Defining Trauma

[Rissy215]

When I first started therapy I attributed my PTSD to past abuse and the VT shooting but my therapist thinks other things have been traumatic too. When looking back to figure out what I need to bring up and process in therapy I'm having a hard time finding the line between trauma and normal life experiences since a lot of what I've thought was normal, wasn't. What defines something as trauma? Does it have to directly threaten your life? Is the severity and classification as trauma based on the event itself or the effect it has on you?

 

[Deleted member 1860]

That's a grey area to say the least. What is traumatic to one person isn't necessarily traumatic to another. I think your reaction to the event is an important gauge, but also keep in mind that some people think an event was "no big deal" when in fact it was quite devastating. We sometimes numb out and don't recognize the effects of the trauma (or even realize we're numb in the first place!)

I think it's important to recognize that the term "trauma" has a wider definition than the diagnostic criteria for PTSD.

 

[Rissy215]

I guess that's part of my problem, not processing events to realize how they've affected me. I buried everything for years before starting to deal with any of it. So should I just bring up anything I'm not sure about? I don't want him to laugh something off that I DO think is a big deal so I'm really hesitant to bring new topics up. He never has laughed at me but I'm not exactly a trusting person.

 

[Spiderallis]

If it comes to mind during therapy, it's probably worth talking about. Whether it's defined as traumatic or not doesn't change that it's bothering you, and therapy is the time and place to work on what bothers you. Some of the traumatic things I've been through don't bother me as much as some seemingly smaller stuff, but that smaller stuff has roots back to much bigger things. I didn't connect those lines until I talked it over in therapy though.

 

[arfie]

I have allot of problems sorting the trauma from family eccentricities. For sure that line is fuzzy and then some. Seems like the more I think about it, the fuzzier those lines get. I try not to over-think it, but I do agree with the importance of keeping it in mind and not pushing it away when it comes up. I've found more than one of my current day illogics attached to them.

As for the therapist laughing off something you think is important... Take the risk.

 

[SuperAnxietyGirl]

I personally find trauma to be what affects your brain. The mind is a fragile thing and different things will affect it and produce "trauma". The mind is also a very personal and individual thing as well, so as someone (maybe more) wrote above, different things will affect different people.