Trauma can be defined as experiences or situations that are emotionally painful and distressing, and that overwhelm an individual’s ability to cope. Exposure to trauma can affect many areas of one’s life and can increase the risk of a range of vulnerabilities.
Some of these vulnerabilities include relationship difficulties, low self-esteem, chronic pain, depression, anxiety, and isolation.
Trauma has been found to be the central issue for people with mental health problems, substance abuse problems, and co-occurring disorders.
Trauma involves deeply distressing experience(s). Often these experiences generate emotional shock that creates significant and sometimes lasting impacts on a person’s mental, physical and emotional capacities.
The impact of trauma is individual to each person. Trauma often impacts our core parts of self and therefore by its very nature is a deep and life altering experience.
Trauma is highly pervasive. Surveys of the general population suggest that at least half of all adults in the United States have experienced at least one major type of trauma.
An individual can be traumatized in a variety of ways including sexual abuse, physical abuse, psychological/emotional abuse, childhood neglect, domestic violence, community violence, natural disasters, and multi-generational trauma. A traumatic event can be a single experience or a series of experiences.
The impact of trauma is individual to each person. Trauma often impacts our core parts of self and therefore by its very nature is a deep and life altering experience. Exposure to trauma can affect many areas of one’s life and can increase the risk of a range of vulnerabilities.
For More Resources on Trauma:
National Institute of Mental Health
National Center for Trauma-Informed
Center for Nonviolence & Social Justice