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TRAUMA

Trauma can be healed

Trauma victims cannot recover until they become familiar with and befriend the sensations in their bodies. Being frightened means living in a body that is always on guard. Angry people live in angry bodies. The bodies of child-abuse victims are tense and defensive until they find a way to relax and feel safe.

B. Van Der Kolk

Type A Trauma

Types A traumas are more likely to be experienced over time and repeated. They could be experienced as part of an interpersonal relationship or with a close attachment figure in childhood. You might feel trapped emotionally or physically, and are more closely related to complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

Examples of type 2 trauma include:

Sibling abuse
Childhood emotional abuse
Domestic violence
Emotional neglect and attachment trauma
Abandonment
Verbal abuse
Coercion
Domestic physical abuse
Long-term misdiagnosis of a health problem
Bullying at home, at school, or in a work setting
Sexual abuse
Emotional abuse
Physical neglect
Overly strict upbringing sometimes religious

Type B Trauma

Type 1 refers to single-incident traumas, which are unexpected and come out of the blue. They can be referred to as big T trauma, shock or acute trauma. A condition related to big T trauma or Type 1 trauma is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Type B trauma originates from specific harrowing events such as physical, sexual, or verbal abuse, war, bullying, assault, car accidents, or near-death experiences—whether personally experienced or witnessed. Type B trauma occurs when the brain's control centre is overwhelmed. We all have limits to our capacity to endure overwhelming events and their associated emotions. When the intensity of an emotion surpasses our capacity, and there is no support to handle it, the brain shuts off the higher cortical regions of the control centre, leading to terror and then parasympathetic shutdown as the back of the brain struggles to survive. Not every negative experience leads to trauma. Suppose a person can endure their suffering without being traumatised. In that case, a well-developed control centre in another person's mind can manage what traumatises a poorly developed brain. A stronger mind can quiet itself, maintain relationships, and behave normally in pain. Mastering suffering is the antidote to trauma that emerges as we expand our capacities.

Examples of type 1 trauma might include:

Severe illness or injury
Violent assault
Sexual assault
Traumatic loss
Mugging or robbery
Being a victim of or witness to violence
Witnessing a terrorist attack
Witnessing a natural disaster
Road accident
Military combat incident
Hospitalisation
Psychiatric hospitalisation
Childbirth
Medical trauma
Post suicide attempt trauma
Life-threatening illness or diagnosis, or perceived life-threatening illness

Vicarious or Secondary Trauma

This type of trauma can occur when someone speaks to someone who has experienced a trauma or witnessed a trauma first hand. The person listening can experience secondary trauma and experience symptoms experienced by the person explaining the trauma.

Little (t) Trauma

Little t trauma is less prominent and discussed less often. Little t traumas are experiences which are part of the everyday and are an expected part of life. They may however be very traumatic. Examples might include:

Loss of a loved one (not traumatic bereavement)
Moving to a new house
Losing a job

Historical, Collective or Intergenerational Trauma

The most prominent example of collective, intergenerational trauma is the holocaust experienced by the Jewish community in World War 2. Historical trauma can affect communities or groups of people in a physical, emotional and psychological way. Adaptive coping patterns can be passed down through generations of families, groups and communities.

Racism
Slavery
Forcible removal from a family or community
Genocide
War