Question
What is trauma?
Answer
Trauma is what results when we have experienced an event, a series of events or set of circumstances that are physically harmful or emotionally harmful or threatening to us, and that has lasting adverse effects on functioning and on physical, social, emotional or spiritual wellbeing.
It's important to note that, the experience that triggers trauma might be different for different individuals. Several of us could experience the same situation, and it might be traumatizing to some of us and not to others. One example of that would be, if two people were sitting in the back seat of a car and experienced the same car accident, so neither one was driving and neither one was in the front seat; for these two individuals, one might say, "Wow, that was really stressful, I am glad everybody is okay, and so goes life. It's fortunate nobody was injured, we're all okay." For the other individual, it may have been really traumatizing to that individual. The other individual in the back seat might be scared to drive, might be scared to ride in the back seat with somebody else driving, and may have flashbacks or nightmares about the accident.
So, two people can experience the same situation, but depending on many factors in our lives may react to it very differently.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the webinar, Understanding Latinx Immigration through a Trauma-informed Lens, presented by Mary L. Held, PhD.
