Causes and Treatment of Psychological Trauma

Sarah Carter^*
*Correspondence: Sarah Carter, Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, USA, Email:

Description

Extremely stressful experiences that shatter your sense of security and leave you feeling helpless in a terrifying setting generate psychological trauma. Negative feelings, memories, and fears can all linger after a psychological trauma. It can also make you feel numb, disconnected, and untrustworthy with other people. Traumatic experiences typically involve a threat to one's life or safety, but any situation that leaves you feeling overwhelmed and alone, even if there is no physical harm, can be traumatic. Whether or not an incident is traumatic is determined by the subjective emotional experience of the event, not the objective conditions. You are more prone to become traumatized if you feel afraid and powerless.

Causes of psychological trauma

• One-time events like an accident, an injury, or a violent attack, especially if they happened unexpectedly or when you were a child.

• Constant, unrelenting stress, such as living in a high-crime area, being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, or witnessing heinous acts on a frequent basis, such as bullying, spousal abuse, or childhood mistreatment.

• Surgical procedures (especially in the first three years of life), the untimely death of a close relative, the termination of a significant relationship, or a humiliating or highly disappointing experience, especially if it was caused by someone who was unkind.

Symptoms of psychological trauma

• Shock, denial, or disbelief

• Confusion, difficulty concentrating

• Anger, irritability, mood swings

• Anxiety and fear

• Guilt, shame, self-blame

• Withdrawing from others

• Uncertainity

• Penitence

• Feeling sad or hopeless

• Feeling disconnected or numb

Treatment of psychological trauma

Symptoms of physiological trauma can persist anywhere from a few days to several months, gradually dissipating as you absorb the upsetting incident. Even when you're feeling better, you may be bothered by painful recollections or emotions from time to time, especially in response to triggers like the event's anniversary or something that reminds you of the trauma. Symptoms of trauma can persist anywhere from a few days to several months, gradually dissipating as you absorb the upsetting incident. Even when you're feeling better, you may be bothered by painful recollections or emotions from time to time, especially in response to triggers like the event's anniversary or something that reminds you of the trauma. To heal from psychological and emotional trauma, you'll need to resolve unpleasant sensations and memories you've avoided for a long time, release pent-up "fight-or-flight" energy, learn to manage powerful emotions, and regain your ability to trust others. A trauma specialist may use a variety of therapy approaches in your treatment. Somatic experiencing focuses on body sensations rather than thoughts and recollections about the traumatic incident. By focusing on what's going on in your body, you can release pent-up trauma-related energy through shaking, sobbing, and other types of physical release. We must take measures to recognize psychological trauma in our partners and ourselves, create a supportive culture of understanding and seeking treatment, and understand that we cannot effectively care for others unless we first care for ourselves. Treatments that are quite successful are available.