Psychological TRAUMA

"Psychological trauma, also referred to as mental trauma, psychiatric trauma, or psychotrauma, and commonly known as trauma, refers to emotional responses that go beyond normal boundaries due to events causing severe psychological distress, such as violence, rape, or terrorism. From the perspective of individuals experiencing psychological trauma, these events involve direct threats to oneself or loved ones, such as death, physical harm, or sexual assault. Even indirect exposure through media like television news can cause significant psychological distress and involuntary, overwhelming stress responses, though 'in itself' it does not constitute psychological trauma.

 

Short-term reactions such as psychological shock or denial commonly accompany trauma. Long-term effects can include bipolar disorder, uncontrollable flashbacks, panic attacks, insomnia, nightmare disorders, difficulties in interpersonal relationships, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Physical symptoms like migraines, hyperventilation, hyperhidrosis, and nausea may also occur.

 

Due to the subjective nature of experience, people react differently to the same event. While most individuals exposed to potentially traumatic events do not experience psychological trauma, many may suffer psychological distress and pain. Some individuals exposed to one or more traumatic events may develop PTSD. Discrepancies in susceptibility may stem from protective factors that some possess, such as psychological resilience and supportive environments.

 

Psychotraumatology is the study of psychological trauma.

Conversely, psychological trauma that leads to post-traumatic growth (PTG) can also play a significant role in positive aspects of an individual's life.

 

 

 

Signs and symptoms

 

Those experiencing trauma often encounter subsequent problems or difficulties. The severity of these symptoms varies depending on individual personality, type of trauma, and the support received from others for healing. Responses to trauma can range widely, and their severity also varies from person to person.

 

Following trauma experiences, individuals may re-experience trauma both mentally and physically. For instance, the sound of a motorcycle engine can evoke feelings of trauma associated with intrusive thoughts or similar sounds like gunfire. Mild stimuli like motorcycle noise can become connected with traumatic experiences. This process is known as traumatic coupling. Such stimuli can become trauma reminders or triggers, causing discomfort and distress. Trauma re-experiencing can impair feelings of safety, self-esteem, self-efficacy, emotional regulation, and relationship skills. Individuals may use psychoactive drugs, including alcohol, to escape from or dull these feelings. Triggers can induce flashback experiences, ranging from distraction to complete loss of awareness. Re-experiencing symptoms signify active efforts by the body and mind to cope with traumatic experiences.

 

As a result, individuals may experience ongoing vulnerability due to re-experiencing past events, leading to frequent outbursts of intense anger in inappropriate or unexpected situations. Painful memories such as images, thoughts, or flashbacks can persist and cause frequent nightmares. Financial debts or personal financial anxiety are common features observed among trauma survivors. Trauma causes not only changes in daily functioning but also developmental changes. Such secondary changes can be transmitted to subsequent generations, thus genetic characteristics become a factor in psychological trauma. However, genetic characteristics, such as those that mitigate the risk of psychological trauma, can be inherited or developed later.

 

People may not remember actual events, but emotions experienced during the trauma period can be re-experienced without understanding their cause (repressed memory). This ongoing traumatic event leads to traumatic coupling, followed by acute stages of sustained excitement patterns that can exhibit acute stress, anxiety disorders, prolonged grief disorder, somatic symptom disorders, conversion disorders, brief psychotic disorders, borderline personality disorder, and adjustment disorders. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental health disorder with symptoms similar to psychological trauma symptoms such as hyper-vigilance and intrusive thoughts. Research suggests that individuals who have experienced traumatic events use obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms, such as compulsive checking, to mitigate trauma-related symptoms.

 

Eventually, emotional exhaustion leads to distraction, making clear thinking difficult or impossible. Emotional detachment, dissociation, or numbness often occurs. Detachment from painful emotions dulls all emotions, makes emotions dull (emotional flattening), captivates or perceives something, or feels distant or indifferent. The dissociative experience includes depersonalization disorder, dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue, dissociative identity disorder, and other such disorders. Exposure to re-experience of trauma can lead to neurophysiological changes such as slowing of myelination, abnormal synaptic pruning, hippocampal atrophy, and cognitive-emotional disorders. This is significant for brain scans research into high-functioning assessment (higher-order functions) among children and adolescents in vulnerable environments.

 

Some people who experience psychological trauma may feel that their trauma symptoms are not visible and that their situation will not improve. This feeling of sustained harm can lead to feelings of despair, paranoid ideation, loss of self-esteem, severe emptiness, suicidality, and often depression. If significant parts of an individual's ego and worldview are threatened, they may question their identity. Despite best efforts, parents who have experienced trauma may find it difficult to help children develop emotional regulation, meaning interpretation, and trauma coping skills even when aware that their child has experienced psychological trauma, resulting in unfavorable outcomes for the child. In such cases, seeking counseling from appropriate mental health services is beneficial for both the child and the parent."

This translation aims to be accessible for high school students while conveying the complex concepts related to psychological trauma.