By Lawrence Robinson, Melinda Smith, M.A., and Jeanne Segal, Ph.D.
If you’ve experienced an extremely stressful or disturbing event that’s left you feeling helpless and emotionally out of control, you may have been traumatized. Psychological trauma can leave you struggling with upsetting emotions, memories, and anxiety that won’t go away. It can also leave you feeling numb, disconnected, and unable to trust other people. When bad things happen, it can take a while to get over the pain and feel safe again. But with these self-help strategies and support, you can speed up your recovery. Whether the trauma happened years ago or yesterday, you can make healing changes and move on with your life.
What is emotional and psychological trauma? Emotional and psychological trauma is the result of extraordinarily stressful events that shatter your sense of security, making you feel helpless in a dangerous world. Traumatic experiences often involve a threat to life or safety, but any situation that leaves you feeling overwhelmed and isolated can result in trauma, even if it doesn’t involve physical harm. It’s not the objective circumstances that determine whether an event is traumatic, but your subjective emotional experience of the event. The more frightened and helpless you feel, the more likely you are to be traumatized.
Share This Post!
Trauma in Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic
By NYU Langone Health, Patient Care Across the nation, everyone is being exposed to and reacting to the confusing, stressful, and sometimes frightening situation of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in different [...]
How to Keep Children’s Stress From Turning Into Trauma
By Stacey Steinberg Children may be processing the disruptions in their lives right now in ways the adults around them do not expect: acting out, regressing, retreating or even seeming surprisingly content. [...]
Addressing Race and Trauma in the Classroom: A Resource for Educators
By the National Child Traumatic Stress Network This resource is intended to help educators understand how they might address the interplay of race and trauma and its effects on students in the classroom. [...]
The startling toll on children who witness domestic violence is just now being understood
By Jayne O'Donnel and Mabinty Quarshie USA TODAY SAVANNAH, Ga. – Latrelle Huff says her twins were conceived by rape. Now she blames domestic violence for her children's health problems. The Georgia woman [...]
The lasting impact of neglect
By Kirsten Weir The first time Nathan Fox, PhD, stepped into a Romanian orphanage, he was struck by the silence. "The most remarkable thing about the infant room was how quiet it was, [...]
Children may act out due to grief or trauma of COVID-19 pandemic, and other lessons from HIV/AIDS
By Julie B. Kaplow and Mark W. Kline No infectious disease since HIV/AIDS in the 1980s has captured the world’s attention in the way COVID-19 has. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is still with [...]