Psychic trauma: concept, realities... and some myths.

Demystifying psychic trauma: it is probably not what you thought it was.

Let's imagine a frozen lake. Yes, like the ones in American movies, where children skate and play ice hockey. Or better, like those on which the heroes walk very slowly so as not to crack the surface. Better like the latter.

Rarely do we imagine that that lake could bear any resemblance to our mind, much less to our happiness.. Possibly we live in a reality in which our well-being, instead of being that lake, is a compact glacier, where it is difficult to scratch the surface, and we do not even consider the possibility of sinking.

But what would happen if we could? What if the layer of ice that separates us from the murky depths were as thin as cigarette paper, and gave us the sensation of being on the verge of breaking. Can you imagine the constant stress and panic to which we would be subjected?

This (note the literary license), in addition to many other things, is what makes up the reality of a traumatized person, or in other words, one who suffers symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And yet, he continues to live; he does not die of fear, just as we think it would happen to us if we lived the ice metaphor.

What is trauma and what really happens?

The trauma has been used by all artistic disciplines to generally exemplify madness. Soldiers who abuse their spouses, traumatized children who become abusers, abused teenagers who become serial killers.... And we could go on and on.

But, making an effort to avoid clichés, let's start with the real meaning of this label in clinical practice. The post-traumatic stress disorder is a diagnostic label that symptoms that may occur after witnessing a life-threatening or integrity-threatening event (physical or psychological), responding with intense fear, helplessness or horror reactions. (physical or psychological), responding to it with reactions of intense fear, helplessness or horror.

Symptoms of psychic trauma

Now, broadly speaking, these symptoms included in the label would involve:

• Persistent re-experiencing of the traumatic event.. The person begins to go through moments in which uncontrolled memories of the trauma, emotions experienced at the time, and an intense discomfort when coming into contact with everything that reminds him/her of the trauma. For example, if one of the things related to the event is sweating, it is possible that this re-experiencing occurs when sweating.

• Avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma. All kinds of strategies are generated that can help to avoid something related to the trauma, even if not explicitly. In the previous example, sport could be something to avoid.

• Symptoms of hyperarousal such as inability to fall asleep, outbursts of angerIn other words, forms of hyperarousal such as inability to sleep, outbursts of anger, difficulties in concentration, hypervigilance or exaggerated alarm response. In other words, ways in which the mind accounts for the fear of the situation experienced.

• General discomfort and interruption of the normal functioning of the person in any important aspect. It is possible that in the trauma also depressive or anxious symptoms are generated; emotions of guilt or shame that put at stake the self-esteem and the self-concept of the person.

• Dissociative amnesiacaused by shock or feelings of guilt, shame or anger. It has many negative effects, such as the inability to express what happened in the trauma or to reevaluate it. Instinctively it may seem useful, since if the bad is forgotten, it is "as if it did not exist", but nothing could be further from the truth; unblocking emotions that arose at that moment and rewriting or reinterpreting what happened is basic for recovery.

"Return" to being the same

It is important to emphasize that like the rest of the diagnostic labels, this particular one is just a way of calling a grouping of symptoms, of problems, to put it bluntly.. Just that. "Post-traumatic stress" does not mean: "having a cluster of problems and also being out of your mind". Although this is a very widespread way of using labels, let us plead for respect.

However, why this particular viciousness? It may be because of the morbidity that mental illness can produce, and because of the way it has been sold for so many years. There is a myth that traumatized people are broken forever, and this is false.. "He is traumatized, he will never be the same". No, this is not so. Psychic trauma does not imply a chronic situation of discomfort and disorder with no way back.

Beyond recovery, which is definitely possible and for which there are a wide variety of treatments (narrative therapy, biofeedback, or the applications of cognitive-behavioral therapies and rational emotive therapy, to mention a few), it is necessary to attack the dichotomous approach to traumatic trauma, it is necessary to attack the dichotomous approach that today's society offers us on these issues. society offers us today on these issues.

Concluding

The doubt of "going back to being the same", in spite of being logical, ends up being more one of those movie fears than a phrase with a real meaning.. In the human being, learning is continuous, and therefore, being the same as before necessarily implies "not moving forward" or "not living". It would be unfair and illogical to require anyone (with or without trauma) to go back to being exactly the same as they were before. We are in constant evolution, in constant construction.

And in this problematic, going back to the way we were before can be a very hard cliché. An impossible test if we remember the stress and panic of getting lost in the depths. We can give the option of being "the one before" and "something else".

And it is in that "something else" where everyone has the freedom to live or to move forward. But always both at the same time.