How Understanding Your Trauma Type Can Help You Heal

Have you recently gone through a distressing or disturbing event that changed your life? If your mind keeps having intense flashbacks from a tragic event or has been on edge, you face trauma. Trauma can result from losing a loved one, surviving an accident, sexual assault, or a natural disaster.

There are several ways that people respond to trauma, with some affected more than others. However, the intensity of trauma can leave some people with trouble moving on with their lives, leading to post-traumatic stress disorder.

By knowing what type of trauma you are going through, you will have a better idea of healing.

Acute Trauma

Acute trauma can happen from a single traumatic event like surviving an accident, sexual assault, or a natural disaster. The intensity of this traumatic event is enough to threaten a person’s physical and emotional safety. Without treatment, this type of trauma can take over your mind and behavior. Symptoms that come from acute trauma include:

• Persistent anxiety or panic
• Trouble sleeping
• Lack of trust
• Irritability
• Lack of self-care

Evaluating your particular situation and symptoms will lead you to many psychotherapy options.

Chronic Trauma

Several events of acute trauma have the potential to turn into chronic trauma. Chronic trauma is when you have dealt with a series of traumatic events over an extended period. Examples can be a severe illness, domestic violence, and exposure to extreme situations like war.

The troubling symptoms of chronic trauma can stay with you even years after the traumatic events have occurred. It could seem like the distressing flashbacks, unpredictable emotional outbursts, and extreme anger never end. There are also physical symptoms that follow, such as fatigue, body aches, nausea, and headaches. Understanding what is triggering your trauma and how your symptoms impact your life is the first step to finding help.

Complex Trauma

Complex trauma is exposure to many different traumatic events or experiences that typically involve people. This can happen to those who have experienced childhood abuse, neglect, family disputes, domestic violence, and more. Complex trauma can make it really hard to put your trust in people for fear they will let you down. It can feel like a never-ending cycle of despair, anger, and hopelessness when the ending of one issue brings about more.

Healing From Trauma

No matter what type of trauma you’re going through, it will continue to manifest in your mind if you do not learn how to control it.

The first thing you can do is try to exercise for at least half an hour a day. Trauma has a tendency to keep you in a state of fight-or-flight mode. With exercise, you can help your mind focus on the movement of your body and allow the feel-good endorphins to take over your mind.

It is also essential to be around people even if your traumatic mindset tells you to withdraw. It does not mean that you have to talk about the traumatic experience, but just participate in having a good time with this person.

Because one of the symptoms of trauma is lacking self-care, always remember to aim for seven to eight hours of sleep a night. This will keep you in a good mood with plenty of energy once the sun comes up. Eating a well-balanced diet filled with omega-3 fats will also give you a mood boost. If your stress levels continue to rise, try deep breathing exercises, mindfulness, or engage in your favorite hobbies for a more positive outlook.

Each type of trauma you go through involves special attention. If your trauma symptoms persist, please speak to a mental health professional to give you the tools you need to thrive against trauma.