5 Types of Trauma

5 Types of Trauma

By Christine Ferch

What is trauma? Trauma is any situation a person endures where the stress is so overwhelming, they experience an inability to cope and integrate all the emotions involved throughout the event. The onset of trauma can begin in fetal development and continues throughout the person’s life leading to Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or cPTSD.  Trauma which occurs after birth, and can be a single event or continuous, can lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. We’ve included 5 types of trauma that impact individuals.

There are five types of trauma:

1. Mental
2. Emotional
3. Physical
4. Medical
5. Sexual

Enduring these 5 types of trauma or any other traumas impacts an individual’s way of functioning and causes significant distress. Trauma impacts an individual’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour. There is a strong feeling of hopelessness and security and a loss of safety and trust with others. Many individuals who have experienced reoccurring traumatic events, search for a sense of numbness from the pain and emotions they are feeling, they struggle with addiction.

cPTSD or PTSD can bring on the following mental and physical symptoms:                                                      

Shock, denial, disbelief	Fatigue
Confusion	Insomnia
Difficulty Concentrating	Isolation from others
Anger	Muscle Tension
Irritability	Easily Startled/Edginess
Mood Swings	Aches and Pains
Anxiety/Fear
Guilt/Shame/Self-blame
Disconnected/Numb
Disassociation

How To Heal From Trauma

Healing from trauma is a powerful and challenging thing to do. It means facing thoughts, feelings and perhaps images once tucked deep down inside. It means taking a deep breath and walking through a door and opening pandora’s box in a safe and comforting space. There are parts of trauma healing where it may feel things feeling worse before it gets better, and this is normal. As you are releasing emotions from the past, it stands to reason a sense of discomfort, but it will be you who guides the pain.

Trauma therapy guides the client through their process with unconditional positive regard and client-centred approach. Once you become uncomfortable, you can state you need to stop and take a few moments to process or build strength to continue. There are many different forms of therapy useful for working through trauma. Until you are ready, here are some activities you can do on your own:

1. Exercise: Any kind of movement for the body resets balance between the mind and the body. This can also assist with disassociation, sleep or other stress you experience. Serotonin, dopamine and endorphins are released in the brain, which helps balance out mood and reduce stress.
2. Add mindfulness and grounding techniques to your daily routine. These are easy to carry out and can be done anywhere. These techniques can be dry brushing, 5,4,3,2,1, Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR), mentally completing a task you do daily, such as making a sandwich.
3. Rhythmic exercise is also useful as it engages both sides of the body, EMDR engages both sides of the brain, which is helpful for processing trauma. Rhythmic activity is walking, running, hiking and dancing!!
4. Be as social as you are comfortable with, try not to isolate. Isolate can bring on depressive episodes, further reduces trust in people. You do not have to tell you a story to these people. Still, you engage in typical conversation about interests, days and so on.
5. Try and self-regulate your nervous system. What does this look like?
   1. Mindful breathing or Meditation: Breathing for 60 seconds while paying attention to each inhale and exhale.
   2. Sensory input: What do you see, hear, touch, taste, smell otherwise 5,4,3,2,1.
   3. Grounding: Touch something or feel what you are sitting on and describe what it feels like and breathe as you become in tune with what you are sensing.
6. Take care of the other aspect of health with your body by doing the following:
   1. Eat a well-balanced meal
   2. Reduce stress
   3. Avoid the use of substances

If the symptoms mentioned above become distressing and negatively impact your relationships, work-life and daily tasks, it may be helpful to find additional support.

You are not to blame for your response to the trauma you experienced. For more information on trauma, see blog post titled “Fight, Flight or Freeze Response and Trauma”.

If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact us at admin@ovcs.ca.