Traumatic Life Events: Reflective Thinking

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  1. Introduction
  2. General Information About the Psychology of Trauma
  3. Intergenerational Trauma
  4. Child Trauma
  5. Impact of Traumatic Events on Personality
  6. Causes, Background, and Risk Factors
  7. Practice in a Broader Sense: Changes in Social Structure
  8. Conclusion
  9. References

Introduction

In the modern world, a person is constantly exposed to many environmental influences. In our lives, there are many sources of psychological traumatization of the individual, and the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder are not rare among people around. Traumatic life events often lead to stress, mental health deterioration, and the emergence of various mental disorders and diseases. I think it is essential that during the course, we consider the topics of psychic trauma, its consequences, and ways of treatment. By the end of the course, I gained much knowledge about the traumatic experience of a person or group of people, as well as their characteristics and ways of solving numerous psychological problems.

General Information About the Psychology of Trauma

Psychological trauma is a broad concept used in modern psychology and psychotherapy. Trauma occurs due to stress that turns out to be excessive for the psyche. The result of psychological trauma is the emergence of different pathological conditions, including depression and anxiety (Ringel & Brandell, 2020). A person feels helpless: he or she no longer feels safe; there is a feeling that they can no longer control his life and be confident in the future. Both psychological and physical (somatic) symptoms may occur. Psychological include tension, anxiety, obsessive thoughts about what happened that are difficult to get rid of, tearfulness, apathy, a desire for solitude, or, on the contrary, fear of being alone and others (Ringel & Brandell, 2020). Psychological symptoms highly depend on personality type and manifest differently in different patients.

The patient may tend to suffer from psychosomatic disorders or somatization. In this case, somatic symptoms include tremors, chronic fatigue, insomnia, discomfort in the art, shortness of breath, numb limbs, unsteady gait, and others (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Modern psychotherapy offers a complete and high-quality treatment of such pathological conditions. All that is needed to restore the psyche is to consult a specialist and undergo an entire course of treatment. Remembering the traumatized psyche is fragile, meaning only a specialist can solve psycho-emotional problems (Kolk, 2005). Dealing with trauma by oneself increases the risk of retraumatization due to constant reminders of the circumstances of the injury.

Thus, by trauma, I now understand a critical incident for an individual, affecting significant aspects of his existence. It leads to deep psychological distress, which can result in adjustment and stress-related disorders (Perry & Pollard, 2018). Based on the information received during the work on past projects, I realized that psychological trauma could affect the social existence of an individual. (Harvey, 2021). In addition, trauma can be general and affect entire generations without them even realizing it.

Intergenerational Trauma

In connection with the general nature of trauma for entire generations, separate areas of psychology are distinguished, which primarily study the relationship and causes of the transmission of trauma. Intergenerational transmission is a phenomenon that unfolds between generations, through which their continuity is realized. It is the spread from previous generations to descendants of structuring elements and pathological (including mental traumas) (Atkinson, 2002). The transfer of mental content between generations of a family group is necessary for the socialization of new family members, the formation of their individuality, the assimilation and appropriation of family history, and the individual experience of ancestors (Hill et al., 2010). Mental elements, the mental inheritance, become the basis for forming specific life scenarios.

Children experience and understand the world primarily through their immediate caregivers and are therefore, heavily influenced by the modeling of those around them. They copy the behavior of their parents and learn to navigate future relationships based on what they have learned. (Grill, 2005). Sustainable coping mechanisms can be forged from efforts to avoid and fix abusive behavior, anger, depression, neglect, or other problem behaviors. (DePrince et al., 2009). Simple trauma describes a single limited traumatic event (such as an assault). Complex trauma occurs when a person experiences repetitive traumatic events or when new, unique traumatic incidents occur. (Herman, 1992). At an early age, it can be detrimental to many aspects of a child’s development.

