What is trauma and how does it influence our lives?

This kind of emotional and psychological wounds can break our personality.

Trauma is a reality in our livesIt is something much more frequent and common than it may seem. Its etymological root comes from Greek, and means "wound".

It is traditionally considered as the consequence of an event, which generates psychic or physical disorders that affect the quality level of our lives. However, a trauma is not a life sentence.

What is trauma?

Emotional trauma is a "psychological wound" that can be triggered by various situations, usually extraordinary, disturbing, unsettling, overwhelming and upsetting, that go beyond the usual experiences.

These highly stressful situations would include major natural disasters, wars, accidents, abuse..., "serious threats to life or physical integrity, real threats or harm to children, spouse, relatives, friends; sudden destruction of the home, community; witnessing the death or serious injury of another person as a result of an accident or an act of physical violence" (DSM-5).

Also may also encompass apparently minor experiences, such as: an operation, an operation, an accident, or an act of physical violence" (DSM-5).such as: an operation, a fall, a punishment, serious illness, lack of protection, humiliation, change of roles in the family, migration to another city or country... which can also be experienced in a traumatic way.

In fact, it is not so much the dimension of the event itself that determines the damage produced, but rather its effects will also depend on each individual, his or her history and emotional environment, the evolutionary moment in which it occurred and its repetition over time.

On the other hand, it must be taken into account that the appearance of traumas can also be favored by the consumption of substances with psychoactive effects.. However, in the case that the consumption of these products is due to the follow-up of a pharmacological treatment supervised by doctors, the probabilities of this occurring are very low, and also in these cases professional help is available that can prevent the development of complications early on.

The effects of trauma

Trauma, regardless of its origin, affects a person's health, safety and well-being to such an extent that he or she may develop false and destructive beliefs that can lead to develop false and destructive beliefs about themselves about themselves and the world around them.

It is generally considered normal to react to certain events with sadness, anxiety, anger, irritability, behavioral disturbances, substance use, etc. for a short period of time (Reijneveld, Crone, Verlhust and Verloove-Vanhorick, 2003, Dyregrow and Yule, 2006). Sometimes, however, these difficulties become so intense and long-lasting, that they cause serious problems in personal functioning and psychosocial adaptation..

To account for these more intense and damaging phenomena, the WHO classification (ICD-10, 1992), proposes a category of stress and trauma-induced disorders, which includes Acute and Chronic PTSD, Adjustment Disorders and Enduring Personality Changes following a catastrophic situation.

In these different psychological disorders trauma is expressed in different ways, but all of them usually involve to a greater or lesser extent episodes of extreme distress and dissociation.

Blocked memories

It must be taken into account that we are not always able to remember everything that has happened to us throughout our lives. sometimes memories of traumatic events are forgotten or fragmented.

According to the psychological current born with psychoanalysisThese are dissociative phenomena that make it impossible to remember what happened, which arise as a defense mechanism elaborated by our psyche, which provides us with a natural protective response to the overwhelming traumatic experience, allowing us to survive (Kisiel and Lyons, 2001). According to these hypotheses, the memory would not be lost, but remains in the memory in a latent and inaccessible form, until, thanks to a therapeutic process or some event in the subject's life, it is spontaneously recovered partially or totally (A.L. Manzanero and M. Recio, 2012).

The consideration of such a strong impact that it causes changes in the personality is of great importance for the study of the person and his emotional development, since adverse situations, close and daily, not only can determine symptoms and psychological alterations, but that come to compromise the complete development of the personality.

When they appear during childhood and adolescence

Posttraumatic reactions in childhood and adolescence can be expressed in different psychopathological forms (Copeland, Keeller, Angold and Costello et al., 2007).

