous traumatic experience), excessive or inappropriate guilt (attempting to make sense of a traumatic experience by assuming responsibility), idealization (justifying the perpetrator of the traumatic incident's behavior), trauma-induced hallucinations or delusions (false perceptions and mental believes which contain thoughts congruent to an experienced trauma), as well as intrusive thoughts and memories (nightmares and flashbacks are ways of cognitively reexperiencing a previous traumatic event, which is often triggered by sensory reminders that resemble or represent the initial event).
Behavioral Affects
While nightmares and flashbacks are cognitive ways of reexperiencing a traumatic event, behavioral "[r]eexperiencing can occur through reenactments (literally, to 'redo'), by which trauma survivors repetitively relive and recreate a past trauma in their present lives." Examples of reenactments include "[...] self-injurious behaviors, hypersexuality, walking alone in unsafe areas or other high-risk behaviors, driving recklessly, or involvement in repetitive destructive relationships (e.g., repeatedly getting into romantic relationships with people who are abusive or violent), to name a few" (SAMHSA, 2014).
Other behavioral affects of trauma are self-harm and self-destructive behaviors. Self-harming behaviors entail physically harming oneself , while self-destructive behaviors comprise of behaviors like substance abuse, eating disorders, or high-risk impulsive behavior. "Self-destructive behaviors differ from self-harming behaviors in that there may be no immediate negative impact of the behavior on the individual; they differ from suicidal behavior in that there is no intent to cause death in the short term" (SAMHSA, 2014).
Avoidance is another affect of trauma which alters behavior. "When people can’t tolerate strong affects associated with traumatic memories, they avoid, project, deny, or distort their trauma-related emotional and cognitive experiences" (SAMHSA, 2014).
Social Affects
Experiencing trauma could affect our relationships with other people significantly. Perceptions of ourselves and others resulting from changes in cognitive patterns (as mentioned above), may lead to difficulties connecting with other people after being exposed to trauma. Furthermore, "[m]any survivors of childhood abuse and interpersonal violence have experienced a significant sense of betrayal. They have often encountered trauma at the hands of trusted caregivers and family members or through significant relationships" (SAMHSA, 2014). The disappointment, betrayal and lack of trust experienced by subjects of trauma have the potential to damage interpersonal relationships, eventually resulting in alienation from attachment and - eventually - social isolation.
Developmental Affects
Research suggests that being exposed to trauma during the early stages of one's life negatively affects brain development. The chemical reactions taking place in the brain as a result of the trauma "[...] can then negatively affect critical neural growth during specific sensitive periods of childhood development [...]" and even result in adverse brain development. One study has found that oxytocin, a natural hormone important for the development of social affiliation and support, attachment, trust, as welll as management of stress and anxiety, was decreased in "[...] women who had been exposed to childhood maltreatment, particularly those who had experienced emotional abuse. The more childhood traumas a person had experienced, and the longer their duration, the lower that person’s current level of oxytocin was likely to be and the higher her rating of current anxiety was likely to be" (SAMHSA, 2014).
To Wrap Up
Having a better understanding of the affects of trauma across the different domains of our existence provides explanation for some of the thoughts we generate, feelings we experience, and actions we employ in our attempts to survive the devastation of trauma. Suddenly, it makes so much more sense how driving past a cross planted next to a road resulted in me bursting out in tears and crying so hysterically that I had to bring the vehicle to a stop. See, that cross next to the road triggered the memory of little Alph, losing the most important person in his life in a car accident twenty years earlier. The profound impact this traumatic event had on my life becomes evident when one considers the strong emotional reaction, triggered by visual stimuli without any direct resemblance to the traumatic experience from my past. Furthermore, the fact that this incident happened two decades earlier, demonstrates that the terror of trauma could haunt one for an infinite period of time.
Reference
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US). (2014). Chapter 3: Understanding the impact of trauma. In Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (US) (Eds.), Trauma-informed care in behavioral health services (Treatment improvement protocol (TIP) series, no. 57). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207191/
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