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TRAUMA

Image by Jilbert Ebrahimi

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

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Thinking Man on Couch

Type A Trauma

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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.

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Examples of type 2 trauma include:

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  • 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

Girl on a Rainy Day

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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.

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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.

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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

Shadow

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

 

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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

Holding Hands Up High

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

Holding Hands Up High
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