A traumatic event is a negative, stressful and threatening occurrence that overwhelms a person’s coping mechanisms and whose consequences can affect their physical or psychological integrity. The intensity of the event, together with the inability to manage it and respond adaptively to what happened, leads us to feel intense fear, a sense of threat, and feelings of loss of control and helplessness. As a result, our emotions overwhelm us and the traumatic experiences are not integrated into our “self”; instead, they remain active, usually at an unconscious level, showing themselves through psychosomatic problems, worries and/or dysfunctional behaviours.
Because of the intensity of the event and the lack of resources to cope with it, our system becomes blocked and is unable to integrate the memories naturally. Instead, they remain recorded, in the same format in which they were experienced, in a fragmented way in the neural networks. We can then no longer tell the past from the present, and the horrible images, feelings and sensations repeat themselves over and over as if they were being experienced now. Any trigger in the present will have the power to set off the same experiences that were lived in the past, which are now experienced again just as if they were happening once more. The past has not been overcome and continues to trouble us in the present.
Types of trauma
Two types of trauma can be distinguished:
- A “one-off” traumatic incident of great magnitude (known as “T”).
- A “cumulative” traumatic incident of lesser magnitude (known as “t”).
The first (T) refer to terrible events that are lived through at a single point in time and that threaten the life or the physical and/or mental integrity of the person themselves or of others.
The second (t), although not as intense and without the sense of a threat to life or integrity, are cumulative and are experienced repeatedly over time, and can become even more disabling than the first.
“T” traumas are caused by events with the following characteristics:
- They are unforeseen and sudden events.
- They are not usual events in everyday life.
- They produce a sense of imminent death.
- They threaten physical and mental integrity.
- They cause a feeling of fear and helplessness.
- They have a magnitude and intensity that leave the person unable to respond or defend themselves against the event.
- They cause a loss of the sense of safety, of basic trust and of integrity.
- They cannot be given meaning or processed, and they are not integrated into the person’s biographical and narrative history.
In turn, the events of great magnitude (“T”) that cause trauma can be classified as:
- Natural: earthquakes, floods, etc.
- Accidental: fires, car or plane accidents, collisions, etc.
- Intentional: sexual assaults, terrorist attacks, acts of torture, wars, family violence, workplace or school bullying, etc.
By contrast, traumatic incidents of lesser magnitude (“t”) are not as intense and do not cause feelings of imminent death or great danger, or a threat to life or integrity. Instead, they are more common, everyday events that produce feelings of shame, fear, humiliation, loss or failure. Although these events are less serious than the first kind, because they are experienced repeatedly over time they can become even more damaging and can cause a large number of psychological problems.
Since they are events that happen during a person’s development, they will shape the way they think, feel and act, affecting their sense of self, of the world and of others. As a result, the person may become insecure, shy, with low self-esteem, with feelings of failure or hopelessness, etc., and this can even result in a non-integration of the “self” and increase the likelihood of developing various dissociative, personality and/or somatoform disorders.
The consequences of trauma
As a psychologist experienced in treating fears, to assess the consequences we may suffer after a trauma, we have to take into account the intensity of the event, its duration and whether it was repeated, as well as the person’s prior characteristics and the stage of life at which the event was experienced. Given the complexity of the interaction between all these factors, the symptoms that can appear after living through traumatic events can be very varied, the most frequent being:
- Intrusive memories (images, smells, sounds, bodily sensations…) that appear without the person being able to control them.
- Sleep disorders (insomnia or nightmares related to the traumatic experience).
- Phobias and avoidance of anything related to the traumatic incident.
- Obsessive-compulsive behaviours related to the trauma.
- Emotional dysregulation.
- Stress, anxiety and irritability.
- Uncontrollable crying.
- Feelings of guilt, fear, anguish, rage and hatred.
- A sense of powerlessness and ineffectiveness.
- A sense of helplessness, threat and fragility.
- Distrust of others.
- Feelings of inferiority and insecurity.
- Apathy and lack of motivation.
- Reduced pleasure, and fewer of the activities that used to be enjoyable.
- A negative view of the world and of the future.
- Depression and/or low self-esteem.
- A sense of derealisation and/or depersonalisation.
- Feeling that the “self” is divided into different parts of the personality.
- Amnesia for traumatic events from different moments of one’s life.
- Somatic symptoms that are not explained by medical causes.
- Taking refuge in drugs, falling into gambling addiction, overworking.
- Disordered eating (compulsive eating, binge eating, anorexia…).
- Self-harming behaviours.
- Suicidal thoughts.
How can trauma be resolved?
EMDR is probably the reference technique in psychotraumatology, and alongside this approach other therapeutic systems have emerged which, when combined with one another, increase its effectiveness, achieving excellent results with trauma.
