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UNDERSTANDING TRAUMAUnfortunately, many, many millions of people in the United States and around the world have had terrible experiences of personal trauma. Once you have been traumatized in a significant way, whether it was from your early ongoing, family-of-origin experiences or from a single, dramatic or violent experience later in your life, you may find that you are more sensitive to upsetting and traumatic experiences in the present. If you are having the experience of being "triggered" by current events, and are having chronic or acute anxiety and distress over current events such as September ll, the sniper shootings, school shootings, or the potential for war, you deserve to get help for your anxiety. Luckily, mental health professionals are learning more and more about how to recognize and help people with trauma histories. You don't have to go it alone, and you shouldn't go it alone. Even if you don't have a lot of money or good insurance, there are many psychotherapists who have taken a special interest in studying specific ways to treat trauma. So if you were traumatized and you are going to a clinic to get your care, be a good consumer ask for a therapist who has specialized training to help you. (You can research this by going to www.trauma-pages.com and going to the information section). In fact, the information available to trauma survivors on the internet already is so excellent that I don't need to "re-write the book." It has already been written. Please allow me to encourage you to explore what is out there.Check out the Resources suggestions at the end of this page. Trauma Which Is Not Recognized as Trauma Professionals sometimes talk about "Big T
Trauma" and "little t trauma." "Little t trauma"
is the kind of bad experience that people have that is subtle, but
ongoing. With "little t trauma" sometimes, you may not
recognize that you have been traumatized, because you suffered in
a home with ongoing dysfunction or emotional neglect that was so
constant that you Many ACOAs Have "little t Trauma" If you think about the fact that 76 million people in the United States have been exposed to alcoholism in their family, you realize the vast numbers of Americans who have had AT LEAST "little t trauma" in their lives. Adult children of alcoholics have many problems--with attachment, trust, with never being allowed to be children, with being super responsible, with being dependent, and with asking for what they need. "Little t trauma" changes people's visions of themselves and the world in subtle ways that interfere with living life to the fullest.
Common negative beliefs you might have about yourself might be: "I am insignificant" (from Shapiro, l995) These kinds of beliefs are called "negative cognitive schemas" by mental health professionals. The Milestones of Sexual Development Model is good to keep in mind when thinking of your trauma, independent of issues of sexuality. Re-read the "Solving Problems" section of this website and you can begin to see how the "little t trauma" in your life has affected your assumptions about yourself, others, and the safety of the world.
Other people have suffered from dramatic trauma. If you suffered because of rape, physical or sexual abuse, watching someone you love being terrorized, beaten, tortured, or killed, experienced incest, or seeing gruesome kinds of tragedies or war, or lost someone in a terrorist attack, for example, you know that you have been traumatized. You suffered a Big T trauma. If you can stand to talk about it, other people immediately recognize that you have experienced something out of the ordinary. Again, these kinds of unbearable experiences change what psychologists and trauma experts call your inner "cognitive maps" or "cognitive schemas." Negative beliefs which can be stirred up include thoughts like: "I should have done something" (Shapiro, 1995)
Victims of domestic violence, which I consider Big T Trauma, tend to minimize their own experience with trauma. Estimates are that as many as 10 million children witness spousal abuse, usually their fathers beating their mothers. As many as l.5 million children are physically abused every year. As current day to day life becomes more violent, victims of domestic abuse can become more anxious about their own safety in the present. People who never experienced major trauma in their past life can insulate themselves from some of the terror of the world around them. They believe the world is safe, that bad things only happen to other people. Victims of past Big T Trauma are MUCH more vulnerable to current traumas, like September 11th or the sniper killings of October 2002 because they have totally lost the illusion that "bad things only happen to other people." A current crisis can cause someone with an unprocessed old trauma to be "triggered"---to experience stress, anxiety, depression, or survivor's guilt after a current, violent event. Dr. Zoldbrod is certified in EMDR: A New, Powerful Treatment for Trauma. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR, is a new,
Along with helping to process trauma, EMDR can also be used to
Here is what the media is saying about EMDR: "EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy
has emerged as a procedure to be reckoned with in psychology....Almost
a million people have been treated .... Also, further research appears
to support the remarkable claims made for EMDR therapy." "Where traditional therapies may take years, EMDR takes
only a few "New type of psychotherapy seen as boon to traumatic disorders."
Website:www.trauma-pages.com, Dr. David Baldwin's
most amazing, award winning site. Look under supportive information,
and you will find just about every resource you need. Www.trauma-pages.com
includes general information about trauma, plus information on every
kind of trauma: sexual assault, combat trauma, trauma in police,
fire, and EMS workers, holocaust Resources for Professionals Foa, E. and Kozak, M. (1986) Emotional processing of fear: Exposure to corrective information. Psychological Bulletin, 99, 20-35.
Horowitz,M., Wilner, N. and Alvarez, W. (1979) Impact of Events Scale: A measure of subjective stress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 41, 209-218. Jacobson, E. (1964) Anxiety and tension control. Philadelphia, Pa: JB Lippincott. Janoff-Bulman, R.(1985) The aftermath of victimization:Rebuilding shattered assumptions. In C.R. Figley (Ed) Trauma and its wake: Vol. l. The study and tratment of posttraumatic stress disorder (pp.15-35). New York: Brunner/Mazel. Wilson, JP and Keane, T.(Eds) Assessing psychological trauma and PTSD: A Practitioner's Handbook. New York: Guilford. Shapiro, F. 1995. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures. New York: Guilford. Smyth, L. (1995) Clinician's manual for the cogntive-behavioral treament of posttraumatic stress disorder. Harve de Grace, MD:RTR Publishing Company.
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