What is trauma, really?

This is a picture of a Scobie.

This is the mother of what will be Kambucha. A drink that provides healthy digestive enzymes to the gut. Pretty ugly right? Much like trauma, the Scobie can seem to be disgusting and horrible and why would anyone want to have that in their life? The answer is that sometimes the experience gives us more than we would otherwise have.

Trauma is described by the DSM5 (The diagnostic manual of the American Psychiatric Association) as:
A person witnessing or experiencing personally an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others, and which involved fear, helplessness, or horror. Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the mind that occurs as a result of a severely distressing event. Trauma is often the result of an overwhelming amount of stress that exceeds one's ability to cope or integrate the emotions involved with that experience.

Sounds horrible right? Well, there is, or at least can be an upside.

Trauma can actually make life so unbearable that the person has to make changes in how they think and behave. Psychological abuse for instance causes a trauma so difficult to manage that the person experiencing the trauma must get out of their current worldview to be able to survive. This change in how the person sees the world provides them with psychological safety, at least during the conflict. 

As the person takes responsibility for their healing, they are able to open up and see things in a different way. Old rules don't apply anymore. This opening up can be the impetus for creation of a whole new world. It is valuable to be able to think "outside of the box".

Sometimes the mother of invention is necessity, it can be ugly like the Scobie but it manifests change.

Nothing is without its lessons.

If you need help with the transition to the new worldview, I highly recommend counseling.

Karen Van Acker LPC LLC