The Other Side of Trauma

When we think of the word "Trauma", we often think of one big event that caused someone to develop the diagnosis of "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder". Some common symptoms we might think of when we hear this diagnosis are difficulty sleeping, being jumpy, and being sad or irritable. However, this definition is not entirely true 100% of the time.

Have you ever met someone (Or maybe even yourself) that has some of these symptoms and hasn't really been through an extreme/upsetting traumatic event? Sometimes, we can be exposed to lots of small everyday stress that we don't know how to calm down from. If we end up adding on the stress without being able to get rid of the original stress, we continue to increase the intensity and are often left feeling overwhelmed. In this case, it is possible to have symptoms or characteristics of what we tend to think trauma looks like.

Our wonderful brains are designed to keep us safe in the light of danger. However, our brains don't always know the difference between everyday stress and real danger if we are not able to utilize skills to calm down, relax, and take care of ourselves.

If you've ever felt like you've had a prolonged difficult time concentrating after you've been stressed out, or you've felt sad/anxious and cannot seem to relax, this is a good sign that you may need extra support. Another good sign may be that you even feel like you have difficulty controlling your anger and sometimes things get broken, or you regret things you have said. It's okay to not be okay. It isn't okay to hurt other people when we aren't okay. If you feel like you might be hurting yourself or others, you might need a little extra help getting back to being okay. We can all use a little extra help sometimes. Consider utilizing the resources below, calling a friend, or seeing a therapist.

Resources:

Hotlines

1-855-278-4204 (Free suicide and crisis hotline)

741741 (Free crisis text hotline)

Websites

http://childtraumaacademy.com (Free online courses)

https://www.samhsa.gov (Trauma resources)