Trauma transpires when a person has had a painful or immense experience, with intense suffering, tension, anxiety, or helplessness.
Powerful Emotions
Trauma, loss, or grief in childhood can impact on the child’s current wellbeing and behaviour but may also affect their longer-term developmental outcomes and mental health. Some children may have problems with developing secure attachments and with other aspects of their social and emotional development. This may increase the risk of mental health problems in adulthood. A child’s capacity to deal positively with a traumatic experience will be affected by a wide range of factors, such as the nature of the trauma, post-trauma environment, attachment relationships, their developmental stage, temperament, culture, history and the level of support available.
Trauma
Trauma transpires when a person has had a painful or immense experience, with intense suffering, tension, anxiety, or helplessness. It can happen from a specific experience or reciprocated experiences, such as injury, medical procedures, child abuse, violence, rape, torture, war, terrorism, natural disaster. A traumatic event is one in which an individual’s reality or security is threatened or there is a danger of serious loss or suffering. The threat may be directly to the individual, or a loved one. Trauma can also occur if the person believes there is an aligned danger, e.g., a child can be distressed by things they witness or hear, but which may not be an actual possibility in the moment. People can also experience trauma indirectly by seeing traumatic events, or through historical issues such as violence against past groups. Trauma can affect individuals, groups, and communities. Trauma is an acknowledgement to life’s dangerous or astounding events. Trauma and loss are contrasting forms of experiences.
Loss
Loss refers to a situation where a person is unable to keep, have or get something they value highly or that has significant meaning to them. This may be an important object or relationship or might relate to their security and sense of self. A person’s experience of loss may depend on what was lost, its importance or value to the person, and whether the loss was due to natural causes or occurred through the actions of others, or through a traumatic event. Loss is a response to being unable to access someone or something that is important. In some situations, loss can also involve trauma, but this is not always so.
Grief
Grief is an experience of sadness, anguish or distress a person goes through after a loss or a traumatic experience. Grief can affect a person’s thoughts, feelings, behaviour, beliefs, and their relationships with others. The reaction may be immediate and short-term, or it may take a while to come out and go on for a longer time. The time needed to recover from the effects of grief varies from person to person and will be affected by their personal experiences and situation. Why is this important for mental health and wellbeing? Reacting to a loss or traumatic event usually involves strong negative feelings, e.g. fear, anger, helplessness, numbness, anxiety, or sadness. These feelings may be associated with changes in the person’s thoughts, behaviour, and relationships. The situation may impact on their mental health and wellbeing while they are trying to come to terms with what has happened. These reactions are common and are part of the normal process of dealing with trauma, loss, and grief. The process is different for each person. With understanding and support, most people can resolve their feelings and make some sense of their experience over time. However, if there is ongoing distress, unresolved grief, long-term stress, or repeated experiences of trauma, then there can be a risk of a person developing a mental illness or disorder, such as depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder.
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