Many people experience trauma. Life can be full of difficult experiences, each experience being individual, trauma included.
There are 3 main categories of trauma: acute, chronic, and complex.
Acute trauma
This is typically a one-time event that is extreme enough to threaten the emotional and/or the physical safety of a person. For example, this could be an assault, a natural disaster, or an accident. These types of events may leave lasting impressions on the mind.
Chronic trauma
This happens when a person is exposed to something threatening to their emotional or physical safety for a prolonged period of time. This can also be experienced if different situations happen multiple times. Examples of this are often bullying, physical abuse from a caregiver or spouse, sexual abuse, even things like war.
Complex trauma
This is usually interpersonal, or occurs between two people. Often this involves situations of being or feeling trapped in the relationship. These situations may be planned or extreme and can be repeated. Again, the emotional and physical safety is threatened extremely in these situations.
When we experience any type of trauma, our brain codes this differently. And when our amygdala (the part of the brain that keeps us safe) signals danger, we become “triggered” to respond to protect ourselves. The trigger could be a smell, a taste, a tone of voice, a crowd of people, certain music...any number of things that aren’t particularly tied to the event themselves but create that type of feeling in our body that we associate with the trauma.
For example, take a soldier that has just returned from the front lines of battle, whose senses have been heightened. They’ve become hyper-aware of their surroundings. They spent time on the front lines watching their back, taking note of exits. So when he goes to the movies, the lights go down, the speakers blare, and he may feel a sense of panic. He can’t clearly see his exits. If he isn’t sitting in the back row, he may panic about what people behind him are doing. This signaling of danger may have saved him on the front lines; however, it’s more a sense of stress and overstimulation at the movies.
Triggers can happen at any time and can be overwhelming for the person who is triggered, as well as the people around them. It’s important to recognize when triggers occur so that you can take steps to calm your nervous system.
2 small steps to take when you are feeling triggered:
1: Remove yourself from the situation--especially in the first phases of treating your trauma, when feeling triggered, the best thing you can do is remove yourself from the danger.
2: Breathe--once you have removed yourself from the danger or the trigger, calm your nervous system by taking deep breaths. Be sure to go in through your nose and out through your mouth. You can do a box breath by inhaling for 5 counts, hold the breath for 5 counts, exhale for 5 counts, and hold the breath out for 5 counts. It can even be helpful to draw a box in your mind as you do this. Do this 5 to 10 times to calm your nervous system.
Trauma is a complicated issue to traverse, so start with these two steps, and then find a therapist you trust and connect with. At Cache Valley Counseling we have EMDR-trained therapists who specialize in this type of therapy that has been found to be effective in treating trauma. Schedule a discovery visit with them today!