What is trauma?

Going through very stressful, frightening or distressing events is sometimes called trauma. When we talk about emotional or psychological trauma, we might mean:

• situations or events we find traumatic
  
• how we're affected by our experiences.
  

Traumatic events can happen at any age and can cause long-lasting harm. Everyone has a different reaction to trauma, so you might notice any effects quickly, or a long time afterwards.

What experiences might be traumatic?
What's traumatic is personal. Other people can't know how you feel about your own experiences or if they were traumatic for you. You might have similar experiences to someone else, but be affected differently.

Trauma can include events where you feel:

• frightened
  
• under threat
  
• humiliated
  
• rejected
  
• abandoned
  
• invalidated
  
• unsafe
  
• unsupported
  
• trapped
  
• ashamed
  
• powerless.
  

Ways trauma can happen include:

• one-off or ongoing events
  
• being directly harmed
  
• witnessing harm to someone else
  
• living in a traumatic atmosphere
  
• being affected by trauma in a family or community.
  

an trauma cause mental health problems?
Trauma can sometimes directly cause mental health problems, or make you more vulnerable to developing them. It is among the potential causes of all mental health problems. It can be difficult to tell which problems are being caused by trauma.

Some conditions are also known to develop as a direct result of trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (complex PTSD).

Reference:
MIND
NHS Website