NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Psychological trauma

Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event. When that trauma leads to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, damage can be measured in physical changes inside the brain and to brain chemistry, which affect the person's ability to cope with stress. The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), is a term for the psychological consequences of exposure to or confrontation with stressful experiences, which involve actual or threatened death, serious physical injury or a threat to physical integrity and which the person found highly traumatic. ... In medical terms, stress is the disruption of homeostasis through physical or psychological stimuli. ...

A traumatic event involves a single experience, or an enduring or repeating event or events, that completely overwhelm the individual's ability to cope or integrate the ideas and emotions involved with that experience. The sense of being overwhelmed can be delayed by weeks or years, as the person struggles to cope with the immediate danger. Trauma can be caused by a wide variety of events, but there are a few common aspects. It usually involves a feeling of complete helplessness in the face of a real or subjective threat to one's life or to that of loved ones, to bodily integrity, or sanity. There is frequently a violation of the person's familiar ideas about the world and of their human rights, putting the person in a state of extreme confusion and insecurity. This is also seen when people or institutions depended on for survival violate or betray the person in some unforeseen way. Emotional redirects here. ... Sanity considered as a legal term denotes that an individual is of sound mind and therefore can bear legal responsibility for his or her actions. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Betrayal, as a form of deception or dismissal of prior presumptions, is the breaking or violation of a presumptive social contract (trust, or confidence) that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations. ...

Psychological trauma may accompany physical trauma or exist independently of it. Typical causes of psychological trauma are sexual abuse, violence, the threat of either, or the witnessing of either, particularly in childhood. Catastrophic events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, war or other mass violence can also cause psychological trauma. Long-term exposure to situations such as extreme poverty or milder forms of abuse, such as verbal abuse, can be traumatic (though verbal abuse can also potentially be traumatic as a single event). In some cases, even a person's own actions, such as committing rape, can be traumatic if the offender feels helpless to control the urge to commit such crimes. In medicine, a trauma patient has suffered serious and life-threatening physical injury resulting in secondary complications such as shock, respiratory failure and death. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Childhood (song) Childhood is a broad term usually applied to the phase of development in humans between infancy and adulthood. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows what he found. ... Verbal Abuse a hardcore and crossover thrash band originally from Houston, Texas but which got successful after moving to San Francisco. ...

However, different people will react differently to similar events. One person may perceive an event to be traumatic that another may not, and not all people who experience a traumatic event will become psychologically traumatized.

Symptoms of trauma

People who go through traumatic experiences often have certain symptoms and problems afterward. How severe these symptoms are depends on the person, the type of trauma involved, and the emotional support they receive from others. This section is a general listing of possible symptoms, and is not exhaustive. Reactions to and symptoms of trauma can be wide and varied, and differ in severity from person to person. A traumatized individual may experience one or several of them.

After a traumatic experience, a person may re-experience the trauma mentally and physically, hence avoiding trauma reminders, as this can be uncomfortable and even painful. They may turn to alcohol and/or drugs to try and escape the feelings. Re-experiencing symptoms are a sign that the body and mind are actively struggling to cope with the traumatic experience. Emotional triggers and cues act as reminders of the trauma, and can cause anxiety and other associated emotions. Often the person can be completely unaware of what these triggers are. In many cases this may lead a person suffering from traumatic disorders to engage in disruptive or self-destructive coping mechanisms, often without being fully aware of the nature or causes of their own actions. Panic attacks are an example of a psychosomatic response to such emotional triggers. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... An assortment of psychoactive drugs A psychoactive drug or psychotropic substance is a chemical substance that acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it alters brain function, resulting in temporary changes in perception, mood, consciousness and behavior. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Panic Disorder. ...

Consequently, intense feelings of anger may surface frequently, sometimes in very inappropriate or unexpected situations, as danger may always seem to be present. Upsetting memories such as images, thoughts, or flashbacks may haunt the person, and nightmares may be frequent. Insomnia may occur as lurking fears and insecurity keep the person vigilant and on the lookout for danger, both day and night. A flashback is a psychological phenomenon in which an individual has a sudden, usually vivid, recollection of a past experience. ... The current usage of the term nightmare refers to a dream which causes the sleeper a strong unpleasant emotional response. ... This article is about the sleeping disorder. ...

