3 Types of Trauma: Complex, Chronic, Acute - Essay Sample

Introduction

Trauma is defined as an experience that is deeply disturbing or distressing. This happens when one responds emotionally to an event usually terrible in nature. The activities include; sexual assault, serious car accidents, or natural disasters in the immediate environment (Van der Kolk, 2013). Trauma has long and short-term reactions such as flashbacks, unpredicted emotions, nausea, headaches, and strained relationships. We have three major types of trauma, namely; complex, chronic, and acute. There is the widespread usage of psychological trauma in mental health, the scientific community, mass media, and common language. Thus, the concept of trauma is becoming popular in mental health.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Trauma varies amongst individuals depending on their past experiences. The differing degree of reaction by the individuals subjects people to potentially traumatic events. Some may experience a single response, while others will experience recurring reactions. This means that while other individuals have learned to contain their answers, others are overwhelmed by the traumatic experience (Stein & Livesley, 2012). The psychologists observed this while handling counseling and other sessions in mental health. The majority of them had to research on this widely to help provide a solution to the sector as well as help in other services related to health issues.

Some individuals end up developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when they experience traumatic events. This depends on different factors causing minor or significant risk in the reactions to circumstances within our immediate environment (Ullman & Vasquez, 2013). The factors include protective, environmental, and temperamental factors.

Protective factors refer to conditions in a community, a family, or an individual that helps in effectively dealing with events that are stressful by risk mitigation. In health psychology and preventive medicine, the protective factors decrease the chance of adverse health response occurring or reducing the likelihood of occurrence. Understanding of the elements helps in adoption services (Carswell & Barker, 2011). The foster parent needs to have a clear understanding of the adopted child's medical and behavioral problems before the adoption is finalized. They are assisting the parent who is to choose to decide on whether to take the child by already having a clear picture of the child's previous life before adoption. The common risks found by the adoption professionals include thievery, trouble with authorities, self-mutilation, delinquency, and substance abuse.

Environmental factors in traumatic events include war occurrence during an individual's early life, financial capability, social support, and culture. If there was a war or chaotic incident of war-like events, the individual tends to respond negatively to the reoccurrence of such an event in life (Bullock & Young, 2015). One's financial capability also plays a significant role in how to get health attention following a traumatic event. The culture can be accommodative to individuals or can be discouraging to Individuals by causing fear of the unknown. This makes one fear to open up on trauma events because doing so means worsening the situation.

Temperamental factors may not be sufficient compared to the other two elements. Some temperaments in individuals mean they can easily overcome the traumatic event while others are adversely affected by the same circumstances. Temperamental traits that relate to intense and distressing emotions are associated with one's early childhood exposure to pre-trauma factors.

Understanding trauma impact on an individual is becoming popular in mental health. The Trauma informed-care (TIC) makes an effort to understand stress reactions and how one responds to trauma broadly. This provides a basis for engagement, treatment, and behavioral health before offering the services (Koenen & Caspi, 2017). The extent of trauma effects depends on the traumatic event, the individual, the developmental processes, interpretation of trauma, and protective factors.

One may experience normal reactions to what will be observed as abnormal circumstances. It could be a short or long-term response to trauma if long term mental health identified the adversity of this hence widely used to contain some such reactions that could otherwise be fatal. The long-term responses to trauma mostly result from psychological symptoms (Trickey & Field, 2012). This needs seeking the attention of a behavioral health service professional to help alleviate the situation.

Trauma survivors of trauma have a trauma reaction sequence. Some reactions are complicated because of the survivor's prior own experience, inadequate accessibility of support, coping up with the occurrence as well as facing the broad community. The typical reactions enable the survivors to overcome the traumatic events easily, thus continuing with life as usual.

The concept of trauma is widely used in mental health because it affects individuals post-trauma and the family members who interact with the survivors or those suffering from traumatic events. The events causing trauma can be classified into two major categories as major and minor. The significant events recur from time to time and result from the death of a loved one. This could be the demise of a member, a favorite teacher, or a best friend. One could also experience significant trauma from severe pain or a life-changing injury resulting from an unfortunate car accident or a fall off a raised place, having to undergo a divorce, calling an end to a relationship, parental abandonment, and a severe illness that prolongs.

