Recognizing the Signs: Understanding Emotional Trauma in Adults
“Trauma creates change you don’t choose. Healing is about creating change you do choose.” ~ Michelle Rosenthal
Emotional trauma is stored within your body, changing your behavior or emotions. At Ocean View Psychiatric Hospital, we can help you recover by providing the therapy you need and the privacy you deserve. Our team is skilled in the latest innovations in therapies that will guide you on your journey to a healthy life.
What Is Emotional Trauma?
Beyond the Physical
You may wonder what emotional trauma is and how it affects you. Emotional trauma is when you experience an event, like physical violence, that overwhelms your ability to process it. The traumatic event can happen once or be several smaller events you think are incredibly harmful or life-threatening.
Traumatic events can lead to mental health disorders like:
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Personality disorders – schizophrenia, behavior disorders
The Ripple Effect: Common Causes
Traumatic experiences can decrease your quality of life and increase your risk of developing mental health disorders. These mental health disorders can affect how you interact with people or respond to specific events or places.
Some examples of traumatic events include the following:
Sexual assault – Sexual assault trauma is associated with difficulty in regulating your emotions. You may experience these emotions:
- Dissociation
- Post-traumatic disorder
- Depression
- Anxiety
Sexual violence leaves emotional scars that affect you long after the assault. If you were sexually assaulted, you may feel a loss of control over your life, shame, or guilt. Maybe you have anxiety around specific people or want to avoid the place or places similar to where you were assaulted. Sexual violence leaves emotional scars that affect you long after the assault.
Physical violence – Physical violence leaves bruises on your body and mind. Many people don’t understand the long-term effects it has on your mental health. One study, “Violent Injury Predicts Poor Psychological Outcomes After Traumatic Injury in a Hard-To-Reach Population: An Observational Cohort Study,” found, “Patients with an assault injury are a higher risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression….”
Physical violence, when experienced as a child, can cause childhood trauma that carries over into your adult life. Acts of violence like bullying, emotional abuse, parental neglect, or parental loss are linked to an increased chance of developing a mental health disorder when you’re an adult.
Losing a parent when you’re a child – The loss of a parent is hard to accept, no matter how old you are. When a child loses a parent, they may find ways to cope that are harmful to their mental and physical health.
If you lost a parent when you were a child, you understand grief. Grief influences your emotions and behaviors. If you lost a parent when you were young, you may feel angry, sad, anxious, or depressed. Grief, if left untreated, can increase your risk of mental and physical health problems, even death.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are traumatic events that occur before a child turns 18. Childhood is a time of learning and adventure. You take in everything and learn how to respond. Traumatic experiences shape how you view people or situations. Those experiences influence your behavior and relationships throughout your life. Your therapist may use attachment theory to help you with your behavior with others, emotional responses, and coping skills.
Think about how you felt when you learned how to ride a bike. Maybe you fell a few times, even scraping your knee or arm; how did you feel? You may have kept trying until you learned to stay on the bike. However, you may have developed anxiety about trying again because you are afraid of falling or hurting yourself. Suppose you lived in a home where yelling and physical violence were normal. The yelling or physical violence may have affected how you interact with others.
How Trauma Changes the Brain
Often, people don’t see a therapist after they experience a traumatic event. Without therapy, you may have unresolved trauma. Unresolved trauma can lead to physical and mental health issues when you’re an adult. Why? When you don’t find healthy ways to cope with your traumatic experience, you can carry the pain, anxiety, or other emotions with you, changing how your brain processes the situation.
The traumatic event can cause you to replay the event repeatedly in your mind. Doing so changes how your nervous system responds to emotional triggers. Researchers are studying how traumatic events rewire your brain – people who are exposed to trauma view what may or may not be safe differently.
The areas in your brain associated with a stress response are the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. Traumatic stress is linked to changes in those parts of the brain. Trauma triggers your flight-or-flight response and affects your blood pressure. After a traumatic experience, your flight-or-fight response and blood pressure are affected whenever you perceive a potentially dangerous situation.