In time, emotional exhaustion may set in, leading to distraction, and clear thinking may be difficult or impossible. Emotional detachment, also known as dissociation or "numbing out", can frequently occur. Dissociating from the painful emotion includes numbing all emotion, and the person may seem emotionally flat, preoccupied or distant. The person can become confused in ordinary situations and have memory problems. Emotional detachment, in psychology, can mean two different things. ... Dissociation is a state of acute mental decompensation in which certain thoughts, emotions, sensations, and/or memories are compartmentalized because they are too overwhelming for the conscious mind to integrate. ...

Some traumatized people may feel permanently damaged when trauma symptoms don't go away and they don't believe their situation will improve. This can lead to feelings of despair, loss of self-esteem, and frequently depression. If important aspects of the person's self and world understanding have been violated, the person may call their own identity into question. Despair in common usage is the condition of having abandoned hope. ... In psychology, self-esteem or self-worth is a persons self-image at an emotional level; circumventing reason and logic. ... Clinical depression (also called major depressive disorder, or unipolar depression when compared to bipolar disorder) is a state of intense sadness, melancholia or despair that has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individuals social functioning and/or activities of daily living. ...

These symptoms can lead to stress or anxiety disorders, or even post traumatic stress disorder, where the person experiences flashbacks and re-experiences the emotion of the trauma as if it is actually happening. In medical terms, stress is the disruption of homeostasis through physical or psychological stimuli. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), is a term for the psychological consequences of exposure to or confrontation with stressful experiences, which involve actual or threatened death, serious physical injury or a threat to physical integrity and which the person found highly traumatic. ...

Situational Trauma

Trauma is well-known in genocide, war, and crime situations. It is almost always seen in torture victims and targets of mobbing (see psychology of torture).^{[citation needed]} It also occurs in natural and man-made disasters, catastrophic mishaps, and medical emergencies. Here treatment for trauma is often either not sought, or is not available. It is common, but less often identified in situations of domestic violence, pedophilia, and incest. It also occurs in victims of child or elder abuse. Victims in situations of pedophilia, domestic violence, and neglect are often not identified by caregivers and are also unlikely to receive proper treatment for ongoing trauma. Mobbing refers to a group behavioural phenomenon and a type of animal behavior. ... Torture is the intentional infliction of severe physical or psychological torment as an expression of cruelty, a means of intimidation, deterrent, revenge or punishment, or as a tool for the extraction of information or confessions. ...

Trauma is often defined as a coping response to and a consequence of overwhelming situations. However, as an individual's sense of being "overwhelmed" is subjective, the occurrence of trauma is also subjective. There is evidence to suggest that how people cope with extremely stressful situations is associated to the amount of trauma suffered from such events.

Experiences that may induce the condition

For an event to have a traumatizing effect it is not necessary that physical damage occurs. Regardless of the source of the trauma, the experience has four common traits: it was unexpected, it was psychologically overwhelming, the person was unprepared or unable to cope with it, and there was nothing the person felt they could do to prevent or mitigate it. It is thus, not the event per se that determines whether an experience is traumatic, but the subjective experience of that person. Examples of situations which may be experienced as psychologically traumatic by some individuals include.^[1]

