Understanding Trauma
“Trauma is an overwhelming event or experience that exceeds one’s capacity to cope and can have a lasting and disintegrating effect on the mind and body.”
Did you know that an estimated 50-70% of people in the US will experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime? If trauma is a part of life for more than half of America, we need to bring more awareness and education to it.
It’s hard to say specifically what trauma is, or what constitutes it, because it can be different for everyone (we’ll talk about that more in a minute). But it can be generally defined, and I find the above highlighted definition to be one of the most comprehensive.
In this week’s post I want to walk through this definition in hopes that we begin to understand trauma better. As we understand trauma we can learn to live with it and work through it more effectively. As we work through trauma effectively we find healing and renewed hope in our lives.
*Let me just reiterate this: I am not a licensed counselor or therapist. I cannot safely and effectively treat your trauma, nor is it my intent to do so in this post. The information and education I offer here is the result of courses I’ve completed through the AACC, as well as general knowledge and life experience; but I’m no professional. I’m just a mental-health-loving follower of Jesus who is passionate about helping others live free from their trauma.
“Trauma is an overwhelming event or experience that exceeds one’s capacity to cope and can have a lasting and disintegrating effect on the mind and body”.
The reason trauma can be a little hard to specify is because it has less to do with the event and more to do with our reaction to that event. There is a threshold in each of us for being able to cope with an experience. When that threshold is crossed-when we are too overwhelmed that we can no longer cope-we have entered into a traumatic state of being.
What we often overlook, or misunderstand, is the fact that everyone has a different threshold. Two people can endure the same event, or have the same experience, and react very differently. A divorce may be traumatic for one person, while it’s not traumatic for someone else.
Of course there are some events that are more likely to cause trauma in any given person; things like gun violence or a car accident, where the life of the person is threatened. But, whether that event is deemed trauma for that specific individual or not will depend on their reaction and the lasting effects on their mind and body.
Now when I say “a person’s reaction” to trauma, I’m not talking about a controlled, or pre-determined, response. I’m talking about the uncontrolled emotional, physical and psychological response to a painful or threatening experience. During trauma, your mind, your emotions, your nervous system, and your hormones become so overwhelmed that your body literally begins to shut down. It’s too much to process and too much to fight, so the body relents and accepts whatever fate may befall it.
Think of someone in shock after major trauma like a terrorist attack. Some things you notice about their demeanor is an inability to think logically (this part of the brain shuts down during trauma), an inability to process what’s happening (usually a blank stare and not talking), and an inability to run from or fight the present threat (their movements are frozen). They have become so overwhelmed that their body has shut down.
If this feels familiar in your own life, even on a smaller scale, you may have been through something traumatic. You may not have been frozen or unable to speak, but you struggled to process the situation and felt incapable of making decisions.
You need to know, everyone needs to know, that trauma has an effect on us that we cannot control in the moment. You have not done anything wrong and you are not pathetic for being overwhelmed and unable to cope. Even if what overwhelmed you wouldn’t be labeled “trauma” for someone else.
In addition to the response that trauma forces out of us in the moment of the event, it also produces long term effects on our body and mind.
An experience may overwhelm us but if, as soon as it’s resolved, we have no painful memory, triggers, or lingering effects then it likely was not trauma. No doubt it could have still been a painful moment, a crisis even, but nothing that takes a toll on you for the rest of your life like trauma would.
For someone who has been in a traumatic car accident, long term effects could include:
a fear of being on the highway or in a car at all
the sound of a car horn triggering flashbacks
a sudden panicked feeling when something quickly moves towards them
The initial traumatic experience is so intense that the body holds onto it. The mind and body retains the sights, the smells, the sounds, and the feelings of the event so that it can protect itself the next time around. Something like the smell of burning rubber can send the mind and body right back to the car accident, causing the person to feel fear and overwhelm all over again.
These long term effects of trauma are the hardest to work through. It takes careful and methodical work with a therapist to undo these traumatic effects. It is most certainly not easy or quick work, but it is better than living the rest of our lives with triggers and fears that can overwhelm us time and time again.
Lacking awareness and knowledge on trauma leads to a misunderstanding of the fact that we cannot control our mind and body’s initial response to trauma. This misunderstanding causes us to believe that someone can get over their trauma by reading certain Bible verses, saying some extra prayers, or just waiting long enough for time to distance the event.
Misunderstanding trauma can create a barrier between our traumatic experience and our view of God.
I’m sure you’ve heard a version of this phrase before: “God will never give you more than you can handle.” Maybe you’ve said it to others, or yourself, as a means of comfort in difficult times. It’s always said with good intent and the hope of encouraging others, but I fear that many people don’t realize that it’s doing more harm than good. Here’s why:
Saying that God won’t give someone more than they can handle actually further discourages people when they’ve been through something that they, in fact, could not handle.
For someone who has been through trauma, this comes across as “If you were only a better Christian maybe you wouldn’t be hurting so much. You are weak and pathetic for being so hurt and distraught; pull yourself together.”
But let’s look back at our definition of trauma that says, “an event that exceeds one’s capacity to cope”. Trauma quite literally is defined as something that is more than we can handle!
So, trauma is more than we can handle, but we’re told that God won’t give us more than we can handle. The conclusion that trauma survivors draw then is that something must be wrong with them. They already felt broken by their experience, and now they feel broken in their faith.
When both our lives and our faith feel broken, we become hopeless. But I’m here to draw you back to hope.
Scripture does not teach that we will avoid traumatic or painful experiences, but it does give us countless examples where God gave comfort and strength to enable people to survive the experience.
Scripture also does not teach that we get through this life by our own merits and strength, nor is that what God expects from us. We need a community of friends, family, church, and professionals to help us through our trauma. God brings these people into our lives to help us.
Trauma will break you, it will overwhelm you, it will remind you of your weakness. But in our brokenness and weakness God offers His strength, and He delights in bringing us resources that guide us through healing.
If you have been through trauma I don’t believe that God was punishing you or teaching you a lesson. I also don’t believe that we should feel guilty or inadequate for the way that trauma affects us. I do believe though, that God longs to redeem us from our trauma. I believe that, the better we understand trauma, the better we can help ourselves and others through it.
If you recognize that trauma has had negative, lasting effects on your emotional and mental state, please work with a professional to work through the trauma. Find someone you feel comfortable with and trust. Finding the wrong person, or trying to heal ourselves alone, can lead to re-traumatization and more harm.
You are worth the hard work of healing trauma! Your life is worth putting in the effort to do more than just survive another day.
-Stephanie Lauren Auman
