What is Trauma?
Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines "trauma" as:
1. an injury to living tissue caused by an extrinsic agent.
2. a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from mental or emotional stress, or physical injury.
In short, "trauma" is any mental or physical effect or impression -- such as a memory or a wound -- left on a person by some incident which alters the natural mental and physical processes and/or structures within the person, thereby threatening the survival of the person; or at least being perceived by the person to be such a threat.
Understanding what "trauma" is can go a long way toward helping a Being to recover, allowing the bearer of the trauma to begin making the all too important distinction between "what he or she has experienced" and "who he or she is".
It is important to note that a "trauma" is not, itself, an incident. It is an impression left by an incident. Traumatic incidents, themselves, may last for a relatively short period of time, but the impression left by the incident can last for years -- perhaps a lifetime -- after the actual incident has ended, if not properly addressed and handled.
Unresolved psychic (emotional) trauma keeps a portion of the bearer's awareness "stuck" in the past incident that caused the trauma, and therefore has a marked effect on the bearer's perception of the present; so much so that even harmless present-time circumstances can often be interpreted, and reacted to, as if they were as much a threat as the past incident that caused the trauma.
Although such "associations" do have some survival value, such value is diminished where the trauma is of such severity that it causes the bearer to misinterpret the present circumstances, and behave irrationally.
For example:
A woman who, "years ago", trusted a man that told her he "loves" her, and was then abused by that same man, could reasonably be expected to have serious difficulty in the present with "trusting men" or with "trusting love", etc., even if a truly sincere man comes along and offers to care for her.
Although the incident which caused the trauma happened "years ago", because the woman was not allowed or helped to get closure on that incident, a portion of her awareness remains in that incident (whether she realizes it or not), and she continues to interpret the "present" in terms of the past in a way that is not rational. In such a state of mind, "all men" are likely to become "abusers" in her mind.
However, if the woman is allowed (and most of all, WILLING) to undergo processes designed to help her get clarity and closure on that incident, she will find that she is less and less haunted by her "past" and is more capable of facing the Present with greater clarity and greater confidence.
Contrary to popular opinion, we don't have to "live with" trauma. We can "get over it"...with the right approach.
