Yes, trauma can lead to increased kindness and positive changes, a phenomenon known as post-traumatic growth (PTG), where people develop greater empathy, appreciation for life, deeper relationships, and a stronger sense of purpose, though this isn't guaranteed and often involves simultaneous suffering and growth. Healing from trauma can soften emotional edges, making individuals less reactive and more nurturing, but initial responses can also include negative traits like irritability or people-pleasing (fawning) as coping mechanisms.
However, healing from trauma can make you both stronger and weaker. You become stronger as you develop resilience and grow from having gone through trauma and go through healing. You also gain insights, knowledge, learnings, and growth that you may not have otherwise.
Q: Is being too nice a trauma response? Sometimes. If you learned early on that keeping others happy helped you avoid rejection, anger, or punishment, being ``too nice'' may have become your default survival strategy. The good news? You can unlearn it and build new patterns based on confidence, not fear.
Further, the severity of the trauma correlated positively with various components of empathy. These findings suggest that the experience of a childhood trauma increases a person's ability to take the perspective of another and to understand their mental and emotional states, and that this impact is long-standing.
As a clear example, early ACEs such as abuse, neglect, and other traumas affect brain development and increase a person's vulnerability to encountering interpersonal violence as an adult and to developing chronic diseases and other physical illnesses, mental illnesses, substance-related disorders, and impairment in ...
Symptoms of Unhealed Trauma
The 'fight or flight' response is how people sometimes refer to our body's automatic reactions to fear. There are actually 5 of these common responses, including 'freeze', 'flop' and 'friend', as well as 'fight' or 'flight'.
Childhood neglect or abuse can affect your sensitivity levels as an adult. A portion of empaths I've treated have experienced early trauma such as emotional or physical abuse, or they were raised by alcoholic, depressed, or narcissistic parents.
Things Never to Say to Trauma Survivors
Individuals' EI may develop after a traumatic incident, enhancing their ability to manage and, as a consequence, experiencing less post-traumatic stress in the long term [41].
Fawning often first develops in early childhood when a traumatic event has been perpetrated by a parent or primary caregiver, explains Walker. A child who has been abused may learn to fawn to avoid any further abuse, such as physical violence, sexual abuse, or verbal abuse.
The 7 stages of trauma bonding describe a cycle in abusive relationships, typically starting with Love Bombing, followed by Trust & Dependency, then Criticism & Devaluation, leading to Manipulation & Gaslighting, causing the victim to Resign & Give Up, leading to a Loss of Self, and finally resulting in Emotional Addiction to the intermittent rewards of the cycle, keeping the person trapped. This cycle, theorized by Dr. Patrick Carnes, traps victims by making them reliant on the abuser for validation, creating a powerful, albeit destructive, bond.
You may have more emotional troubles such as: Feeling nervous, helpless, fearful, sad. Feeling shocked, numb, or not able to feel love or joy. Being irritable or having angry outbursts.
One of the often overlooked aspects of trauma is its potential to alter personality traits–especially those considered stable over time. People with PTSD typically meet the criteria for co-occurring personality disorders.
“For trauma survivors, especially those who've experienced neglect or emotional invalidation, oversharing can feel like a fast-track to safety or intimacy — even if it bypasses healthy relationship pacing.” Figueroa adds that you might also overshare intimate details to avoid feeling rejected or unseen.
Smiling or laughing when disclosing trauma can be an indicator of shame. Some trauma survivors hold deeply entrenched feelings of self-blame and other distorted and inaccurate thoughts about the role they believe they played in their abuse.
The "3 C's of Trauma" usually refer to Connect, Co-Regulate, and Co-Reflect, a model for trauma-informed care focusing on building safe relationships, helping individuals manage overwhelming emotions (co-regulation), and processing experiences (co-reflection). Other "3 C's" include Comfort, Conversation, and Commitment for children's coping, and Catch, Check, Change from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for challenging negative thoughts in trauma recovery.
This is especially true for trauma survivors. The wrong words can wound, isolate, and intensify the pain they already carry. Certain language can re-trigger old wounds and reinforce feelings of shame, guilt, inadequacy, and mistrust.
The belief is emotions and traumatic experiences can become trapped in the body, and somatic therapy helps release this pent-up tension and emotions. Somatic therapy uses body awareness, breathwork and movement exercises to be more aware of bodily sensations and release stored emotions.
Empaths have the unique ability to absorb other people's energies, so being in crowded places or close contact with others can be overwhelming. Being around negative energies can make you feel drained.
Self-Perception: Empaths generally have a positive view of their sensitivity, seeing it as a gift, while trauma survivors may view their heightened emotions as a burden or symptom of their past.
Psychopathy, a general term for illness of the mind, can result in a lack of empathy, causing various forms of antisocial behavior. Sociopathy, or damage to the ability to function in a social setting, often includes a lack of empathy, also causing various forms of antisocial behavior.
Signs of childhood trauma
For some, reactions continue and are severe. PTSD symptoms usually appear soon after trauma. For most people, these symptoms go away on their own within the first few weeks and months after the trauma. For some, the symptoms can last for many years, especially if they go untreated.