The response to trauma could be sudden mood change, becoming nervous, experiencing concentrating difficulties, insomnia, losing appetite, isolation, anger, denial, or depression. The best way to manage traumatic events is to seek mental health professionals, lest it becomes damaging, and, at worst, cause death. Mental health professionals are widely used to help the victims and survivors to overcome the ordeal positively. The first step is to communicate the traumatic event and your experience to a person you deem close. If this is not helpful, you are encouraged to seek professional support from a mental health expert. Mostly the expert will advise you on a range of areas to change on your daily life activities such as checking on your diet, practicing regular exercising sessions, having a sleep routine. If the condition is severe, you are observed at a medical facility for a specified period until the situation stabilizes. After that, one is encouraged to avoid loneliness and being withdrawn (Zatzick & Petrie, 2011).

Contacting a mental health professional or seeking counseling services is encouraged when one starts to experience emotional outbursts, behavioral change, severe problems at school, or place of work. The health mental staff and psychologists will help the victims overcome such reactions resulting from trauma. The gaining of popularity of mental health and psychology is because victims have the awareness that any laxity will be disastrous hence the urge to seek professional help.

Minor events causing trauma include unexpected situations such as delay for a meet-up, inappropriate behaviors from immediate family members, or close friends. They are experiencing upsetting memories from flashbacks about past occurrences. This normal is contained after a short period without the need of a professional expert to help the one experiencing such. Reaction to such minor events disappears as quickly as they come to restore normalcy (Cook & Mallah, 2017).

There are two significant reactions to traumatic events. The results are based on time duration exhibited to such events. Short-term opinions are the immediate response to trauma events. They include sadness, exhaustion, anxiety, agitation, dissociation, physical arousal, confusion. They are deemed reasonable as they are self-limited to the fact alone (Banyard & Siegel, 2013).

The long-term reactions to trauma occur for a significant duration from the event occurrence, which could be several days, weeks, months, or even years if not contained. The long-term reactions need urgent seeking of medication to alleviate the situation lest they become fatal. The medication could be drug option where one buys over the counter drugs to end a severe headache, prolonged insomnia, or a small cut. It is recommended to consult a medical or mental healthcare professional to help you determine whether you should seek medical attention or not. If it is necessary to find the medical expert, what are the side effects, the severity depending on the trauma itself (Morgan & Fisher, 2017)?

Acute trauma mostly occurs from an incident in life such as an accident, being a scam or crime victim, or natural disasters such as locust invasion, heavy rain, or scorching sun. A single incident causes this type of trauma that one can overcome and contain in a short period. It is normal to experience acute trauma as it pushes one from a comfort zone making the individual adjust to the area in his/her day to day life.

Chronic trauma is different from acute one in that it occurs repetitively over a long-time span. It includes events such as childhood abuse, domestic violence, or a prolonged war with devastating damages. Counselors help victims understand the difference between acute and chronic as this is vital in understanding what is expected of one. Chronic trauma occurs when severe traumas repetitively over time. Treatment of acute and chronic trauma involves counseling to contain nightmares, decreasing alcohol intake, or overcoming anxiety or depressing situation (Van der Kolk, 2017).

Complex trauma is exposure to multiple exposures to traumatic events, which are interpersonal and invasive. The facts are pervasive and severe, resulting from childhood neglect, insurgence damages such as broken legs. This one needs specialized attention from counselors, medical doctors, and mental health workers to help the survivor through medication and support from the experts.

The concept of trauma is gaining popularity in mental health and counseling services since the understanding that for a patient to recover fully, it is of paramount importance to help such overcome traumatic experiences undergone before you commence with the actual medication. The medical field at large discovered that this small action has a tremendous success rate amongst trauma victims. The use has since gone viral in the mental health and other related areas across the medical field.

The widespread use reduces one's time with the medical experts by giving them a prior idea of what caused sickness and the best therapeutic options available to an ailment. The use has spread across the corporate world, whereby traumas are contained at early stages before they affect productivity either directly or indirectly. Health is crucial in the functionality of individuals not only in the medical field but also in all sectors of the economy (Norris, 2014).

References

Van der Kolk, B. A. (2013). Psychological trauma. American Psychiatric Pub.

Banyard, V. L., Williams, L. M., & Siegel, J. A. (2013). The impact of complex trauma and depression on parenting: An exploration of mediating risk and protective factors. Child maltreatment, 8(4), 334-349.

Morgan, C., & Fisher, H. (2017). Environment and schizophrenia: environmental factors in schizophrenia: childhood trauma-a critical review. Schizophrenia bulletin, 33(1), 3-10.

Stein, M. B., Jang, K. L., Taylor, S., Vernon, P. A., & Livesley, W. J. (2012). Genetic and environmental influences on trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms: a twin study. American

Koenen,...