Child Trauma

Trauma of any kind harms the process of socialization of children. It is difficult for them to make friends, communicate with new people, and adapt to unfamiliar conditions. The psyche of a traumatized child is prone to the formation of obsessions, fears, and social phobias (Goodwin, 1988). In adults, the consequences of childhood psychological trauma manifest in a high risk of developing depression, a constant sense of guilt, irritability, and aggression (Cook et al., 2005). An extended stay in this state negatively affects the well-being and health of people. They cannot live a full life and experience difficulties in their personal life and communication.

The risk of exposure to complex trauma in children, as well as the response of the child and family, may depend on where they live and their ethnocultural heritage and traditions. For example, wars and genocide are widespread in some parts of the world, and inland cities often suffer from high levels of violence and racial tension. (Dempsey, 2022). Children, parents, teachers, religious leaders, and media from different cultural, national, linguistic, spiritual, and ethnic backgrounds identify critical constructs associated with trauma in many ways and expressions (Kolk, 2005). Psychologists claim that many adult survivors of a traumatic event develop obsessive-compulsive disorder (Janoff-Bulman, 2004). It is characterized by the occurrence of illogical obsessive thoughts and the performance of strange defensive actions. (Daniels, 2017). These factors become important when considering how to treat an injury.

As a result of the course, I learned that a combination of intergenerational and childhood trauma could occur; that is, childhood trauma is inherited. I can now use this knowledge in my future practice since each harm has its characteristics and approaches to treatment. It is noteworthy that intergenerational trauma is challenging to overcome within oneself or a family. As I understood from the course, significant changes are needed in the system of society and the state. For example, increasing tolerance among educational institutions: teachers, and students creates a healthy environment for those traumatized by society.

Looking at childhood trauma from a neurodevelopmental perspective provides new assessment, intervention, and policy directions. Chief among these is a clear neurobiological rationale for early detection and aggressive, proactive interventions that will improve the ability to protect, heal, educate and enrich traumatized and neglected children (Perry, 2009). Future clinical and research efforts in this area should begin with identifying and using child-specific and developmentally appropriate models (Nigg, 2016). It is essential to guide assessment, intervention, education, therapy, and policy.

All experiences change the brain, but not all experiences have the same effect on the brain. Because it develops and organizes at such an explosive rate during the first years of life, experiences during this period have more potential to positively and negatively affect the brain. (Lopez et al., 2021). Traumatic and therapeutic experiences affect the same brain and are constrained by the same principles of neurophysiology; traumatic events, however, disrupt homeostasis in many areas of the brain that respond to threats. The use-dependent internalization of experience elements creates memories that affect future functioning (Craig & Sporleder, 2017). In order to heal, therapeutic interventions must activate those parts of the brain that have been altered by trauma. Understanding the resilience of fear’s emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and physiological patterns can lead to purposeful therapeutic experiences (Tang, 2018). That, in turn, changes the parts of the brain affected by the damage.

Impact of Traumatic Events on Personality

Traumatic events (the nervous system internalizes their information components) produce indelible impressions through long and intense experiences, that is, through emotions. Sometimes the internal processing of a traumatic situation may not be expressed, and its external manifestations may appear after some time (Volkan, 2018). Often a problematic experience displaces and destroys specific properties necessary for life. Usually, strong currents affecting the psyche are processed through the process of symbolization and integrated into the narrative structures of the language (Ellis, 2019). The mind often cannot immediately symbolize the unbearable events that arise. It resorts to the illusion that unbearable events will never happen again, but the experience loses all its components in a severe case.

Trauma causes a ‘volcanic effect’ and destroys the connection between it and its figurative basis. When exposed to trauma, fragmentation of consciousness occurs, with different pieces organizing themselves by specific patterns; partial objects appear. The distressing experience experienced is not immersed in the flow of the mental process, where it could be processed into images. Instead, effective and associative blocking occurs. After that, a person can no longer give any meaning to the elements of his perception.