Several studies on abusive situations in childhood found that the main psychological consequences of trauma were: depression, anxiety, self-hatred, difficulty in modulating anger, dissociation, blunting, difficulties in attention and concentration, difficulty in impulse control, substance abuse, self-injurious behaviors and risky behaviors, submissiveness and dependence, strong sense of vulnerability and danger (Herman, 1992); revictimization, interpersonal and intimate relationship problems, somatization and medical problems, loss of trust towards other people, feelings of helplessness and helplessness, traumatic sexualization, feelings of shame and guilt (Finkelhor, 1988).

These people present great hopelessness about the world and the future, they believe that they will not find anyone.They believe that they will not find anyone who understands them or who understands their suffering, maintaining a great internal conflict, with high levels of anguish. The positive emerges when they try to find someone to help them recover from their distress, their somatic worries and their sense of despair or hopelessness. (Amor, Echeburúa, Corral, Sarasua and Zubizarreta, 2001).

Characteristics of psychic wounds

Scientific research on trauma affirms that expressing one's feelings and intense emotional states in a cathartic way makes it possible to cope with difficult situations, reducing the likelihood of obsessive ruminations and increasing physiological activity. and increased physiological activity (Penneba and Susman, 1988).

Furthermore, it has been shown that social support, such as talking to a family member or friend about a problem, is one of the most highly valued mechanisms for coping with difficult emotional situations (Folkman et al., 1986; Vázquez and Ring, 1992, 1996), as well as buffering one's own stress (Barrera, 1988). In fact, the lack of close people to rely on in difficult circumstances radically increases the risk of depressive episodes in vulnerable people (Brown and Harris, 1978).

The importance of attitude and mindset

People with an optimistic attitude seem to handle better the symptoms of physical illnesses such as cancer, chronic diseases, cardiac surgery, etc. (Scheier and Carver, 1978). (Scheier and Carver, 1992), which seems to be due to the fact that the strategies used by these people tend to be more focused on the problem, on seeking social support and finding the positive sides of the stressful experience.

On the contrary, pessimists are characterized by the use of denial and distancing from the stressor, focusing more on the negative feelings produced by the situation (Avía and Vázquez, 1998). Thus, a personality pattern with a tendency towards good health, characterized by optimism, a sense of control and good characterized by optimism, a sense of control and a good capacity for adaptation (Taylor, 1991).

The treatment

Carrying out activities from Art Therapyas a space for the elaboration of the traumatic event, favors recovery, facilitates social reintegration and therapeutic rehabilitation through a creative process.

This type of techniques promote the expression of one's own feelings from a different language that allows the channeling of sensations, emotions and memories without pushing to catharsis or emotional overflow.offering a new way of expression that escapes resistance and verbal blockage, favoring the memory and the construction of a coherent story that makes it possible to understand what happened. This will allow the victim to integrate his or her experience, from a safe and non-judgmental environment ("Art therapy and art education papers for social inclusion", Mónica Cury Abril, 2007).

Thus, trauma does not have to be a life sentence. During the healing process, a renewing evolution can be generated, capable of improving our quality of life, becoming an experience of transformation and metamorphosis (Peter A. Levine, 1997).

The capacity that we human beings have to forgive, to recompose ourselves, to move forward, to prosper, to enlighten ourselves, to overcome trials and events, to get up and reemerge with a triumphant smile when we rediscover our identity, with love... is spectacular and simply admirable.

Bibliographical references:

• Neria, Y.; Nandi, A. & Galea, S. (2008). Post-traumatic stress disorder following disasters: a systematic review. Psychological medicine, 38(4): pp. 467 - 480.
• Seligman, M.E.P. & Maier, S.F. (1967). Failure to escape traumatic shock. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74: pp. 1 - 9.
• Steele K.; van der Hart O.; Nijenhuis, E.R. (2005). Phase-oriented treatment of structural dissociation in complex traumatization: overcoming trauma-related phobias. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation. 6 (3): pp. 11 - 53.
• Whitfield, C. (2010). Psychiatric drugs as agents of Trauma. The International Journal of Risk and Safety in Medicine, 22(4): pp. 195 - 207.