TRAUMA Flashcards
Define trauma.
Trauma can be understood as the unique and subjective experience of an event or enduring condition in which a person’s ability to integrate their emotional experience is overwhelmed.
What are some common forms of traumatic events?
- Bullying
- Harassment
- Physical & sexual assault
- War & genocide
- Neglect
- Witnessing an attack
- Traffic accidents
- Being attacked or kidnapped
- Natural disasters
- Domestic abuse
What are some extreme coping stratergies that people use to cope with trauma?
- suicidality
- substance abuse and addictions
- self-harming behaviours
- dissociation
- re-enactments of past abusive relationships
Traumatic events can effect a person in what ways?
- Neurological and psychological development
- Biological health
- Emotional health
- Cognitive health
- Spiritual health
- Interpersonal development
What are some immedicate emotion reactions to trauma?
- Numbness and detachment
- Anxiety or severe fear
- Guilt (including survivor guilt)
- Exhilaration as a result of surviving
- Anger
- Sadness
- Helplessness
- Feeling ‘unreal’
- Disorientation
- Denial
- Feeling out of control
- Feeling overwhelmed
What are some delayed emotional reactions to trauma?
- Irritability and/or hostility
- Depression
- Mood swings
- Anxiety
- Fear of traumatic recurrence
- Grief reactions
- Shame
- Feelings of fragility/ vulnerability
- Emotional detachment from anything that requires emotional reaction (e.g. significant and/or family, relationships, conversation about self, discussion of traumatic events or reaction to them)
What are some immediate physical reactions to trauma?
- Nausea/gastrointestinal distress
- Sweating or shivering
- Faintness
- Muscle tremors or uncontrollable shaking
- Elevated heartbeat, respiration and blood pressure
- Extreme fatigue and exhaustion
- Greater startle response
- depersonalization
What are some delayed physical reactions to trauma?
- Sleep disturbance/nightmares
- Somatization (e.g. increase focus on and worry about body aches and pains)
- Appetite and digestive changes
- Lowered resistance to colds and infections
- Persistent fatigue
- Elevated cortisol levels
- Hyperarousal
- Long-terms health effects including liver, heart, autoimmune system
Describe immediate cognitive reactions to trauma?
- Difficulties concentrating
- Rumination and racing thoughts (e.g. replying the event over and over again)
- Distortion of time and space (e.g. traumatic event may be perceived as occurring in slow motion)
- Memory problems (e.g. not being able to recall important details of event)
- Strong identification with victims
What are some delayed cognitive reactions to trauma?
- Intrusive memories or flashbacks
- Reactivation of previous traumatic events
- Self-blame
- Preoccupation with events
- Difficulties making decisions
- Magical thinking (i.e. believing that certain behaviours, including avoidance behaviour will protect them from future trauma
- Belief that feelings or memories of trauma are dangerous
- Generalisation of triggers
- Suicidal thinking