Psychological trauma is the result of one or more occurrences in which a person's psyche is injured as a result of large amounts of stress that exceed the person's ability to cope with or integrate the emotions involved, resulting in significant, long-term negative consequences. Because people's subjective perceptions differ, they will react to comparable circumstances in various ways. To put it another way, not everyone who witnesses a potentially traumatic occurrence will become psychologically scarred. However, after experiencing a major traumatic experience, some people will acquire Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Signs and Symptoms of Stress

As a result of being exposed to such stressful situations, people are more likely to acquire symptoms and problems. The degree of these symptoms is dependent on the individual, the type of trauma they have endured, and the emotional support they have received. The range of reactions to trauma symptoms is wide and varied, and the severity of these reactions varies greatly from person to person. One or more of them may be encountered by a traumatised person. After a traumatic event, a person may revisit it both psychologically and physically. For example, the sound of a motorcycle engine may elicit intrusive thoughts or a sense of reliving a traumatic event involving a similar sound. In the mind, an innocuous stimulus might become connected with a terrible experience. This process is known as traumatic coupling. As a result of this process, the seemingly harmless stimulus becomes a trauma remembrance, also known as a trauma trigger. These can make you feel uneasy, if not painful. People's sense of safety, self-efficacy and ability to regulate emotions and navigate relationships can all be affected by re-experiencing. They may turn to psychoactive substances like alcohol to try to escape or soften the effects. These triggers can cause flashbacks, which are dissociative experiences in which the person feels as though the events are repeating themselves. Flashbacks can generate a variety of symptoms, ranging from distraction to total dissociation or loss of awareness of the current circumstance. The body and mind are actively attempting to cope with the stressful incident when symptoms reoccur. Triggers and cues function as reminders of the trauma, causing anxiety and other undesirable feelings.

Often, the person is completely unaware of the triggers. As a result of their traumatic disorders, people with traumatic disorders may engage in disruptive behaviour or self-destructive coping techniques in a variety of contexts, frequently without fully understanding the nature or causes of their own conduct.  Panic attacks are one example of a psychosomatic response to such emotional signals. Extreme rage may frequently erupt as a result of re-enacting prior incidents, sometimes in unsuitable or unexpected circumstances, as danger may always appear to be present. Nightmares can be frequent and distressing experiences like sights, thoughts, or flashbacks can haunt the individual. Insomnia can develop when a person's concerns and insecurities keep them up and alert at all hours of the day and night, on the watch for danger. Trauma can cause morphological changes as well as changes in one's daily functions. Because epigenetic alterations can be handed down to the next generation, genetics is one of the components of psychological trauma. Some people, on the other hand, are born with or develop protective factors later in life, such as genetics, that serve to reduce their risk of psychological stress. This can result in the patient experiencing terrible experiences as if they were happening right now, preventing the person from getting perspective on the situation.

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Peter James
Journal Coordinator