The term complex trauma describes the dual problem of the impact of traumatic events on children and the effect of this exposure on immediate and long-term outcomes. Complex traumatic impact refers to a child’s experience of multiple stressful events in the care system. This social environment should provide security and stability in a child’s life (Drewery, 2003). Typically, complex traumatic exposure refers to simultaneous or sequential manifestations of child abuse (Cook et al., 2005). It may include emotional abuse and neglect from the family and the state, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and more (Herman, 1992). Loss of a secure base, direction and inability to detect or respond to danger signals often leads to traumatic exposure (physical and sexual abuse or social violence).

As a result, the inner world of a person is inhabited by fragmentary irrational objects, nameless and torn off, alienated from personal meaning or meaning. It is not the traumatic situation that leads to the splitting of the psyche but the frightening meaning that the individual gives to this event. The traumatic experience is experienced as a fixed fear (Herman, 1992). Distress is caused not only by external events: the psyche translates external trauma into a self-injurious internal force that is initially protective but then becomes self-destructive (Li & Julian, 2012). Painful protections are highly resistant to change and can lead to complex injuries. In general, during the course, I realized that a significant part of psychological trauma is caused by the influence of an unhealthy system in society.

Causes, Background, and Risk Factors

It is generally accepted that psychological trauma always happens suddenly. It occurs at a time when a person is not at all prepared for a shocking event. However, this is not entirely true: incidents caused by Australia’s policy towards Aboriginal people have been going on for many decades. In one way or another, every family expected the child to be taken away, but the shock and the resulting trauma still overtook both children and their parents (Atkinson, 2002). Further, intergenerational trauma developed, which, although unconsciously but fairly expectedly, was instilled by the older generation into the younger one. In general, some conditions lead to psychological trauma with a high degree of probability (Luthar & Mendes, 2020):

  • The traumatic event happened unexpectedly; nothing indicated such a development of events.
  • There was no way to prevent the traumatic event. Alternatively, there was such an opportunity, but the patient did not take advantage of it.
  • The event was marked by cruelty or injustice.
  • There are prerequisites from childhood: the same traumatic event happened many years ago and was not worked out with a specialist.
  • The person had an ambiguous relationship with the victim (frequent fights or feelings of guilt).

Anything can become a psychological trauma – a loss, an episode of violence, an accident, a disease, a severe danger to life and health. A disturbing episode can occur with the patient, his or her relatives or friends, or in front of him/her.

Long-term adverse effects on the psyche can cause psychological trauma as well. For example, life in a family with frequent episodes of violence, a neighborhood with criminals or inadequate people, or a long illness. For sensitive people with a labile psyche, any event can lead to distress, which is called adjustment disorder, but it requires the help of a specialist (Idsoe et al., 2021). Such reasons may be moving to a new city, changing jobs with an increase in workload, and increased demands and competition. However, the following events most often lead to psychological trauma:

  • Domestic injuries, sports injuries.
  • Previous surgeries, mainly if the intervention occurred in childhood.
  • Death of a loved one.
  • Technogenic and anthropogenic disasters. Car accidents, plane crashes.
  • Breaking up in a relationship meant a lot.
  • A humiliating experience, intense disappointment in oneself or others (Coccolini et al., 2019).

One must understand that not all of the above situations will lead to psychological trauma. Some risk factors increase vulnerability to emotional shocks. For some people, a seemingly insignificant event can lead to injury, while someone easily endures an extended stay in a traumatic environment (Garland, 2018). Increased risk is noted in people who are in a state of constant stress. In addition, at-risk are people with childhood trauma, all those who have suffered from episodes of depression or an anxiety disorder (Herman, 1992). In such people, it is easy to provoke psychological damage and even easier to re-traumatize. In some patients diagnosed with some type of stress in the past, there was a certain predisposition to overreaction – an innate vulnerability to stress, otherwise called emotional lability by experts.

