Issue #24: Trauma is Not What Happens to You
Katheryn Bermann
Military Veteran with Neurodiversity Expertise & Social Services Experience Seeking Long-Term Career
It's how your body reacts in the moment and in the aftermath, however long that may be.
Welcome to issue #24 of the Humanity in Human Services newsletter! This is a newsletter written by me, Katheryn M. Bermann, MS, CTP, a behavior therapist and advocate for special needs children. I use a variety of supports and techniques to help kids and families reach goals varying from academic readiness to emotion identification and regulation. If you're reading this, you may or may not be formally employed in the "helping professions," but you are interested in bringing more humanity into how you interact with others.
There is so much talk lately on healing trauma and tracing current behaviors back to childhood trauma that I wanted to dedicate a newsletter issue to my understanding of what trauma is and is not.
An event (natural disaster, military conflict, etc.) can be traumatic (in terms of its effect on the body and brain) if it causes or threatens harm in some way. The harm can be physical, emotional, psychological, or any permutation of them. When the person who experienced the event displays behaviors associated with trauma, the event can be called traumatic.
However, just because an event has the potential to be traumatic, doesn't mean everyone who experiences it will show signs of trauma. Humans are naturally diverse in many ways, and resilience to hardship is one of them.
Not every soldier who returns from a combat zone will be (or should be) diagnosed with PTSD. Being in a combat zone definitely has the potential to be traumatic, but it will not be so for everyone. This does not invalidate the hard experiences of those who return and don't receive a PTSD diagnosis either.
Trauma is also not the same as PTSD.
PTSD is a clinical diagnosis that indicates the effects of trauma are significantly impacting one's life.
A person can have a trauma history without having a PTSD diagnosis because the same event may be traumatic for one person but not another.
When a person is exposed to an event that causes or threatens harm, a series of bodily processes and reactions occur to ensure the person can get through the event. Many people are probably familiar with the "fight or flight" response and may have also heard tales involving incredible feats of strength performed in life-or-death situations.
These bodily processes are not abnormal. They have been occurring for thousands of years to ensure the survival of our species.
It is when they continue to occur after the event has passed that they become a concern.
Being shook up after something scary is quite normal. The difference between being shaken up and having PTSD is that eventually, you stop being shaken up. And normally it doesn't take too long.
Therefore, trauma is not what happens to you. But there are many things that could be traumatic.
Trauma is your body's response to the things that happen.
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Other than fight and flight, there are certain patterns of behavior that are frequently indicative of trauma. They include freeze, fawn, and flop, with some others being theorized. There is not one standard way trauma presents because, again, humans are varied.
There are many products and services popping up that claim to "heal your trauma" and "reset your nervous system."
Your nervous system functions the way it does because of thousands of years of natural selection.
And not all stress is bad.
Because humans are so varied, it would be misinformed at best to declare, "oh, she went through X, so she definitely has trauma."
Ultimately, it comes down to how your body is responding to the events of your life and whether those responses are helping you. If they are not, it may be worth examining further.
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Thank you for reading this edition of Humanity in Human Services!
There is an associated Facebook group located here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1018333445884666
There is also a LinkedIn group for ABA professionals interested in incorporating trauma-informed practices located here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/groups/14325191/
Please feel free to like, comment, subscribe, and forward to anyone who may be interested. Have a great week!
Katheryn M. Bermann, MS
Newsletter thumbnail image credit: https://dcjournal.com/point-benevolent-and-vicarious-racism-in-diversity/