WHAT IS TRAUMA?
Trauma is an emotional response that is caused by experiencing a single incident or a series of distressing or traumatic emotional or psychological events. These events can include all types of abuse, a bad accident, rape or other sexual violence, war, natural disaster and many more. When an individual experiences these events, they may have an emotional response which can be defined as trauma. Trauma can be experienced mentally and physically and can at any age and time in an individual’s life. Each person may have different reactions and experiences to trauma and there is no right or wrong way to react.
Immediate reactions after a traumatic event include shock and denial, while more long term reactions may include mood swings, relationship issues, flashbacks (including PTSD) and physical symptoms. These responses may be alarming or distressing to the person living through them and to the friends and family of the traumatised person, but they are normal responses to traumatic events.
When children experience early loss, separation, abuse or neglect their brain development is affected in significant ways. They often experience what is known as Developmental Trauma, which means their development has gone off track and they cannot behave, feel, relate, and learn in the same was as other children their age. Developmental Trauma can be repaired with a holistic, ‘bottom up’ approach; with safe and sensitive relationships with adults being central.
When an individual experiences trauma short term it causes them to have a stress response. Usually, a child or young person’s brain and nervous system work together to help them make sense of incoming information from their senses like sight and sound. When they experience trauma, chemicals like adrenaline flood a child or young person’s body, affecting signals between brain and nervous system. This can feel confusing and overpowering for young people and have a direct impact on a child’s development and emotional regulation. When an individual experiences trauma long term the effects in children and young people aren’t always obvious. Sometimes things like sights, sounds, smells, and movements that remind children and young people of trauma can trigger stress responses again, even if the traumatic event took place a long time ago. Repeated trauma reactions can be embedded in the brain architecture, meaning that traumatised children and young people are more likely to experience frequent stress responses, even when there’s no threat or danger.
Often, a child or young person doesn’t understand what made them react in such a way as the response is an instinctual and involuntary response (like fight, flight, or freeze) and isn’t within their conscious control. This is often referred to as a traumatic response and can impact children in many ways. Traumatic responses in children and young people can look like depression or anxiety, mood swings or anger problems, regression (when a child mentally goes back in time and displays childlike behaviours much younger in comparison to the pre-traumatic behaviours), relationship and social issues like isolation, emotional difficulties, disassociation, and communication problems.
Adults and professionals can help children and young people understand and manage their feelings if they work with them over time to try and understand what situations, interactions or stimulus seems to set these responses off. This way the trigger can be identified to help to manage the child’s emotion and behaviours. Therapy which takes place in a trauma informed organisation can help traumatised children and young people to feel more trusting of others and confident to speak about their experiences. Therapy can also encourage the individual to regulate their emotions and to lessen and manage their PTSD symptoms.