Other Meaning of the word “trauma”

[Rose White]

Sometimes I think I’m not sure what trauma means anymore because I see it applied rather broadly.

Has the meaning changed over time? Does it have so many meanings?

It seems that it is so common now and people use it casually, similarly to how they might say, “I feel a little OCD about my shoes.” Or, “I’m depressed about my team losing the playoffs.”

At the same time, it is well known that two people experiencing the same event respond differently and one may be traumatized and the other not—because trauma is not the event but how you perceived it.

I wonder if this is just how language works. Words aren’t fixed.

Do you feel one way or another about it?

 

[Sideways]

Does it have so many meanings?

I think it does. Like ‘being depressed’. There’s a clinical meaning to that, and an everyday meaning to that.

That’s not just limited to mental illnesses (like “I have a migraine” says the person who is just tired, or “I have the flu” from a person with a sniffle), but it is particularly prevalent with words used in psychiatry.

Do you feel one way or another about it?

I try not to get too frustrated by it. But that’s often aspirational rather than what actually happens!

At my current workplace, one of the jokes that often gets tossed around is “I’ve still got ptsd from that…”. In my head: YOUDONT’THAVEPTSDFROMTHATYOUINSENSITIVESHITYOUWOULDN’TKNOWTRAUMAIFITSLAPPEDYOUONYOURSTUPIDFACE!

Part of that is a healthy recognition of the stigma they’re perpetuating with that joke. But also, for me, part of that is jealousy: that joke is typically coming from a person who has a blessed existence, and probably very few lived ones that have lived through a criteria A trauma or serious mental illness. And what it would be like to be them, and not know suffering on the same level that is the reality of so many of us…

 

[gorgonzola]

I daresay it's just how language works. Specific terminology enters the mainstream and/or the stigma around a term abates, and so the general public start using it for themselves in a hyperbolic sense.

The smooth is the ebbing of stigma; the rough is the appropriation and application of serious terminology to the trivial. Mixed bag.

 

[Charbella]

Yes I have a very strong feeling about it and then I have to remember that just because some people are blessed to live a life trauma free doesn’t mean I get to be angry when they have something hard happen.

I have the same thought about PTSD being thrown around. I actually don’t mind when people say something was traumatic for them because in my head they’re owning it isn’t necessarily traumatic but it was for them.

Language matters, this is a fact. If I accuse someone of murder I better mean they killed someone not they were a huge pain in the butt.

Having said that I know that I thrown around the word torture and I have not experienced that, so I should definitely stop using it here. I’m using it to illustrate something is particularly hard for me, so I have less issue with someone throwing around PTSD and trauma in my everyday life then I do when people come here and throw it around. I want to scream, you do not belong, but I don’t, I retreat to my own diary and hope the person sees there own way out and if not I use the all important ignore feature.

 

[Shaylee]

I wonder if this is just how language works. Words aren’t fixed.

My favorite example of language evolution is “gay”. Its original meeting was lighthearted or happy. During the 1960s that all changed. As a young girl who read classic novels and poetry I was very confused until my grandmother explained it.
So while I do get a little put off sometimes I just keep in mind other fad words and think about “gay”.

To be honest I think the word trauma has changed from its origin which meant “wound”. There are trauma units in hospitals. I don’t know if its original meaning was ever meant for mental wounds. So I give it a lot of leeway. Versus C-PTSD, I can get a bit angsty about.

 

[parrotthepolly]

The definition of the word Trauma is:

Something that causes mental distress well after the incident and is different for everybody.

That's it!

Doesn't make sense to have multiple meanings for one word when there's only one written description.

 

[Movingforward10]

I get anoyed on here when people say "I've had the most unusual trauma that no one else has had" or "I have had the most trauma". Because usually that's not true, and they would realise that if they read other people's stories on here.
I should hit the ignore button more than I do.

I suppose it boils down to: do I have the grace to respond to them where they are at? Or do I leave alone as my views and theirs are miles apart? Or do I say what I want which generally is pointless as it usually fuels the difference? I have done all three at various times.

And then I think: everything is relative. One persons trauma is another person's Sunday afternoon. And vice versa.

But language does change and evolve.

So while I do get a little put off sometimes I just keep in mind other fad words and think about “gay”.

Case in point. As a gay person, I use the word gay to describe me. Or lesbian. And don't see this as a 'fad' in the slightest. If 'fad' is being used here to say something not meaningful that will go away on time.

The word queer is another case in point. Used to be a slur. Now reclaimed (although that reclaimation could be a generational thing as a lot of people my age and older find it a hard word to reclaim given the abuse a lot of people experienced with the receiving of that word).

 

[WinnieThePoohChris]

"Trauma" becomes a catch all word for anything. I dont like to talk about certain things, some people refuse to hear what they dont like. End up using the word trauma so as to avoid debate about what is affecting me.

 

[Shaylee]

Case in point. As a gay person, I use the word gay to describe me. Or lesbian. And don't see this as a 'fad' in the slightest. If 'fad' is being used here to say something not meaningful that will go away on time.

