In Greek, trauma means, “to harm, to damage”. According to Trauma Healing Institute, trauma is a wound of the heart which happens when one is overwhelmed with intense fear, helplessness or horror. Like the physical wound, the wound of the heart needs to be treated with care as it is painful.
Trauma is often the result of a loss of someone or something but not always. Loss of a job, a marriage, status, property, body function, body part among many others may result in a wound of the heart.
When the heart wound is ignored, lives and livelihoods are damaged.
First, a person who is wounded tends to lose focus in life with most of their time spent thinking about the loss, having nightmares at night and flashbacks during the day. Such a person may live in this ‘stuck’ position for years and become a burden to family and friends.
Secondly a wounded person may turn to self-medication by way of avoiding the reminders of the traumatizing event. Reminders may be external such as people and places or internal such as memories and emotions related to the heart wound. The external reminders may lead the person to isolate themselves from people and places. The internal reminders may lead to various addictions in an attempt to forget the event or events.
Lastly, the wounded person may always be tense and unable to do basic functions such as sleeping or eating. This often results in physical ailments such as headaches and stomachaches among many others. These physical ailments may not be diagnosed in a medical laboratory and may result in frustrations and further mental illnesses.
In the fallen world we live in, anyone may experience trauma in their live time. Mental health specialists come to play at such times. Unfortunately, there are not enough specialists to go around helping all those who are wounded.
This is where trauma informed care comes in. A three week training program is available for members to heal the wounds that one may have carried from childhood. Become a member here and get equipped to serve those who are traumatized as you get your own healing.
Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash
