trauma Examples
Dear clients,
As you know, trauma refers to any distressing situation that overwhelms a person's ability to cope with what happened. The impact of trauma and the manner in which it is processed and dealt with differs from person to person.
In South Africa, most people tend to assume that trauma is just related to crimes such as losing a loved one to murder, witnessing violence, or experiencing any of the following: a sexual assault, domestic violence, hijackings, armed robberies, or home invasions. When asked to list other types of trauma, the most common responses are car accidents and bullying.
Trauma can also include drownings, witnessing someone die, legal issues, divorce, infidelity, relocation, near-death experiences, birth complications (i.e. getting an emergency C-Section), losing a pet, the death of a friend/family member, retrenchment, being diagnosed with a terminal or lifelong illness etc.
Trauma can also be caused by factors that we don't usually think about such as parental neglect, being abandoned by someone like a parent or a partner, childhood abuse, not having your emotional needs met, having a miscarriage or a stillbirth, suddenly facing social exclusion from friends or peers, and more.
Trauma is not limited to any event or situation and it is entirely possible for someone to become traumatized by something that others consider to be "not so bad." The important thing is that you find help from someone who is trained to assist in the provision of trauma counseling or trauma debriefings.
Be blessed,
Madeleine