Practice in a Broader Sense: Changes in Social Structure

An equally important aspect of health is social health, which in the medical approach is understood as the optimally adequate conditions of the social environment. It prevents the emergence of socially conditioned diseases and social maladaptation. It determines the state of social immunity and the harmonious development of the individual in the social structure of society (Joon et al., 2022). In the pedagogical sense, social health is moral self-control, adequate self-esteem of, and self-determination of the individual in optimal social conditions of the micro-and macroenvironment (family, school, social group) (Southhall, 2019). The condition, process, and result of solving a psychological problem are implementing a health-oriented psychological system of the state of specific functions (Kryshtanovych et al., 2020). These functions include socialization, cultural, preventive, corrective, rehabilitation, and health promotion.

The allocation of the socialization function is determined by the need to solve the problem of including the individual in the system of social relations, in which a minor loss of mental health would occur. Along with this, their successful adaptation to social conditions and the possibility of maximizing the social and biological potential of the individual would be carried out (Caringi et al., 2015). On the other hand, it is essential to ensure that people independently reproduce a system of social relations oriented toward humanistic values, including the values of health and physical and mental health (Caringi et al., 2015). The health-saving function of socialization is manifested in educational activities and can be implemented in educational institutions (Durlak et al., 2011). Increasing the viability of students as a distinctive feature and result of the implementation of the socialization function of a health-saving pedagogical system is achieved by implementing the principle of the relationship between education and upbringing.

The cultural function is to create favorable conditions for mastering the experience of maintaining and strengthening health, forming a positive, humanistic individual consciousness. The culture of health is characterized by the formation:

  • structures of representations (learned information about the world, which a person uses to understand the world and based on which he builds his activities in the world),
  • structures of subjective attitude (subjectively colored reflection of the personality of the relationship of their needs with the objects and phenomena of the world);
  • structures of the strategy and technology of interaction (a set of methods and techniques necessary to perform a certain activity) (Bryndin, 2017).

Prevention, that is, the prevention of diseases, functional disorders, and deviations in personality development, is implemented through educational and psychological measures that eliminate the causes of occurrence. The mechanisms include a complex psycho-hygienic and psycho-prophylactic rationale for the educational process (Andriets & Andriets, 2017). The use of health-saving teaching methods and the creation of a comfortable psychological climate are integral parts of creating a psychologically healthy society.

Correctional work includes various methods and means to eliminate and minimize physical, psychological, and moral deviations in development from the norm. The rehabilitation function aims to restore lost personal property, that is, what was before, but lost for one reason or another. (Wolpow et al., 2009). The corrective function focuses on overcoming the backlog, identifying problems, and eliminating violations, for example, in behavior, defects, and anomalies (Wolpow et al., 2009). Therefore, the essence of the correctional function is to overcome harmful properties, that is, what has been formed or acquired, but contradicts personal and social needs.

In general, education plays an important role in the process of eliminating psychological traumas, especially childhood ones and creating an adequate social system, namely, teachers and their influence on students. The goal of rehabilitation pedagogy and psychology is to create a comfortable space around students (Spirina et al., 2020). The activities of the teacher and curator should be aimed at restoring students’ confidence in their abilities to create a situation of success. In addition, it is important to create a diverse worldview for children, which will increase tolerance not only within the educational institution but throughout the world.

Conclusion

While studying the course, I learned many aspects of the origin, development, and treatment of various psychological traumas. I think it is essential to have a general definition of it, which implies an important event for the individual, affecting significant aspects of its existence and leading to profound psychological experiences. I was aware that there are different mechanisms for forming traumatic experiences. However, because of the course, I received much new knowledge regarding childhood and intergenerational traumas. It seems that this is important information in connection with the fact that it will help to choose the most appropriate solution to the individual’s problem. In addition, many psychological traumas must be resolved not only by the individual but by the whole society. Therefore, such knowledge affects the field of psychology, as well as many other interdisciplinary areas. During the course, we explored various options for diagnostic, preventive, and rehabilitative procedures, which are as important as general knowledge about various types of distress. In this way, I gained a lot of new knowledge regarding the design of a learning environment to find the right approach to a traumatized child and contribute to developing a mentally healthy society.

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