Researchers at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester studied how traumatic experiences alter the brain’s response to perceived threats. Their research, published in Communications Biology, “identified changes in the salience network – a mechanism in the brain used for learning and survival – in people exposed to trauma (with and without psychopathologies, including PTSD, depression, and anxiety).” Psychopathology, defined by The American Psychological Association (APA), is “the scientific study of mental disorders and the behavioral or cognitive manifestations of such disorders.”
The study’s results discovered a change in the salience network: “They found the brains of people exposed to trauma without psychopathologies were compensating for changes in their brain processes by engaging the executive control network.” This network controls the part of the brain that allows you to think, remember, and learn. These functions are called cognitive functions. Throughout life, your brain uses cognitive functions to understand and respond to stimuli. Healthy cognitive functioning supports remembering people, places, or events, maintaining attention, and inhibiting negative impulses or behavior responses while choosing healthy behavior.
Spotting the Signs: What Emotional Trauma Looks Like in Adults
The Emotional Rollercoaster
Have you experienced trauma but didn’t understand why you reacted differently afterward? Feelings like anger or sadness can overwhelm you, making you feel out of control. Experiencing emotions without a reason is called an emotional rollercoaster. Being on an emotional rollercoaster happens when you link your satisfaction in life with your emotions.
Suppose you’re on your computer, and the internet slows down or stops working. You then have to pause what you were doing to discover the cause of the interruption. You lose time and maybe your train of thought during this time. Before the internet had issues, you felt content, but afterward, you may feel depressed or anxious because you lost time fixing the problem. If your emotions change quickly or are affected by minor inconveniences frequently, it can take a toll on your physical and mental well-being.
When Your Mind Plays Tricks
After an adverse childhood experience or an experience when you’re an adult, it can feel like your mind is playing tricks on you. People may have told you to “just get over it” when you express your feelings about a particular event. What they don’t understand is that emotional trauma is as debilitating as physical trauma. You may think your mind is playing tricks on you. For example, have you felt anxiety about going to certain places or being around specific people? This is your mind’s way of trying to protect you from harm. Traumatic experiences erode your sense of safety, creating anxiety and the fear that something terrible can happen at any moment. Suppose you were abused. Your abuser may contradict your memory or experience of abuse by telling you, “That didn’t happen.” Or question why you’re upset and tell yourself it’s not a big deal. These statements can make you feel unsure of yourself.
Behaviors That Speak Volumes
Trauma can manifest itself in harmful behaviors. You may start to act out by engaging in risky sex, being confrontational, or abusing substances. Each of these behaviors can mask or act as a way to numb yourself from emotional trauma.
The Body’s Silent Signals
Relationships in the Shadow of Trauma
Your behaviors after a traumatic experience can disrupt your personal life and relationships. The emotional rollercoaster can create erratic behavior and negative emotions. Those around you may not understand why you erupt in anger, start crying, engage in harmful activities, or have feelings of depression or anxiety. These behaviors are challenging because you can’t control them, and they can lead you to avoid social situations or find harmful ways to cope.
Adults who survive childhood trauma can struggle with their mental and physical health. They contend with the challenge of processing what happened to them as a child. The struggle can increase the risk of mental health disorders and physical ailments like fibromyalgia. Plus, if their needs aren’t met due to parental neglect or abuse, they can adopt adverse habits, like substance abuse.
Those behaviors can affect their relationships with family, friends, and partners. Significant developmental and attachment trauma is linked to mood disorders, social anxiety, and obsessive or compulsive behaviors. For example, if you have attachment trauma, you may have difficulties in your romantic relationships. Sometimes, you adopt a pattern of pushing and pulling people away. Or you may have a strong need to be in a relationship. Relationship behavior patterns like the need for validation or a need for control in the relationship are signs of unmet needs from childhood trauma.
