A feeling of shame; an innate feeling that they are bad, worthless, or without importance. Suffering from chronic or ongoing depression. Practicing avoidance of people, places, or things that may be related to the traumatic event; this also can include an avoidance of unpleasant emotions.
The impact of unprocessed trauma will often result in unfamiliar mental and physical difficulties. After experiencing an overwhelming amount of stress, many of us will tend to use avoidance in the hope of overcoming the trauma which has taken place.
If you have or are experiencing any of the following, you may have unresolved trauma: unexplainable anger. flashbacks or reoccurring memories. sleeplessness.
Unprocessed trauma is trauma that continues to disrupt months or years after the originating event or events. Unprocessed trauma interferes with a sense of safety, relationships, and physiological responses to stress.
If you often feel as though your life has become unmanageable, this could be a sign that you have some unresolved emotional trauma. Emotional overreactions are a common symptom of trauma. A victim of trauma might redirect their overwhelming emotions towards others, such as family and friends.
Symptoms of Unresolved Trauma
Lack of trust and difficulty opening up to other people6. Dissociation and a persistent feeling of numbness7. Control issues, to overcompensate for feeling helpless during the traumatic incident8. Low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness9.
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.
The energy of the trauma is stored in our bodies' tissues (primarily muscles and fascia) until it can be released. This stored trauma typically leads to pain and progressively erodes a body's health. Emotions are the vehicles the body relies on to find balance after a trauma.
Trauma denial is a way to put distance between you and an overwhelming experience. It can be one of the many ways your brain tries to adapt and mitigate a reality collapse or a system overload, which can often happen after a traumatic event.
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.
Trauma Looks—And Feels—Different For Everyone
It's less commonly understood, however, that our bodies can hold unprocessed and unintegrated trauma. This leads to painful physical symptoms and even long-term disease.
Emotional Trauma Symptoms
Psychological Concerns: Anxiety and panic attacks, fear, anger, irritability, obsessions and compulsions, shock and disbelief, emotional numbing and detachment, depression, shame and guilt (especially if the person dealing with the trauma survived while others didn't)
The amygdala is responsible for the fight, flight or freeze response that can get stuck when people experience trauma. And the insula is responsible for our ability to control our emotional responses and immune system. People who are traumatised are frequently highly anxious or 'hyperaroused'.
When Symptoms Occur Without a History of Trauma. It is important to understand that trauma can be inherited independently of difficult family circumstances. A child can develop anxiety, depression, or other stress-related issues such as PTSD as a result of an inherited vulnerability rather than direct trauma.
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.
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.
Stressors and past trauma can often trigger patterns of overthinking as well. When these thought cycles start spiraling, it is oftentimes hard to break free from and move past them.
It's quite another to commit to discussing it with someone else. The truth about trauma therapy is that it may make you feel worse at times. Trauma shatters a person's sense of safety, so it's vital to find a mental health professional you feel comfortable sharing with and trust to lead you through the healing process.
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.
Trauma can interfere with regions of the brain that govern fear and stress responses, emotion regulation, and executive functions. These neurological effects increase the risk of developing emotional, behavioral, and mental health problems, especially when trauma occurs in childhood.