Understanding Trauma

Background to Trauma

“Trauma” is a word that is used to mean a variety of things. Sometimes, it describes a severe physical injury to a person, animal, or plant. The type of trauma this course is interested in is psychological trauma, which shares some traits with physical trauma, and can influence in large or small ways everyone’s daily life. It is critical to note at this point that trauma is subjective. What might lead to an experience of trauma for one person might not for another, and vice versa. It is impossible to tell for certain what will be experienced as trauma in advance of an event. However, there are some characteristics of events that can lead to trauma, such as:

• A real or perceived threat to a person’s health or life. This can be the health or life of the person who is experiencing trauma, or to another person in an event that was witnessed.
• Experiences of abuse, either current or earlier in a person’s life.
• Experiences of loss of control, particularly related to abuse or a threat to life.
• Experiences of trauma from previous generations. This is called “intergenerational trauma,” and describes the very real phenomenon of parents or grandparents passing trauma on to younger generations.

This is a worthwhile time to pause and take note of the reality of intergenerational trauma in Canada. A prominent and tragic example of this is the trauma experienced by Indigenous persons caused by colonial people and institutions over the history of European settlement in North America and other colonized territories. An intentional and systematic effort by the British, then Canadian, governments to extinguish Indigenous people and culture has taken many forms. Some examples include the 60’s Scoop, Residential Schools, and the policies of the former Department of Indian Affairs.

However a person experiences trauma, their nervous systems will begin to adapt. Our nervous systems are meant to seek a sense of calm and safety, an instinct that can be traced back to our ancestral roots as hunters and gatherers who needed to stay away from predators. The world has evolved faster than humans have in the past 5,000 years, and as a result, we have nervous systems that aren’t always adapted to all of the traits of modern life.

Our nervous systems exist in one of three states at all times, reflecting different levels of emotional arousal. We might be over-aroused or hyper-aroused, we might be under-aroused, and we might be in the middle, a place sometimes referred to as the “window of tolerance.”

Someone who is over-aroused or hyper-aroused may show the following signs and symptoms:

• Easily excitable
• Angry
• Verbal outbursts
• Raised voice
• Confused
• Overwhelmed
• High heart rate

Someone who is under-aroused may show the following signs and symptoms:

• Withdrawn
• More quiet than usual
• Uninterested in things around them
• Low attention
• Appearance of looking “lost”

Events that happen in a given day will lead to a response, and that response will be the activation of the nervous system in one of these three states. Most of the time, these events are within the window of tolerance. However, with an experience of trauma, this window of tolerance narrows, and over-aroused and under-aroused responses happen more often than before the trauma was experienced.

This partially leads to what might look like a person “over-reacting” to a given situation. A person who has experienced trauma might have a “shorter fuse” than they did before. Over time, and usually by accessing some kind of treatment, the window of tolerance can be restored, and responses can get back to the way they were before. This can take a lot of work, and often depends on access to services that can be hard to find, take a certain degree of life stability, and are often expensive.

Being Trauma-Informed

“Trauma-Informed Care” has become a common phrase in healthcare and community services over the past 20 years. While this course is not teaching you to be a healthcare professional, some aspects of this approach are applicable to anyone working with the public. Some ways to make your work more trauma-informed include:

• Understanding that trauma exists and is subjective. An event that may lead to a trauma response in one person my not produce the same response in another.
• Understanding trauma impacts daily life for those who live with it. It is very common to see hyper-aroused reactions in interactions in many types of workplaces. Think about a time a member of the public “over reacted” to something you or a co-worker said. Could trauma have contributed to this reaction?
• Being mindful of personal space and other boundaries (which will be covered in more depth in Module Four). As the window of tolerance narrows, so does a person’s capacity to handle surprises. Take care to avoid:
  • Startling someone.
  • Suddenly enforcing rules, when they might not have been enforced before.
  • Making exceptions to rules that other staff may not make.
• Understanding that treatment for trauma is available, but is often difficult to access for a variety of reasons (which will be discussed more in Module Seven).