Physical abuse is abuse involving contact intended to cause pain, injury, or other physical suffering or harm. ... Emotional abuse refers to a long-term situation in which one person uses his or her power or influence to adversely affect the mental well-being of another. ... Child sexual abuse is an umbrella term describing criminal and civil offenses in which an adult engages in sexual activity with a minor or exploits a minor for the purpose of sexual gratification. ... Abuser redirects here. ... The word validation has several uses: In general, validation is the process of checking if something satisfies a certain criterion. ... Annihilation is defined as total destruction or complete obliteration of an object;[1] having its root in the Latin nihil (nothing). ... A car accident in Yate, near Bristol, England, in July 2004. ... Complication, in medicine, is a unfavorable evolution of a disease, a health condition or a medical treatment. ... Terrorist redirects here. ... Sexual assault is any physical contact of a sexual nature without voluntary consent. ... Torture, according to international law, is any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has... A psychological punishment is a type of punishment that relies not or only in secondary order on the actual harm inflicted (such as corporal punishments or fines) but on psychological effects, mainly emotions, such as fear, shame and guilt. ... In times of armed conflict a civilian is any person who is not a combatant. ... For other uses, see War (disambiguation). ... Ethnic cleansing refers to various policies or practices aimed at the displacement of an ethnic group from a particular territory in order to create a supposedly ethnically pure society. ... A combatant is a person who takes a direct part in the hostilities of an armed conflict who upon capture qualifies for prisoner of war under the Third Geneva Convention (GCIII). ... Image from The Great War taken in an Australian Dressing Station near Ypres in 1917. ... Look up Occupation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A repair locker hose team aboard USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) combats a controlled fire on the mobile aircraft firefighting training device May 2, 2006. ... Mount Pinatubo eruption, 1991 A natural disaster is the consequence of a natural hazard (e. ... A tornado in central Oklahoma. ... The tsunami that struck MalÃ© in the Maldives on December 26, 2004. ... An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of stored energy in the Earths crust that creates seismic waves. ...

Cancer as PTSD-trauma

PTSD is normally associated with trauma such as violent crimes, rape, and war experience. However, there have been a growing number of reports of PTSD among cancer survivors and their relatives (Smith 1999, Kangas 2002). Most studies deal with survivors of breast cancer (Green 1998, Cordova 2000, Amir & Ramati 2002), and cancer in children and their parents (Landolt 1998, Stuber 1998), and show prevalence figures of between five and 20%. Characteristic intrusive and avoidance symptoms have been described in cancer patients with traumatic memories of injury, treatment, and death (Brewin 1998). There is yet disagreement on whether the traumas associated with different stressful events relating to cancer diagnosis and treatment actually qualify as PTSD stressors (Green 1998). Cancer as trauma is multifaceted, includes multiple events that can cause distress, and like combat, is often characterized by extended duration with a potential for recurrence and a varying immediacy of life-threat (Smith 1999). Breast cancer is cancer of breast tissue. ...

Responses to psychological trauma

There are several behavioral responses common towards stressors including the proactive, reactive, and passive responses. Proactive responses include attempts to address and correct a stressor before it has a noticeable effect on lifestyle. Reactive responses occur after the stress and possible trauma has occurred, and are aimed more at correcting or minimizing the damage of a stressful event. A passive response is often characterized by an emotional numbness or ignorance of a stressor. Those who are able to be proactive can often overcome stressors and are more likely to be able to cope well with unexpected situations. On the other hand, those who are more reactive will often experience more noticeable effects from an unexpected stressor. In the case of those who are passive, victims of a stressful event are more likely to suffer from long term traumatic effects and often enact no intentional coping actions. These observations may suggest that the level of trauma associated with a victim is related to such independent coping abilities.

There is also a distinction between trauma induced by recent situations and long-term trauma which may have been buried in the unconscious from past situations such as childhood abuse.

Trauma is often overcome through healing; in some cases this can be achieved by recreating or revisting the origin of the trauma under more psychologically safe circumstances, such as with a therapist. Psychotherapy is an interpersonal, relational intervention used by trained psychotherapists to aid clients in problems of living. ...

Trauma in psychoanalysis

French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot argued that psychological trauma was the origin of all instances of the mental illness known as hysteria. Charcot's "traumatic hysteria" often manifested as a paralysis that followed a physical trauma, typically years later after what Charcot described as a period of "incubation" ^[1]. Psychoanalysis is a family of psychological theories and methods based on the work of Sigmund Freud. ... Categories: People stubs | French physicians | 1825 births | 1893 deaths | History of medicine ... Hysteria is a diagnostic label applied to a state of mind, one of unmanageable fear or emotional excesses. ...

Sigmund Freud, Charcot's student and the father of psychoanalysis, examined the concept of psychological trauma throughout his career. Jean Laplanche has given a general description of Freud's understanding of trauma, which varied significantly over the course of Freud's career: "An event in the subject's life, defined by its intensity, by the subject's incapacity to respond adequately to it and by the upheaval and long-lasting effects that it brings about in the psychical organization" ^[2]. Sigmund Freud (IPA: ), born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (May 6, 1856 â€“ September 23, 1939), was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ... Psychoanalysis is a family of psychological theories and methods based on the work of Sigmund Freud. ... Jean Laplanche (born June 21, 1924) is a French author, theorist and psychoanalyst. ...

