Effects of Emotional Trauma and How Therapy Can Help
Trauma has an enormous impact on your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Whether it stems from a single event or a series of incidents over time, emotional trauma can trigger a significant shift in the way an individual perceives themselves and the world around them.
What is emotional trauma?
Emotional trauma can stem from numerous situations such as childhood neglect, abuse, domestic violence, loss of a loved one, witnessing violence, or surviving natural disasters. Emotional trauma is the distress caused by traumatic events. The resulting psychological and emotional changes can vary widely from person to person, but they generally disrupt the individual's equilibrium, potentially leading to lasting effects on their emotional health.
What happens to the brain after emotional trauma?
When the effects of trauma persist and develop into chronic stress, you may find yourself in a perpetual state of the stress response. The stress response - fight, flight, or freeze - alters your brain’s processes. This is why you may experience brain fog, difficulty concentrating, memory problems, and difficulty regulating emotions.
Effects of Emotional Trauma
Emotional trauma can lead to a variety of psychological and emotional changes.
Heightened responses
Emotional trauma includes panic, fear, and anxiety. You may also experience a deep feeling of shock or the inability to accept and process what has happened. After experiencing trauma, individuals may develop heightened emotional responses. This may manifest as anxiety, anger, sadness, or irritability.
Numbness or disconnect
People can also feel numb or disconnected from the experience. Emotional numbing serves as a psychological defense mechanism to prevent the you from reliving the trauma.
Withdrawal and other symptoms
Withdrawal and isolating yourself are also trauma responses. You may also feel a pervasive sense of dread. Other signs of emotional trauma include a feeling that you cannot go back to your life before. You may feel that the beliefs you held about the world are shaken up. After the initial reactions have lessened, you may feel depressed, exhausted, guilty, or develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
| Symptoms of PTSD |
|---|
| Intrusive memories |
| Flashbacks |
| Nightmares about the traumatic event |
| Emotional or physical distress in response to triggers |
| Avoidance of people, places or activities that remind you of the event |
| Hopelessness |
| Negative changes in thought patterns and mood |
| Hypervigilance |
| Increase in risk-seeking behavior |
| Sleep and appetite disturbances |
| Difficulty focusing |
| Anger, irritability |
| Guilt or shame |
Trauma and depression
The experience of trauma significantly raises the risk of developing depression. Depression is a debilitating mood disorder. It can be mild, severe, or a major depressive disorder and involves a wide range of physical, mental, and emotional symptoms. It is characterized by:
persistent feelings of sadness
loss of interest in activities
feelings of hopelessness
fatigue
sleep disturbances
changes in appetite
thoughts of death or suicide.
Depression can seriously interfere with and affect the quality of your life. Some form of depression therapy is usually necessary in order to treat it.
Stress
Trauma causes significant stress, often chronic, that impacts brain function. The areas that are particularly affected are those responsible for mood regulation, such as the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. This disruption can contribute to the development of depression.
Interpersonal trauma
Trauma that involves harm inflicted by another person, such as abuse or assault, carries a particularly high risk for depression. The violation of trust and personal safety in these instances can lead to feelings of helplessness, guilt, and shame, all of which are associated with depression.
Trauma and Anxiety
Anxiety disorders are a group of mental health conditions characterized by excessive and persistent fear, worry, and nervousness. They include generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, specific phobias, and separation anxiety disorder. Symptoms can present both physically and emotionally. Physical symptoms include a racing heart, sweating, trembling, and headaches. Emotional symptoms involve persistent worry, difficulty concentrating, and feelings of impending doom. Anxiety therapy can help treat and manage anxiety.
There is a connection between traumatic experiences and the development of anxiety disorders. Trauma-related anxiety can significantly impact an individual's quality of life, affecting their daily functioning, relationships, physical health, and overall well-being. It can lead to avoidance behaviors where individuals withdraw from situations or activities that trigger their anxiety. Over time, this can limit their life experiences and contribute to feelings of isolation.
Response to fear
Trauma alters regions in the brain that are associated with the response to fear, like the amygdala. As mentioned before, it also affects the part of the brain that regulate stress, the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Experiencing trauma can condition your fear response so that you become highly responsive to cues associated with the event. This can heighten your sensitivity to stress and fear, contributing to anxiety.
Post-traumatic stress disorder
PTSD (see table above ) can present along with anxiety disorders. The chronic hyperarousal and avoidance behaviors characteristic of PTSD can exacerbate or contribute to anxiety symptoms.
How trauma affects your self-worth
The impact of trauma on self-esteem can be profound. Trauma, especially when experienced repeatedly or when one is young, can undermine a person's confidence in their abilities and potential. Trauma can alter a person’s self-image and self-esteem. They may blame themselves for what happened, leading to feelings of guilt, shame, and worthlessness. It can cause them to perceive themselves as flawed or damaged. They may develop an underlying sense of worthlessness that affects their overall sense of self.
Self-Blame and Guilt
Trauma survivors may blame themselves for the traumatic events, especially in cases of abuse or assault. This self-blame can lead to feelings of guilt and shame, causing a decrease in self-esteem.
