Trauma is a subjective response to personal experience which can vary enormously between people. How we react and cope with frightening or emotionally charged situations depends upon the unconscious expectations and assumptions about ourselves and the world that we bring to any encounter. Everything that has come before - our childhood and upbringing, the quality of relationships, how we feel about ourselves and others - contributes to the impact of trauma which is why people can have radically different reactions to the same event. Evidence that those who have experienced instability and adverse childhood events (ACEs) in early life are more likely to develop PTSD later in life than those who have had secure and uneventful childhoods.
DSM V guidelines suggest that you can be traumatised by
- a direct personal experience, especially of an intrusive or bodily nature
- witnessing something traumatic happening to someone else
- something bad happening to someone close whom you care about deeply and empathise with
Typical forms of trauma which therapy can help with:
- violence
- domestic abuse
- sexual abuse
- emotional abuse and control
- etc
- etc
- grief and unexpected loss
- etc