Trauma and stress disorders

In times of war, psychological trauma has been known as shell shock or combat stress reaction (CSR). Psychological trauma may cause acute stress disorder (ASD) which may lead on to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD can also develop without an antecedent ASD and may come on months or years after the trauma. Both ASD and PTSD are specific disorders in which the traumatized individual may experience nightmares, avoidance of certain situations and places, depression, and symptoms of hyper-activation. PTSD emerged as the label for this condition after the Vietnam War in which many veterans returned to their respective countries demoralized, and sometimes, addicted to drugs. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a term for certain severe psychological consequences of exposure to, or confrontation with, stressful events that the person experiences as highly traumatic. ... Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD), also known as disorders of extreme stress not otherwise specified (DESNOS), is a clinically recognized condition that is attributed to an individual suffering from either Traumatic Stress or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). ... Image from The Great War taken in an Australian Dressing Station near Ypres in 1917. ... Acute Stress Disorder isnt a cute thing as the name suggests. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam Peopleâ€™s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000...

Psychological trauma is treated with therapy and, if indicated, psychotropic medications. Recent studies try to show the effect of trauma on human memory. This kind of study is useful in order to verify the attendibility of eyewitnesses involved in criminal acts.

Therapies used in the treatment of psychological trauma include: Cognitive therapy (CBT), Brief therapy, Psychodynamic psychotherapy, Play therapy, Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR), EMDR, and Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT). This article is about Becks Cognitive Therapy. ... Brief therapy, sometimes also known as strategic therapy, is an umbrella term for a type of approach to psychotherapy. ... It has been suggested that Psychodynamic psychology be merged into this article or section. ... Play Therapy is defined by the Association for Play Therapy as the systematic use of a theoretical model to establish an interpersonal process wherein trained play therapists use the therapeutic powers of play to help clients prevent or resolve psychosocial difficulties and achieve optimal growth and development. ... Traumatic incident reduction is a brief, one-on-one, person-centered, simple and highly structured method which addresses the negative effects of past traumas. ... Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing , also known by its abreviation EMDR, claims to relieve the symptoms of Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health problems using originally only movements of the eyes similar to those which occur naturally in REM sleep. ... Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is a psychosocial treatment developed by Marsha M. Linehan specifically to treat individuals with Borderline personality disorder. ...

Following traumatic events, persons involved are often asked to talk about the events soon after, sometimes even immediately after the event occurred in order to start a healing process. This practice may not garner the positive results needed to recover psychologically from a traumatic event. Victims of traumatic occurrences who were debriefed immediately after the event in general do fare better than others who received therapy at a later time. Yet, there is one indication that forcing immediate debriefing may even distort the natural psychological healing process ^[3].

Growth aspects of trauma

Though the idea of trauma is most frequently thought of in negative terms, it is also often seen to have positive aspects. Many people, such as Christopher Reeve and Rick Hansen, have overcome traumas and moved on to become inspirational figures. This growth, first called posttraumatic growth in 1996 by psychologists Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun, can involve changes in how people think of themselves, their relationships with others, including all of humanity, as well as profound philosophical, spiritual, or religious changes. Christopher DOlier Reeve[1] (September 25, 1952 â€“ October 10, 2004) was an American actor, director, producer and writer. ... // Born in Port Alberni, British Columbia, Hansen grew up in Williams Lake, British Columbia. ...

According to Lawrence G. Calhoun and Richard Tedeschi, both professors at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, trauma experiences can lead to growth, though this is not inevitable. ^[4] They have found that "reports of growth experiences in the aftermath of traumatic events far outnumber reports of psychiatric disorders." They state that these changes can include This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Still, they add, "posttraumatic growth does not necessarily yield less emotional distress."

They point out that "there are also a significant number of people who experience little or no growth in their struggle with trauma."

Contents

Symptoms of trauma

Situational Trauma

Experiences that may induce the condition

Cancer as PTSD-trauma

Responses to psychological trauma

Trauma in psychoanalysis

Trauma and stress disorders

Growth aspects of trauma

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links