What are PTSD and Trauma?

Trauma is the effect of the survival reaction (flight, fight, freeze) we have to adverse events. As we are all different, our reactions vary from individual to individual. Therefore, the same event can be extremely traumatic for a person, and barely noticeable for someone else.

A traumatic event is something that the person feels overwhelmed by. This event is usually external (being hit by an object, or being at the receiving end of abuse), but it can also be internal (illness, health conditions, distressing memories, strong emotions and body reactions). 

The most common example is the “single-incident” trauma, which is, for example, being hit by a car. Trauma was first discovered while supporting war veterans who developed symptoms upon their return from battle. Doctors realised that distressing events that soldiers had gone through during the war reappeared in dreams and created all sorts of symptoms, hence the name PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

As more research went into the study of PTSD, it became evident that people who had not gone through anything comparable to war could develop symptoms similar to veterans. More types of trauma were then identified. The most known are

• Ancestral/Generational Trauma, linked to historical events like slavery or persecution

• Complex Trauma, caused by events in the past (usually childhood) like abuse (physical, sexual, verbal, etc.) or neglect of basic emotional, physical and spiritual needs.

In general, an event becomes “traumatic” when it leaves a strong “trace” or “unfinished business” in the person that went through this event - please notice that it is very common for complex trauma that the individual is not aware at all of what was traumatic. I like to use the term “energy” to describe this trace, and I use the word “energetic wound/wounding” to indicate that this is a disturbance in the person that needs healing.

Two reasons why trauma is so difficult to treat

PTSD symptoms are a message that our body gives us. The message is that the energetic wound created by the trauma has not healed. Like physical wounding, we need to be careful when we are injured. There are two main reasons why trauma is difficult to treat

1) Cultural Denial of Trauma

We live in a culture driven by the belief that non-physical injuries do not “really” exist. Yet, the amount of diagnosable illnesses and health conditions caused by “invisible” stress is ever increasing.

PTSD reminds us that the world of the invisible exists and is as important as the visible. Psychological/Energetic injuries are as painful and dangerous as physical injuries. If you have a paper cut in your finger, you make sure you do not use that finger in a way that makes the wound worse, don’t you? You may use that finger less than usual and you are ok with waiting a couple of days until the pain has gone away. 

PTSD challenges us to engage in an inner journey of acceptance and healing. PTSD symptoms will go away only after we become aware of what has wounded us, which means embracing our vulnerabilities, removing our own self-criticism and other barriers to healing. Like with physical wounds, our body knows how to heal if we don’t interfere.

When it comes to PTSD, we struggle to give it the right importance. Or, actually, we give importance to PTSD only for culturally recognised reasons. When we have a death in the family, we are “allowed” to take time off work and people are empathic towards us. If we are part of a minority and we do not share our differences with people who do not understand our culture, traumatic events are kept hidden. As a consequence, we might be going through something extremely distressing, but we simply carry on with life as usual… but would you go on a walk with a broken leg?

Traumatic events are personal and some people develop PTSD from situations that, to the eyes of society and others, are “nothing”. Yet, the wounding is real. For this reason, trauma and PTSD is difficult to treat. We have extensive knowledge of what causes trauma, but it is, ultimately, a very personal journey to take.

2) The hidden nature of traumatic memories

Traumatic situations leave a trace in our system, and traumatic memories are one of the most bizarre aspects of PTSD. Some people, especially when traumatised by a shocking event in adulthood, have intrusive flashbacks that suddenly bring up the traumatic memories. When the trauma happens in childhood, though, the traumatic memories are all but clear.

The most common reason why we struggle to consider trauma “real” is because we seldom have any recollection of what caused it in childhood. Trauma therapies have got theories and techniques to bring traumatic memories to the surface and release them. IFS (Internal Family Systems) uses the idea of “exiles”, which are child parts of ourselves, that have been traumatised and are kept out of awareness by protectors. Traumatic memories are held by the exiles, and they can be accessed only when protective parts give permission to do so.

AIT (Advanced Integrative Therapy) uses the muscle memory of the body to find our whether a certain traumatic event is the reason for current PTSD symptoms, and then proceeds to remove it. There are many more trauma therapies out there, and they are all very clear on the importance of accessing traumatic memories in a safe way. This is because these memories can be re-traumatising and we want to revisit them only when the conditions are good enough to bring healing.

Help is out there… if you seek for it at the right time

The vast majority of mental health conditions are caused by untreated trauma and it is important to choose the right support to heal these energetic wounds when the time is right.

Timing is an important factor in healing trauma. Healing starts with an inner journey, and leads to actions and changes in the way we interact with the world. We cannot heal deep trauma if the right conditions are not there. For example, if we are going through financial hardship or we are dealing with severe conditions that compromise our survival, trauma work will not be appropriate.

A well-trained mental health professional can help you understand what kind of changes you need to make before you can start deep trauma work. It might be that you need to put an end to abusive relationships, or that you need to deal with substance abuse or seek medical help to address some health conditions.

There are excellent techniques and very well-trained professionals out there that can help. Trauma can and should be healed. Do not let yourself live a traumatised life longer than you need it.

One final note…

I hope this article has given you some insight into the IFS method. I personally write these articles and they are freely available on my website. I kindly ask that you reference them by quoting this webpage if you use them for personal, professional or educational purposes.

If there are topics you would like to know more about, please let me know.