2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43
A traumatic event can consist of one situation or several prolonged and / or repetitive ones, which can lead to a complete suppression of the person's ability to integrate thoughts and experiences that have arisen in it. This leads to serious negative consequences for a long time. Trauma can be caused by a variety of events, but there are some common aspects: there is a violation of established ideas about the world and human rights, which lead to a state of extreme uncertainty (confusion) and a breach of security. To have a potentially traumatic effect, an event must pose a threat to the integrity of the individual, exceed its ability to react, occur suddenly and unexpectedly, be accompanied by a feeling and experience of terror, disaster, horror, abandonment, rejection, etc.
Gottfried Fischer and Peter Riedesser give the following definition: “ Trauma is a vital experience of an imbalance between threatening circumstances and individual opportunities to overcome them, accompanied by a feeling of helplessness and insecurity and causing a long-term shock in understanding oneself and the world.»
Typical causes of psychological trauma are - sexual violence, stalking, domestic violence, attacks, accidents, disasters, war, taking hostages, any other life-threatening situation or, if a person has witnessed a difficult event, especially in childhood, as well as natural phenomena: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, tsunamis.
The concept of trauma is relative, since different people may react differently to the same event. For one person, it can be traumatic, while another can experience it as stress. It depends on psychological vulnerability, personal defense mechanisms and on the external environment.
This table summarizes the main differences between trauma and stress
What happens during an injury
New information coming from the external environment usually remains stored in long-term memory. In traumatic situations, information about the environment, bypassing the cerebral cortex, is transmitted to the limbic system, which is responsible for the instinctive defense mechanisms of behavior (the thalamus and the amygdala are involved, which is responsible for aggression, caution, fear, feelings, sensations). That is, the information seems to be tested for danger, and if it is confirmed, the amygdala ceases to interact with the hippocampus, the area responsible for long-term memory.
Thus, when it comes to a traumatic situation that cannot be resisted or avoided, retention in long-term memory does not occur, the event remains retention in latent / motor memory. There is a separation of memory systems in the amygdala and hippocampus, which prevents the preservation of conscious memories of the traumatic situation as a whole experience. The survival mechanism prevails over memorization.
This division leads to the fact that over time, when any triggering mechanisms are triggered and a traumatic event arises in a person's memory, the amygdala recognizes this as a danger, the connection with the hippocampus breaks again, as it happened in a real traumatic situation and the formation of a signal that that the alarm is false and there is no real threatening situation, it does not occur.
This allows us to explain obsessive repetition, and all the various pathological phenomena accompanying mental trauma
Reaction to a traumatic event
After getting into a traumatic situation, there is:
1. Acute reaction. Fading reaction (parasympathetic nervous system), the person may fall into a stupor (cognitive, emotional, motor) or attack / escape reaction (sympathetic nervous system), stampede, as well as neurotic manifestations (fit of hysteria, phobia) and even psychotic (delirium, disorientation).
2. Delayed response comes in 2-3 days and can last up to a month, is protracted. A traumatic event can be perceived as:
- a wave of acute stress (reliving trauma, insomnia) is intertwined with alarming symptoms (feelings of insecurity, anxiety);
- shock or emotional chaos;
- depressive symptoms (feeling of helplessness, disorientation, crisis of meaning in life).
3. Overdue response - 7-10 years after injury. Over time, reactions can manifest as symptoms such as hyperexcitation (agitation, anxiety), recurring intrusive memories, nightmares, dissociation, avoidance (situational, social anxiety). These manifestations correspond to those of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This condition can become chronic against the background of which other problems arise (alcoholism, depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, somatic diseases).
What people who have experienced a traumatic episode usually complain about
1. Bodily symptoms, fatigue, lack of energy. A large amount of resources are spent on ensuring displacement, there is no energy left for life.
2. Intellectual. Has difficulty concentrating, easily distracted.
3. Somatic manifestations. Sleep disturbance (insomnia, terrible dreams, for example, someone is chasing, catching up, but the traumatic event itself does not occur), the unconscious continues to demonstrate a threat.
4. Very often the word "SUDDENLY" is used in speech.
5. Eating disorder, a person may eat a lot and not get better.
6. The constant presence of anxiety (trust in people and the world is broken, it becomes insecure).
7. Arising muscle pain in the absence of physical activity.
Wrong help or lack of it at all, can lead to deviant and asocial behavior, neurotization, psychosomatic diseases, suicidal actions. The earlier a person turns to a specialist, the easier and easier the main symptoms and experiences pass, and the less the likelihood of severe conditions.
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