The symptoms of unresolved trauma may include, among many others, addictive behaviors, an inability to deal with conflict, anxiety, confusion, depression or an innate belief that we have no value.
People who have unprocessed trauma often report having commonly known symptoms, such as intrusive thoughts of the event(s), mood swings, loss of memory and more. However, some people may be struggling with unresolved trauma without even realizing it.
Intense Fear or Hypervigilance:
Sometimes people experience unexplained fears. This can include people or places. This often results in hypervigilance and a constant feeling of being on guard. Both fear and hypervigilance are clear indicators of unprocessed trauma.
The body can remember trauma even if we're unaware of it. With the right support, healing is possible.
Unhealed childhood wounds can manifest themselves in a variety of ways, including feelings of fear, low self-esteem, insecurity, PTSD, and difficulty forming trusting relationships.
Delayed responses to trauma can include persistent fatigue, sleep disorders, nightmares, fear of recurrence, anxiety focused on flashbacks, depression, and avoidance of emotions, sensations, or activities that are associated with the trauma, even remotely.
Smiling when discussing trauma is a way to minimize the traumatic experience. It communicates the notion that what happened “wasn't so bad.” This is a common strategy that trauma survivors use in an attempt to maintain a connection to caretakers who were their perpetrators.
Ever since people's responses to overwhelming experiences have been systematically explored, researchers have noted that a trauma is stored in somatic memory and expressed as changes in the biological stress response.
Therapists most often reported feeling sad while crying, and grief was most often the topic of discussion. In 55% of these experiences, therapists thought that clients were aware of the crying, and those therapists who discussed their crying with their clients reported improved rapport as a result of the crying.
Other manifestations of childhood trauma in adulthood include difficulties with social interaction, multiple health problems, low self-esteem and a lack of direction. Adults with unresolved childhood trauma are more prone to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suicide and self-harm.
What is Trauma blocking? Trauma blocking is an effort to block out and overwhelm residual painful feelings due to trauma. You may ask “What does trauma blocking behavior look like? · Trauma blocking is excessive use of social media and compulsive mindless scrolling.
If you have experienced a traumatic event and do not address it, it can lead to mental and physical health conditions, such as depression or heart disease.
The Trauma Test is a brief self-administered rating scale. It is useful in determining the degree to which you struggle with the aftermath of trauma, anxiety or depression, nervous system overarousal, and difficulty with healing and recovery.
A study of young adults found that childhood trauma was significantly correlated with elevated psychological distress, increased sleep disturbances, reduced emotional well-being, and lower perceived social support.
Treatment for trauma
By concentrating on what's happening in your body, you can release pent-up trauma-related energy through shaking, crying, and other forms of physical release.
That is because the experience of stress, particularly traumatic stress, can trigger active survival responses of fight, flight, or freeze. When your body can't activate or complete these responses, those sensations become trapped in your nervous system.
Therapists may use different techniques such therapists tears such as active listening, validation, or simply allowing the client to express themselves without judgment in order to create a safe space where they can feel comfortable enough to cry.
It is completely normal to cry in therapy. Crying in therapy can actually be a sign of progress. People often feel uncomfortable crying in therapy due to fear of being vulnerable, belief that they need to be strong or concerns about being judged.