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Understanding How Unprocessed Trauma Can Impact Your Daily Life
According to the American Psychological Association, trauma is “an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, crime, natural disaster, physical or emotional abuse, neglect, experiencing or witnessing violence, death of a loved one, war, and more.”
Almost everyone experiences some kind of trauma at some point in their lives, and the clinical team at Hudson River Care and Counseling encourages you to schedule some time to process how trauma, even events in your distant past, may be affecting your day-to-day life. In this post, we discuss some of the most common ways trauma can impact your life, even if it feels like you’ve moved on from the traumatic experience or event.
Traumatic events
Some things are quite obviously traumatic, like combat, sexual abuse, or domestic violence. But, many things that people don’t really think of as being traumatic actually are, like the death of a loved one, if you or a family member has a major illness, car accident, or natural disaster.
Events that disrupt your life and make you feel scared, anxious, or sad can leave lingering effects for many years. For about 7% of people, those effects can develop into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Others may develop depression as a result of trauma.
Symptoms of unprocessed trauma
The symptoms of living with lingering trauma are often difficult to detect, and you may even think that they are just part of your personality. For example, if you feel anxious often, you may just think you’re a nervous sort of person, but frequent anxiety could be due to past trauma.
Other possible symptoms include:
- Feeling sad or angry often
- Trouble concentrating
- Problems sleeping (nightmares, waking often, etc.)
- Mentally reliving the experience
- Anger, resentment, irritability
- Isolating yourself from others
Along with those emotional and mood-related symptoms, you may experience physical symptoms, like:
- Digestive issues
- Headaches
- A racing heart
- Being jumpy and easy to startle
Each of those symptoms, mental and physical, could be explained by something else. For example, you might have digestive issues due to food sensitivities. Talking to a counselor could be helpful in this case.
Counseling and trauma
A trained and licensed counselor has the experience to recognize the symptoms of unprocessed trauma. And often, your counselor can take a more holistic view of your symptoms than you can. To use the cliche: your counselor can see the forest, whereas you’re lost among the trees.
At Hudson River Care and Counseling, we offer a variety of trauma services, and our counselors work with you to identify treatment approaches that are likely to work best for you. Individual therapy may be the best route, or you may choose counseling based on your beliefs, values, and spiritual needs.
Support groups and group therapy offer an opportunity to talk to other people who have had similar experiences as you, which can be extremely beneficial for people who feel especially isolated because of their trauma. We offer a variety of support groups, all led by trained professionals.
If you have experienced trauma and suspect it is affecting your ability to work, enjoy healthy relationships, or simply live life to the fullest, schedule an appointment at Hudson River Care and Counseling. We have offices in Hoboken and Teaneck and offer virtual sessions.