The impact a traumatic event might have on someone depends on the person themselves and what their experiences are. Some people might have an easier access to coping mechanisms with lots of help that can help them cope a bit easier with their trauma, whilst others might feel helpless and alone in their distress. Many of the most common symptoms a person might have to deal with while suffering from a traumatic event are exhaustion, confusion, sadness, anxiety, agitation, numbness, dissociation and physical arousal. Most of these responses are common and are “socially acceptable”, but a more severe case of trauma may include long periods of distress with little to no calm or resting periods, severe dissociation and intense intrusive recollections. We can split into 4 major sections how someone may feel in the aftermath of a traumatic event.
One may suffer heavy emotional consequences from the traumatic event, but these reactions vary with the individual’s sociocultural history and past experiences. In many cases anger, fear and sadness are among the more “natural” emotions that may surface. However, some people may have difficulty identifying what feelings are overwhelming them, because they have never had experiences with such heavy emotional significance. These people may associate these emotions with the traumatic event leading them to believe that emotional expression is too dangerous.
Furthermore, some people may experience emotional numbness following a traumatic experience. Numbing is a reaction of the body to the unbearable weight of the emotions. They then become detached from thoughts and memories, rendering them irrelevant in their habitual life. The U.S department of health and research conducted an interview on a young woman who had a record of 7 years of alcoholism and had been sexually abused in her past life. The woman, when asked about what she felt about her sexual abuse, was completely numb and felt no typical emotions such as sadness, fear, or even anger. We just have to take in consideration that some people may be living their trauma differently and it’s not because they don’t show basic emotions that they are completely fine. This is a severe misconception a lot of professionals come to when they diagnose patients because they don’t have a stereotypical reaction to trauma.
Additionally, some people, in rare cases, might experience physical pains or disturbances. Some of the more common physical problems that we can notice on a traumatized person are lack of sleep or disorders with the stomach, respiratory system and skin. Some patients may also have a tendency to cause harm to their own body because of the overwhelming weight of the trauma, though this behaviour is in big parts influenced by how the person behaves and their past experiences with self harm. To link back to the sleep disturbances, they are generally accompanied with hyper vigilance. This reaction is the body’s way to always be ready to any imminent threat. This disorder is supposed to be a protective mechanism to react to trauma, but it can become detrimental very quickly. It may cause interferences in someone’s day-to-day life. For example, it can lead to an overreaction of the body to a situation that is not as dangerous as the person might interpret it.
Finally, a person suffering from trauma can experience alterations in their cognitions. A traumatic event is so sudden that it changes the very basis of one’s beliefs. For example, someone that has been sexually abused in the past may think that every person is bad and therefore be scared to even leave their house in fear that a simple stranger may endanger them. The person’s perception of what is or isn’t safe becomes eroded and they may never trust whatever happened to them (abuse, accident, object related to trauma).