Trauma

• Re-experiencing through flashbacks and nightmares
• Feeling disconnected from oneself or outside of one’s body
• Avoiding triggers, including places or people
• Relationship issues, including social withdrawal or isolation
• Being on high alert and easily startled
• Mood swings, including anger outbursts
• Trouble focusing
• Unexplained aches and pain
• Sleep disturbances

• Physical: Bodily injuries or harm, often caused by accidents, falls, assaults, or medical procedures.
• Emotional: The emotional or psychological impact of distressing events or experiences.
• Sexual: Experiences of sexual assault, rape, sexual abuse, or harassment.
• Childhooh: Traumatic events or adverse experiences happen during a person’s formative years.
• Complex: Exposure to multiple traumatic events, often over an extended period.
• Acute: Typically the result of a single, severe traumatic event, such as a car accident, natural disaster, or an act of violence.
• Chronic: Prolonged exposure to distressing or harmful situations.
• Community or collective: affecting entire communities or groups of people often related to large-scale events, such as natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or war.
• Vicarious: experienced by people who are indirectly exposed to traumatic events, often through their work, such as healthcare professionals, first responders, or journalists.

• Fight: Fight is a response in which an individual confronts a threat or stressor head-on, seeking to overcome or resist it.
• Flight: Flight is a response characterized by the instinct to escape or avoid a perceived threat or dangerous situation.
• Freeze, or flop: Freeze is a response involving immobility and an inability to react when faced with overwhelming stress, often as a result of fear or shock.
• Fawn: Fawn is a response in which a person seeks to appease or please others, even at their own expense, as a way to avoid conflict or harm in social situations.

Can result from a wide range of distressing experiences or events that overwhelm an individual’s ability to cope and process the emotional impact. These events often involve a threat to one’s life or safety, physical or emotional abuse, violence, accidents, natural disasters, or the loss of a loved one.  It can also be rooted in adverse childhood experiences, such as neglect, chronic stress, or dysfunctional family environments.  The severity and lasting effects can vary from person to person, with factors like resilience, support systems, and prior experiences influencing how individuals respond to and recover from traumatic events.