Emotional trauma: what is it and what psychological problems does it generate?

Painful memories can leave a psychological imprint on us that damages us for years.

When we talk about emotional traumathe image that may come to mind is usually that of something catastrophic. However, trauma is much more than that, since we are exposed to micro-traumas from birth.

What is an emotional trauma?

Our organism considers an emotionally traumatic situation to be any event for which we are not prepared and which generates a strong load of emotional pain..

Since we do not have the necessary tools for our system to store it in memory in a healthy and adaptive way, what our brain does with this painful information is to encapsulate it so that it can continue to function in the healthiest possible way for the person. But it is precisely the fact of blocking it that makes it become a trauma.

Its psychological consequences

Unresolved emotional traumas may be associated with the development of mental disorders that lead the person to organize his or her own perception of reality and lifestyle around that problem.

Among the usual consequences that begin to affect our lives are the following.

1. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Known as trauma pathology, it occurs in situations in which the situation is relived in the form of intrusive memories. When the associated emotional impact is very high, the person may "disconnect" that information from his or her head, giving rise to dissociative disorders, which in a certain way becomes the person's only recourse to be able to continue living with that trauma. the person's only resource to be able to continue living with this trauma..

2. Anxiety and panic attacks

Associated to the emotion of fear, it places us in a point of constant activation when different emotional memories are connected various emotional memories are connected to some aspect of our life..

3. Depression

If after the trauma the person begins to feel emotions of guilt, helplessness and disillusionment, a depressive state may develop.a depressive condition may develop.

How to overcome it?

Processing emotional traumas is necessary, as it is the only way in which pathologically stored information can be reconfigured by changing the psychological impact it provokes.

In order to carry out this re-processing of information, there are several state-of-the-art techniques, which help in a more rapid way to establish new "corrective" emotional memories of this painful information. with respect to that painful information. In this new processing of the painful information is the stage in which the change is made between "living accepting the past" and "fighting with the past in order to live".

What happens if the trauma occurs in childhood?

Given that childhood is the time when our "I" begins to be built, and that our brain develops 80% in the first two years of life, a child whose parents are not able to deal with the traumatic events of the past will not be able to live, a child whose parents are not able to recognize his or her basic emotional needs can develop an attachment problem that leads to and maintains into adulthood. This is why we talk about secure attachment in childhood as a protective factor for mental health in adulthood.

Making repairs of a trauma often leads us to work on some aspects of childhood that may be forgotten or even that we have not paid attention to for years, but that nevertheless have served for our system to organize itself in a certain way around this information.

Paradoxically, it is sometimes believed that a trauma such as an accident, an earthquake or a flood, is difficult to overcome. But, contrary to this belief, psychologists know that the traumas that we call complex traumas are those that come from ruptures in the brain. are those that come from ruptures in attachment.This is based on a simple foundation of trust with others, which in childhood translates into the caregiver's ability to look at us, take care of us, give us security and, above all, give us love.

Author: Ana Carcedo Bao, Psychologist