6 Symptoms of Trauma
When you experience trauma, the brain associations the sights, sounds, smells, and other sensory experiences happening during the event with the traumatic event. If the trauma is not treated, the symptoms discussed below will continue and often manifest into worse problems.
These six trauma symptoms can occur directly after the event or take days, weeks, months, and even years to manifest. It’s not hard to figure out what went wrong if you experience symptoms immediately, but if you don’t even remember what happened to you, it can be a whole other ball game to figure it out.
The important thing is if you have any of these six trauma symptoms, you may want to take some time to take care of yourself and see a professional trauma counselor to help you.
Anxiety and Depression
Anxiety manifests as fear and worry and happens to everyone sometimes. However, this type of anxiety interferes with your ability to enjoy your life and make good decisions as it is overwhelming. There are numerous types of anxiety and subsets of anxiety that, if left untreated, can lead to depression which is harder to treat.
Sleep Disturbances
Many people who have experienced trauma first notice that they have issues getting to sleep and staying asleep or may find that they cannot wake up. Some people experience night terrors, sleepwalking, and other problems that make it hard to negotiate their day. In addition, many trauma survivors report teeth grinding, and no matter how tired, sleep is elusive. Finally, some report easily falling asleep during work or right in the middle of important activities.
Substance Abuse
Many people with undiagnosed trauma experiences self medicate by using innocent and legal drugs or even food to numb themselves against the feelings they are experiencing. Some substance abusers don’t do it every day. Some can control themselves enough to get through the week but fall apart on the weekend. Don’t think you’re safe from being a substance abuser because you aren’t a daily drinker.
Eating Disorders
Some trauma survivors experience disordered eating from anorexia to overeating and binge eating. Eating disorders work the same way as substance abuse to numb the emotions and take the focus off the real problem while creating a whole other one.
Chronic Illness
From heart diseases, diabetes to chronic pain conditions like fibromyalgia, there are valid studies showing trauma survivors experience them more than the general population.
Mood Disorders
Bipolar disorder, or simply being agitated and jumpy and easily angered, hypervigilant or combative, is a trauma response that you may not even be aware that you’re doing. For example, if you rush around in the morning and lose your temper with your child, this may be a trauma response, especially if you get agitated very easily. The other problem that might occur is suicidal ideation which may encompass fleeting thoughts of not being here combined with actual planning.
To manage your symptoms, it’s important that you try to figure out your triggers, trace your life to find the originating traumatic event that has led you to this space, and then find a way to mitigate the damage. Most of all, find a way to reach out to someone you trust so that you can talk through your experiences and deal with your trauma and symptoms of trauma head-on.
By Team MITM LLC,