Trauma is a potent, life altering experience. Whether it is a physical injury or a psychological blow, trauma can shake you to your core — literally and figuratively for years to come. It may destroy your relationships, affect your health, and derail your mobility and independence. Trauma does not just simply go away; it oftentimes takes time, reflection, understanding, and proper support to recover from. Trauma also plays a significant role in forming who we are and how we respond to stressors, relationships, and choices in the future.

In this guide, don’t worry; we will answer your questions about trauma: What is trauma?, How to heal from trauma?, How to break a trauma bond?, etc. We seek to inform you of the process of recovery and renewal, provide clarification, and invite the opportunity to learn.

What Is Trauma?

Trauma is an emotional and psychological response to either a profoundly disturbing or highly damaging event. It leaves a person feeling helpless, fragile, and doubting their ability to deal with the enormity of the experience. As you can see, trauma does not just occur physically; it also has significant psychological and emotional avenues that can affect nearly every area of our life — relationships, health, happiness, and ability to move on in life.

Either your nervous system will get stuck in a heightened level of vigilance and will be hyper-reactive to reactive signals of danger or it will collapse, withdrawing and disconnecting to a state of numbness and powerlessness. Trauma will erode your capacity to develop healthy relationships and be able to trust yourself and the world.

Types of Trauma

Blunt Trauma (aka Blunt Force Trauma)

Blunt trauma occurs when a non-penetrative force, such as in a car accident, a physical assault, or from a fall injures your body. It may damages internal tissues and lead to serious health risks — from broken bones to internal bleeding, while the impact on your nervous system will be deep.

Complex Trauma

Complex trauma happens when the trauma is repeated or continual. It typically is due to abuse, neglect, or violence incurred in childhood, and creates deep, persistent wounds that can block a person from forming healthy relationships and trusting themselves and the world. The person grows up thinking they are powerless, worthless, or shameful about their view of life.

Generational Trauma (or Intergenerational Trauma)
Generational trauma is a distinct form of trauma that passes down through generations. Trauma survivors may unknowingly transfer their pain, distress, and behaviors model to their offspring in a process of transmission of distress. It reflects how influential family, culture, and ancestry can be towards how a person sees their world and their future.

What is Trauma Bonding?

• Trauma bonding is a process when someone forms an illogical attachment to their abuser.
• It usually happens in dysfunctional behaviours derives from an abusive relationship dynamic where there are cycles of confusing behaviour including punishment and kindness — which is: the cycle of harm followed by loving gestures and makes it difficult for victims to detach from the relationship.
• Trauma bonding can also cause confusion of the abuse in the relationship as well as be a barrier to detaching from the relationship and moving forward in a healthy direction.
• A person experiencing trauma bond may have feelings of deep loyalty to their abuser and have difficulty separating from them despite all the pain it’s causing them.

How to Break a Trauma Bond and Heal From Trauma Bonding?

• To break a trauma bond, the first step is to see the dynamic of the abuse and, to see it for what it is recognizing how what happened has caused harm.
• Distance is a critical initial step – physically and emotionally distancing yourself from the person who is hurting you.
• A trauma-informed therapist may provide immense support to this.
• Having a solid network of friends, family, or support group can provide validation and encouragement and understanding.
• Healing from trauma bonding is a process – it includes developing healthy relationships, respecting your own value/worthiness, releasing shame and blame, and re-learning how to trust and engage in relationships with others in safe ways.

What is Trauma-informed Care?

• Trauma-informed care is understanding the broad impacts of trauma and designing our care to assist individuals in healing rather than to do more harm.
• Trauma-informed practitioners create a safe, non-judgmental environment that facilitates survivors feeling safe, empowered, and understood.
• Trauma-informed care can be implemented in a hospital, classroom or community service centre – it always recognizes dignity, collaboration and an awareness of person based experiences.
• Trauma-informed care is about not re-traumatizing survivors, but rather allowing them to take control over their healing journey.

Trauma Tests: What Are They?

A test for trauma or a test of childhood trauma is a tool created to allow you to reflect on your life and see if you might be suffering from trauma symptoms. These tests often have you answer questions about your experiences and how you manage stress.

While the trauma tests can be beneficial when looking to notice trends in your past and point you to another source of help, they are not substitutes for a professional psychologist or psychiatrist evaluation. However, doing a trauma test can be a very useful first step toward understanding your struggles and validating your experience.

Moving On From Trauma: Healing

How to heal from trauma

Healing usually occurs through therapy, lifestyle changes, and a solid support network. Many therapeutic methods such as Cognitive Behavioral (CBT), Trauma-informed therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy (EMDR) can safely help individuals process their experiences.

Be kind to yourself and give yourself time to heal. Use your supportive friends and family, use breathing exercises and relaxation techniques, and if you can find a professional who can help guide you on a healing journey it can be invaluable.

How to heal from trauma?

Traumatic recovery is a slow process that requires learning about your experiences, validating your suffering, and releasing shame and blame. Healing from trauma also involves creating healthy coping skills and a sense of safety and control over your life.

How to heal from emotional trauma?

Emotional trauma can undermine your joy and confidence. Healing becomes referring back with painful memories, accepting your experience, and having connection with your ability to trust and forge healthy relationships.

Trauma, Memory Loss, and Meaning

Does trauma cause memory loss?

Trauma may affect memory through dissociation – a psychological state in which, for a time, the mind disconnects from reality – or to not remember at all. This is a protective mechanism to help people cope with stressful situations.

What does trauma-informed mean?

To be trauma-informed is to be aware of trauma and apply that understanding in practices of care. It clearly means possessing an awareness of the physical, psychological and social impacts of trauma and a policy of understanding and compassion, with no judgement

Conclusion

Trauma is a complex and powerful experience that can touch almost every aspect of a person’s life. For example, blunt trauma, trauma bonding, generational trauma, complex trauma — each one leaves a different type of “imprint” on the body and the mind. The process of healing from trauma — or breaking away from the choke hold it has on you — is not a destination but is attainable through a multi-step process. Each person’s journey involves understanding how your experience started, developing healthy coping strategies, and working to re-establish safety and control in your life.

Whether you are healing from trauma bonding, recovering from a painful past, or even just trying to understand what “trauma” means, knowledge is the first step in the healing process. Trauma-informed care, therapy and support at a community level can lead the way toward healing.