Trauma Symptoms May Be Adaptive

A trauma can shake the foundation of one's beliefs regarding safety, as well as shatter assumptions of trust. It is a condition so far removed from what one expects that a traumatic event can provoke reactions that are strange as well as crazy, to say the least. The symptoms of trauma can possibly be adaptive and may originally evolve to help concerned caregivers recognize as well as treat such dangerous situations immediately before it become too late. The symptoms may last a few days or weeks after a disturbing experience and not everyone that experiences a traumatic event will go on to suffer serious traumatic symptoms.

Strongly Subjective Views About Their Experience

People in trauma would be strongly subjective about their experience with unfortunate events, and it is most clearly visible in case of disasters where a wide spectrum of the population becomes exposed to the same (objectively speaking) traumatic experience. Differences in individual temperaments and abilities to cope with stress and disaster will lead to different responses to a given traumatic experience.

The purest meaning of trauma can be that of being exposed to life-threatening experiences. It fits well with phylogenetic roots in the struggle to survive as well as with the involvement of older brain structures in responding to stress as well as terror. Persons who are not directly threatened may show signs of being traumatized by simply being exposed to violations by people or institutions that they depend on or repose their trust in.

Persons who have been betrayed by someone that they have depended on for survival may suffer trauma, and good examples of such instances include sexually abused children as well as war veterans. Such traumatic responses may manifest themselves in psychogenic amnesia and one way to alleviate such a condition would be to forget as well as maintain a posture of confidence to overcome the feelings of betrayal and being let down that a person experiences.

Being exposed to trauma will increase the risk of having post traumatic stress disorder, and chronic or multiple traumatic experiences will become much more difficult to overcome than single instances. To make matters worse, some of the traumatic feelings that a person feels may rub off on those that are helping the traumatized person. Such persons, including psychologists as well as other mental health professionals and emergency workers can find being exposed to an overdose of victim suffering a contagious condition, and thus run the risk of getting secondary traumatization which is also known as compassion fatigue, secondary or vicarious traumatization as well as "burn out". They may thus need to take recourse to stress reduction or stress management to cope with such secondary traumatization.

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