We all have our own struggles in life, some more serious than others but there are usually underlying reasons for them that may not have been addressed at the time and have manifested to cause issues later in life. Mental health issues developed when you are a child such as being bullied at school or domestic abuse by a family member can haunt you without you even realizing it. Addiction to alcohol or narcotics whether legal or illegal is often a way of trying to deal with whatever is troubling you. With so many aspects of our lives that can be disrupted by mental health and addictions, trauma resolution is often the only way to beat the demons that may be ruining your life and the loved ones around you.
Nobody should be ashamed to talk to friends, family, or even a qualified medical professional, if you feel you are having mental health issues, seeking help is much better than dealing with it on your own. Stress and trauma can have serious effects on domestic relationships and your professional career. Here are some of the reasons people can suffer and potential ways to help with underlying problems that you or a friend may be experiencing.
Table of Contents
Understanding Psychological and Emotional Trauma
Trauma can be the unfortunate product of a physical injury, a car accident, for example. But this is not always the case as any situation that has made you feel overwhelmed or isolated can increase trauma, it doesn’t need to be a physical situation. Coping with the trauma of a manmade or natural disaster is also a trigger, whilst most of us will thankfully never have to endure on a personal level terrorist attacks, plane crashes, mass shootings, or serious accidents we are exposed via social media or news outlets to it every day and this can have an impact on us and our the psychological frame of mind.
Being exposed to images on a daily basis to horrific scenes from around the world can overwhelm the nervous system and result in traumatic stress. Whatever the trigger may be it is important to address the need for help regardless of whether trauma has been brought on today, yesterday, or even years ago.
Childhood Trauma and the Consequences in Adulthood
Trauma is often brought on by an event that has shocked you like a sudden loss in the family or to one of your friends, but most trauma is unfortunately born from childhood. There many ways this can occur and some you even don’t remember either through regression or because it happened at such an early stage of your life, some of the causes that can trauma include:
- The separation from a parent or both parents
- Growing up in an unsafe or unstable environment
- Being neglected as a child
- Receiving or being a witness to domestic violence
- Potentially life-threatening or serious illness
- Being a victim of verbal, physical or, sexual abuse
The effects that can occur are long-lasting and sometimes not triggered for many years after childhood. Being able to talk about your traumatic youth can help to alleviate some of the pain that you may be feeling, helplessness, and a sense of fear is very common among adults.
What are the Common Symptoms of Emotional Trauma?
We all react in different ways to traumatic events at any age, some people are not fazed by something that they may have witnessed or endured. There is no correct way on how to deal with things and everybody is different. Psychological and emotional symptoms that can occur include:
- Mood swings, anger, and irritability are common
- Difficulty concentrating or confusion
- Anxiety or fear
- Withdrawal from other people company
- Feeling numb and disconnected
- A hopeless or sad feeling
- The feeling of denial, shock, or disbelief
These are all common feelings when experiencing psychological and emotional trauma. The symptoms of trauma can also affect you physically too, including:
- Insomnia or nightmares
- Muscle tension
- An erratic heartbeat
- Finding it hard to concentrate
- Being on edge and agitated
- Aches and pains throughout the body you have not experienced before
- Being easily startled
Trauma does affect people in a variety of different ways and should not be ignored either emotional, physical, or phycological can have a detrimental effect on the quality of life you or a loved one may be experiencing.
The First Steps in Helping Somebody to Recover From Trauma
Trauma typically lasts from a few days to months depending on the individual and the severity of the cause. These emotions and physical symptoms can return due to the anniversary of a traumatic experience or even a picture of somebody you may have lost. If these symptoms persist and you find yourself unable to move on from whichever event that triggered your trauma you may be experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. It is especially common among servicemen and women returning from deployment in hostile environments or even peacekeeping and humanitarian missions due to the sights they endure.
Trauma disrupts the body and its natural equilibrium leaving you frozen and in a state of shock. But there are some techniques that can help you, including:
- Exercising daily for a short amount of time, even just 30 minutes can massively help to take your mind off the problem. Walking with a friend or family member can be great and even if you don’t feel like talking they will understand and just be happy to help.
- Dancing, running, swimming, or cycling help you to engage both your arms and legs and make the endorphins in your body relax your mind.
- By exercising you are concentrating your thoughts on what you are doing and thinking less about the problems you may have. The social experience of exercise that often exists can be very therapeutic, meeting new people can be a positive element to recovery.
Trying not to isolate is very important, it may seem that all you want to do is be on your own but this makes things worse. Having social interaction with close friends and family who understand you is very important. Even now with the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures in place in many countries, you can still take face to face via social media apps with video calls or even whilst practicing social distancing set up chairs in the garden at the required distance and still talk to somebody.
Conclusion
Many people experience mental health issues during their lifetime with no real serious consequences but with as many as one in four people of the population needing help at some point during their lives, it is not something to be taken lightly. It is not easy to ask for help either from a close friend or loved one but they will be there for you. If you feel you cannot talk to somebody you know then ask your local doctor to refer you to a trained professional which you may be more comfortable talking to.
The most important thing is there is always light at the end of the tunnel, emotional and physical trauma should not be ignored, help is often just a phone call away and it can change your life around and make the world seem a better place again.