Loss of Confidence
Traumatic experiences often lead to a diminished sense of control. You may feel powerless or that you have no agency. This can result in a loss of confidence in one's abilities to navigate life challenges.
Identity
Trauma can make a person question their identity as well. They may start to lose faith in who they are and their value as a person. They may define their identity based on their traumatic experiences, leading to a distorted self-image.
Self-Neglect (heading 3)
Survivors of trauma may disregard their own needs and well-being. This is a reflection of their diminished self-worth. Self-neglect can manifest in various forms, including poor self-care, ignoring one’s health, or engaging in self-destructive behaviors.
Trauma and Emotional Connection
Trauma can change how you form and maintain emotional connections with others. It often results in emotional disconnection, which can manifest in different ways. People may isolate themselves due to feeling emotionally vulnerable. You may experience difficulty expressing feelings, leading to strained relationships. This disconnection stems from a self-protective mechanism, helping survivors cope with overwhelming feelings associated with the traumatic event.
Trauma can significantly impact your ability to trust others and yourself. This may be particularly true for those who have experienced interpersonal trauma, such as abuse or assault, where the perpetrator was someone the survivor trusted.
How therapy, support, and self-care can help
Trauma therapy
Trauma therapy can give you the space to take the time to process your emotions. Trauma therapy can help people process their experiences and overcome trauma. It can benefit children, adolescents, and adults, as it recognizes the unique needs and characteristics of each life stage.
Trauma therapy for children
Children exposed to trauma may struggle to understand their experiences, often expressing their distress through behavioral changes rather than verbal communication.
Treatment approaches such as art and play therapy give children a safe medium to express and explore their feelings and thoughts. This form of therapy allows therapists to understand children's emotional world and help them make sense of their traumatic experiences. Joint therapy for parents and children helps caregivers understand their child’s reactions to traumatic events and involves them in the healing process.
Trauma therapy for teens
Teenagers dealing with trauma often face unique challenges due to the combination of traumatic stress and the challenges of adolescence.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can help teens challenge and change thought patterns which cause them distress. It aims to resolve behavioral and emotional struggles caused by trauma.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is can help adolescents manage intense emotions, self-destructive and disruptive behaviors, depression and anxiety following trauma. DBT teaches skills to manage painful emotions and provides effective coping strategies.
Young adults may also benefit from group therapy. This can give them a sense of community and show them that they are not alone. It provides an opportunity to learn from others' experiences and a supportive environment to share theirs.
Trauma therapy for adults
Trauma therapy can treat trauma-based mental health issues in adults. It provides tools and strategies to manage intrusive thoughts, improve emotional regulation, and reduce the adverse impact of trauma on your daily life.
Self-care
Start with simple self-care practices, even one at a time is enough. For example, protect your sleep and sleep hygiene. Try to develop a routine that brings you comfort or a sense of security. Ensure that you sleep at a reasonable time and get enough rest. Another easy thing to do for yourself is to get moving. Go for a ten minute walk, spend time in your garden or at the park. If you can’t get outside, take a few minutes to stretch or do light exercise. Movement of the body plays a role in emotional and physical healing. As you are able to do more, increase your self-care practices.
Self-compassion
One lovely self-care practice is to offer yourself self-compassion. This means being kind to yourself and tolerant of the way you feel. Approach your thoughts and feelings without judging yourself for them. Eventually, you will be able to extend the gentleness and understanding you give yourself towards others as well.
Boundaries
Reduce the demands on yourself. This means managing the expectations others have of you, and those that you have of yourself. This will involve establishing and clearly communicating boundaries with those around you.
Meditation
Mindfulness and meditation enhances self-awareness and emotional regulation. Gradually develop a meditation practice and try to do it regularly. This will help build your emotional intelligence and recognize your feelings and the effect they have on you. The added benefit is that it will enable you to communicate better and therefore strengthen emotional connections in your relationships.
Build a support network
Along with therapy and the care you are taking of yourself, it is helpful to build a support system. This can involve a network of trusted friends and family members. Have a look within your community for support groups and programs. You can also join an online group. It is important to be able to talk about and share how you feel in safe spaces.
FAQs
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Trauma therapy can involve various techniques, but the primary goal is to help people process their traumatic experience and reduce their emotional distress. This might involve strategies to manage symptoms, build coping skills, and work towards recovery.
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Anyone who has experienced a traumatic event and is struggling with the emotional aftermath may benefit from trauma therapy. This could include survivors of physical or sexual abuse, veterans who have experienced combat, individuals who have suffered serious accidents or natural disasters, or those who have lost a loved one.
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Trauma therapy can be beneficial for individuals dealing with the aftermath of traumatic experiences, regardless of when they occurred. Many people seek therapy for trauma that occurred in childhood or many years ago, and they can still experience significant benefits from treatment.
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The length of therapy required can vary widely depending on the individual, the specifics of their trauma, and their response to treatment. Some people may see improvements in a matter of weeks or months, while others may need therapy for a year or more.
If you are struggling with the aftermath of a traumatic experience, you are not alone – Trust Mental Health can help. We have an experienced team of BIPOC therapists trained in various therapeutic approaches. Contact us today for a free 15 minute consultation. We offer therapy in San Jose and all over California, both in person and online.