Common Trauma Misconceptions

A short guide to understanding trauma on a deeper level

 
Every one of us suffers from unhealed emotional trauma. This is often misdiagnosed as stress, depression, or anxiety. Anxiety is the highest mental disorder in the USA (1), while depression is the largest mental disorder worldwide (2). 

A typical anxiety or depression diagnosis usually comes with a prescription, advice to lessen stress and practice yoga. Ok, that’s all great, but do we really want to numb our way through life with drugs, forcing ourselves to a yoga class in order not to have a breakdown? Doesn’t sound like much of a life to me. 

I spent a decade of my life suffering from chronic stress and depression, battling eating disorders, hair loss, hormone imbalance, and weight issues until I finally realized it was far more than stress. I suffered from trauma. MAJOR trauma, all throughout my life, and I needed help to heal from it. 

There are many common misconceptions of trauma, which prevent many of us from healing, as we do not believe we suffer from PTSD. Below are some the common misconceptions of trauma that you may have come across in your life: 

  • PTSD is not just for soldiers. All kinds of traumatic situations happen that we have to deal with, starting from childhood. 

  • Adult trauma vs child trauma is completely different, and each much be healed in their own specific way

  • One trauma is not “worse” than the other. Each person’s trauma is their own story. A parental divorce for one child can be just as bad as the death of a parent for another

  • Trauma is just a misunderstanding. Something happened to you and you created a belief around the situation. This belief then dictates your life, actions, and everything else. 

  • You have the power to rewrite your story. When you change the way you perceived the initial trauma and look at it through a new lens, it takes on new meaning. 

  • You don’t have to change the initial trauma, only the way in which you look a it

Trauma is generational and can be passed down to others. When you carry unhealed trauma, you live in a state of fear, hurt, sadness and anger, and you want others to feel the pain you suffer. That is when trauma becomes dangerous, as you end up hurting others the way you were hurt. Hurt people hurt people. The sooner you start to heal your trauma, the sooner you can break the cycle of hurt on others and the sooner you can be free to live the life you truly want. 

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REFERENCES

  1. Anxiety and Depression Facts and Statistics: https://adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics

  2. World Health Organization - Depression: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression