TRAUMA Flashcards

1
Q

Define trauma.

A

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.

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2
Q

What are some common forms of traumatic events?

A
  • Bullying
  • Harassment
  • Physical & sexual assault
  • War & genocide
  • Neglect
  • Witnessing an attack
  • Traffic accidents
  • Being attacked or kidnapped
  • Natural disasters
  • Domestic abuse
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3
Q

What are some extreme coping stratergies that people use to cope with trauma?

A
  • suicidality
  • substance abuse and addictions
  • self-harming behaviours
  • dissociation
  • re-enactments of past abusive relationships
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4
Q

Traumatic events can effect a person in what ways?

A
  • Neurological and psychological development
  • Biological health
  • Emotional health
  • Cognitive health
  • Spiritual health
  • Interpersonal development
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5
Q

What are some immedicate emotion reactions to trauma?

A
  • 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
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6
Q

What are some delayed emotional reactions to trauma?

A
  • 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)
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7
Q

What are some immediate physical reactions to trauma?

A
  • 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
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8
Q

What are some delayed physical reactions to trauma?

A
  • 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
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9
Q

Describe immediate cognitive reactions to trauma?

A
  • 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
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10
Q

What are some delayed cognitive reactions to trauma?

A
  • 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
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