Trauma: “Does this have anything to do with me?”
Janelle
Janelle, now 45 years old, was 9 when her stepfather began molesting her. Janelle’s mom divorced him six years later, ending the abuse. Yet, despite having thirty years of stability and safety, Janelle continues to have nightmares and flashbacks, is easily startled, and continues to believe she is permanently damaged.
Alex
Alex, 38, is an experienced pilot. Six months ago, he unexpectedly flew into a fog so dense that he lost his bearings and believed he was going to crash and die. He now experiences nightmares, outbursts of anger, and has been unable to board a plane again.
EMDR Therapy
Trauma is conceptualized as “any event that has a lasting negative effect on the self or psyche.” “They can be classified as ‘Big T’ and ‘Small t’ traumas. “Big T” traumas are, for example, veterans continuing to experience the 40-year-old horrors of war, someone mugged at gunpoint, a woman raped, or childhood molestation.
“Small t” traumas are any long-lasting, negative effects of childhood, such as rejection and humiliation. What appears to an adult as an insignificant event may be shameful or frightening to a child. The effect on the child’s psyche activates the healthy response of fight, flight, freeze, or faint. This is their innate survival mechanism, and without it, a child would be totally helpless, defenseless, and unable to cope.
As adults, children can become “stuck in the past”. This occurs when they are consciously aware of the passage of time and that they are now safe. Still, the body acts as if the traumatic event is still occurring, and there is this intense fear, helplessness, and horror that resurfaces as they did in the past. The trigger might seemingly be as benign as a familiar smell or a loud sound, and the body responds like a broken record, replaying PTSD symptoms over and over.