The Long Shadow: Long-Term Effects
When Trauma Lingers: Mental Health and You
Others don’t see unresolved trauma. Those who love you won’t know that you’re not fine while you’re internally trying to cope with feelings like depression, anxiety, or PTSD. You may feel like you’re living in an unrelenting storm that destroys your well-being. The wake of devastation you feel isn’t your fault. Emotions from untreated trauma are common. There are ways to help decrease your negative feelings. To discover healthy ways to build back your mental and physical health, you can seek treatment by going to therapy. Or, if you need crisis stabilization, Ocean View Psychiatric Hospital is here to guide and heal you.
At Ocean View, we support your healing journey by providing a safe, private environment. Our approach to mental health therapy offers the space you need to begin healing. Cognitive behavior, art, and recreation therapy can help you discover your strengths.
Life Interrupted: Impact on Daily Living
The Body Keeps the Score: Physical Health Risks
Stress isn’t uncommon. However, chronic stress, stress experienced for a long time, can increase your risk of health issues. Prolonged stress can disrupt your physical health. When untreated, chronic stress can cause long-term health issues like:
- Digestive issues
- Loss of sleep
- Heart disease or attack
- High blood pressure
- Weight gain
- Memory or concentration problems
Suppose you turn to substances like opioids or ecstasy to regulate your emotions. The harm done to your body can lead to:
- Damage to your nerve or brain cells
- Cancer
- Dental issues
Finding Hope and Healing at Ocean View
A Place of Understanding and Support
Finding help and healing by seeking therapy is a step towards your well-being. However, sometimes, seeing your therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly schedule isn’t enough. You may encounter situations that create deep, emotional responses, leading to harmful behaviors. At Ocean View Psychiatric Hospital, we’re here for you during your crisis. We provide crisis stabilization that suits your needs. When you contact us, we begin our journey to your mental well-being.
We understand you’re not like anyone else, so we tailor your level of care. For example, you may have thoughts of suicide or are exhibiting harmful behaviors. To keep you safe, you will be admitted into our inpatient program. Here, you will have a private bedroom to heal in peace. Our warm and welcoming environment assures you that you can receive the care you deserve without worrying about the outside world.
Whether you’re receiving care at our inpatient, partial hospitalization, or intensive outpatient program, we will guide you and give you the information you need throughout your transition from one level of care to another. During your time with us, we work with your therapist to ensure they’re a part of your healing journey.
Pathways to Healing: Treatment Options
Our highly trained team of psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers want you to focus on your mental and physical well-being. That’s why we offer comprehensive health care. You will see a doctor to address your medication and health care needs if needed. While you’re here, you will engage in individual, group, and recreation therapy. Our group therapy groups consist of people who have similar mental health disorders and cognitive functioning levels as you. By doing so, you’re a part of a group that understands your journey and gives you the support you need. You will also have access to:
- Art therapy
- Life skill-building sessions
- Psychoeducation
- Recreation therapy
Our psychiatric and health care team are experts trained in the latest evidence-based therapies. We take the time to stay up-to-date because your healthcare needs are important to us. That’s why therapy like recreation therapy is a part of your healing journey.
Recreation therapy focuses on using relaxing activities to help you increase or improve your mental and physical health. Your recreation therapist will work with you to set goals based on your needs. The plan contains activities that interest you. Suppose various forms of exercise help you relax. Your recreation therapist will help you choose the exercises or sports that increase your well-being.
While healing with us, we will meet you where you are regarding care. Our philosophy at Ocean View is believing in your potential and supporting you as you embark on the empowering path forward!
Emotional trauma can affect you as much as physical trauma. Sometimes, it manifests in ways that are unhealthy for your mind and body. You can learn to recognize the signs of emotional trauma with therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy and recreation therapy. You can try activities like yoga, meditation, or art that will aid you in discovering your inner peace. At Ocean View Psychiatric Hospital, we provide a warm, welcoming environment where you can feel safe while healing from your trauma. Our goal is to help you in your time of crisis. You can feel secure while you immerse yourself in a personalized treatment plan. To talk with someone, call (844) 562-1212.