Nope, I do not find the word gay to be a fad at all. At the beginning of my post you’ll notice that I talk about the change in the actual meaning of the word gay from early classical literature and to it’s modern meaning. By fad words I was not including it because I said “and think about the word gay”. It is one word I believe truly shows how drastically a word can change even during the course of one century. I was separating the two ideas of fad words and concepts versus true language evolution but that I think about both when determining how I’m going to react to someone’s misuse. I apologize if that wasn’t clear, @Movingforward10.

 

[Friday]

Sometimes I think I’m not sure what trauma means anymore because I see it applied rather broadly.

Has the meaning changed over time? Does it have so many meanings?

Yes. It has a whooooooole helluva lotta meanings.

Medically… trauma is ANY damage resulting from an object/outside source (including yourself, it’s most differentiating from damage done by infection/disease). From scraping yourself with your own fingernails, or rug burns from playing with the kids… superficial trauma… to being ripped open from pelvis to neck with a prong of a forklift sticking through you (still talking to first responders!), or splattered across a sidewalk dead after being hit by a car or falling 20 stories.

PHYSICALLY trauma is a spectrum ranging from the superficial to the unavoidably lethal.

There are a whooooooooole lotta descriptors to let pros know what KIND of trauma… and what levels/locales/urgency is involved. Blunt force trauma, which is a descriptor in and of itself, has 4 types (contusion, abrasion, lasceration, fracture). Penetrating trauma, meanwhile, just lets you know something is sticking INTO the body (as opposed to compound, which is a bone sticking out; eviscertation, which are guts sticking out) and is further narrowed by locales (penetrating spinal trauma, penetrating abdominal, etc.). And there are a few dozen other types & subtypes, all with narrowing focus / precision. “Trauma” starts the umbrella, tells you there is damage; and then defines down to precise -and universally agreed upon- descriptions of exactly what kind of damage, where, & how serious it is. Penetrating spinal trauma? Is not an abrasion on your knee.

Psychological trauma… is waaaaaaay more loosely defined, and infinitely more subjective, than medical trauma. It IS still defined. HOWEVER, every single disorder with trauma or stressors components defines it differently, in direct relation TO that disorder. PTSD Trauma (or Criterion A Trauma)? Is ONLY keyed to PTSD. Life threatening, or sexual assault. That’s the PTSD keylock. Other types & definitions of trauma are key to other disorders & conditions.

Colloquially Trauma is whatever people from that region have decided to use the word as, in everyday speech. American English broke from Kings English (when it was the Queens English) back during Shakespearean similes & metaphors ruling the day. Aussies, meanwhile, have a reputation for common sense & straight speaking, in part because they broke with the kings English during the Age of Reason / Industrial Revolution: say what you mean, and mean what you say. American English is overwhelmingly simile/metaphor/hyperbole, telling stories, evoking feelings, playing with words/language to make bad mean good, wicked brilliant, etc.… rather than direct, or on point. ALL languages & dialects have local slang & colloquialisms. French Canadians use religious objects to swear with (Tabernac!), meanwhile Southern Acadians (Cajun/Creole, stick with bodily excretions, sexual acts, and levels of stupidity). Just on a linguistics front, very very veeeeery few English dialects are more obtuse than the US (cockney rhyming slang, being an example, of worse than American mucking about).

So, cha

Medically = Hard Science = Precise definitions.
Psych = Soft Science = Varying & variable definitions.
Colloquially = whatever the f*ck people feel like

 

[Rose White]

I learned that there’s a term for this— “therapy speak.” It’s basically overuse or misuse of terms commonly used by therapists. Apparently therapy speak rose sharply on social media during the pandemic. I saw lots of articles telling people to be mindful not to use it. In the Wikipedia article the top terms that are commonly overused or misused are:

• Trauma
• Trigger
• Gaslighting
• Narcissism
• Depressed
• Codependency
• Boundaries
• Self care

The reasons for doing it were quite interesting! Reasons included:

• For people to make themselves or their emotions sound more interesting or superior
• To win an argument
• To mask discomfort, avoid conflict, or create distance in a relationship
• To cover up being controlling
• To get more support (emotional needs might be taken more seriously with therapy speak than with everyday language)
• To signal to a potential date maturity or financial stability
• Companies may deal with complaints of employees through therapy speak addressed to the individual rather than address problems the company created through poor management, overwork and low pay.

 

[Lost in the Woods]

For me I think over use of the words trivializes them. Bad things happened to me starting in infancy. I was unaware of the impact upon me as it was all I knew. I believe my responses to life situations did not help so I have unknowingly compounded the problem. It has been a personal journey often unique to me but with shared traits that others experience too. The terms related to trauma get thrown around so much that they do get diluted. “On the spectrum” is another term with the same issues related to over use. I try to filter through all the info out there and when someone is truly speaking from their heart I listen. It is a personal journey going deeper inside and then deeper again. It is an adventure, not a cliche. At least for me.