ABOUT EMOTIONAL TRAUMA 

Emotional Trauma is a natural response to a specific un-natural event or to a prolonged exposure to a psychologically and / or physically unhealthy environment.  

The goal of treatment is a significant and rapid reduction or elimination of these effects.

 WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF EMOTIONAL TRAUMA?

The symptoms, experienced alone or in combination and at times 
changing, can include:
mood swings or emotional numbness
a sense of not being connected to or fitting in with others
poor sleep patterns - nightmares, fitful sleep, difficulty falling asleep
self-defeating behavior patterns at home, socially or at work
a negative sense of self or feelings of helplessness or powerlessness
problems planning for the future, seeing the future as vague or a pointless concept
difficulty in recalling and/or painfully remembering a particular experience or time-span of your life 
physical and/or emotional reactions when reminded of the experience or time-span
a tendency to avoid persons, activities or places associated with the trauma 
flashbacks or vivid recurring memories of the experience 
WHAT CAN CAUSE EMOTIONAL TRAUMA? 
A trauma is the ongoing or intermittent effect of unprocessed internal messages and impressions formed during an extreme life event, whether the result of a specific and painfully recalled experience such as:
Natural Disaster - Fire, Flood, Earthquake
Criminal Victimization or Abuse / Assault - Domestic or other, Rape, Robbery, Burglary.
Accident - Automobile or other form of transportation; On-the-job or workplace incident; Recreational mishap, for example -  a rock climber's fall.  
Military Combat; Fire, Police & Emergency Medical Rescue  -  Even seasoned personnel can be effected by the intensity and horrors of situations, especially when exposed during extended operations.
or a prolonged exposure to an emotionally and/or physically unhealthy environment such as an:
Abusive (emotional, physical or sexual) or neglectful childhood environment / family of origin.
Abusive or otherwise unhealthy adult-based relationship.

However, not everyone who experiences difficult situations such as those described above will necessarily be traumatized.  Those persons who may have been particularly vulnerable (for many reasons) at that moment or during that time span and for whom the necessary resources for a "natural" or more timely recovery were not available are most likely to experience symptoms.  Statistically, from 15-70% of those exposed to traumatic situations may develop some symptoms of emotional trauma.  Those numbers appear to reflect the wide range of perspectives on and the definition(s) of emotional trauma among various studies.  

It is clinically accepted that one does not even have to directly participate in a traumatic event in order to develop trauma symptoms.  Witnesses to an event may also be effected.  For example, a spouse or parent witnessing a loved one's injury or a person un-connected emotionally to a victim but who witnesses an event may be traumatized via an extreme sense of helplessness.
At the time of a traumatic incident, several things begin to happen in our nervous
systems.  The speech center in our brain shuts down.  At the moment of greatest distress, the self beliefs (thoughts), feelings (emotions) and physical cues (sensations, sounds, smells, etc.) seem to be 'frozen' into the neural-memory network.  This has been referred to as carrying around an emotional bomb & waiting for it to explode.
When internal or external cues similar to the trauma may be experienced at 
some time in the future, the result is a 'thawing out' of the trauma-related thoughts, emotions and sensations.  The the stronger the reminder, the stronger the re-experience.

When there may be ongoing but perhaps more subtle reminders in one's environment, less dramatic, but no less debilitating, effects such as mood swings, low self-esteem, social withdrawal and changes in eating and sleep patterns may also occur.

For all these persons, emotional trauma is very real and, unfortunately, often mis-diagnosed with only the most bothersome or most recent symptom(s) as the focus of treatment.  When that treatment focus doesn't provide the hoped for relief, treatment can become suspect and further treatment attempts may not pursued...."No one/ nothing can help me".  The result is that the sufferer can feel an exaggerated sense of helplessness and / or of being "less than" others and / or of feeling "crazy" or out of control. In all, the future doesn't appear to be too bright, from his or her perspective.  

Does this sound close to what you or a loved one may be experiencing at this time?  If so, click here to get solution oriented details for this problem.

 
 
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