ISSUE #60 cont'd -- Glossary terms

MORE GLOSSARY TERMS:

TRAUMA cont’d

Last time I wrote about trauma and the different types of trauma, as well as defining Acute Stress Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which are caused by trauma. Today I want to continue with the topic of trauma and some of the symptoms people get after trauma.

ABREACTION
is when we relive the trauma in some way. This may seem bizarre but if it’s happening to us it is very real and very painful. When we abreact some part or all of a traumatic experience it’s as if it is happening all over again and even our body reacts as if it’s happening in the present, with adrenalin pumping, sweating, and rapid breathing for example.  And the emotions come with it as well, feelings of fear, sometimes even anger if the trauma was caused by another person. Many of us may have abreactions when in the course of therapy, sometimes right in sessions with the therapist.

ANNIVERSARY REACTION
This is a time when we re-experience some feelings on the anniversary of an event that was traumatic. Many of us may know this experience simply when someone significant in our life dies and the anniversary of their death comes around. At that time we may feel our grief more intensely. With trauma we might feel some of the fear again as well as anger or grief. Some people experience temporary depression at the time of the anniversary.

AUTONOMIC AROUSAL
This is a symptom of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) when we experience a situation to be life-threatening, even if in reality it is not. Our body responds as if in danger with faster heart rate, dilated pupils, sweating and other fear reactions. Autonomic arousal is what happens when a person is abreacting a traumatic experience.

FLASHBACK
Is when we re-experience a traumatic experience in some form. It is also known as “intrusive recall”. There are four types of flashbacks

-  dreams or nightmares

-  dreams we wake up from but are still under the influence of the dream and have a hard time making contact with our waking reality

-  conscious flashback where we might lose contact with reality and be very lost in the past trauma – an abreaction and may even experience “hallucinations” of some type

-  unconscious flashback where we relive the traumatic event but don’t realize it. we don’t make the connection between what we are experiencing (which may be terror, anger, etc) and the trauma that happened