Trauma Information

A couple of weeks ago,

I wrote about a man who had a strong reaction to the song, “Sugar, Sugar.”

After talking with the man further,

I learned that he was a Vietnam veteran.

The song had elicited a trauma response in him 

That neither he nor I expected. 

He had been momentarily flooded with memories and feelings that were stored in his body

And the only way he knew to react was by yelling for me to stop.

We see trauma responses like this all the time,

Especially in our combat veterans, 

But we often don’t recognize them as such. 

 

Over the weekend,

I had the opportunity to talk extensively with a good friend about trauma.

Like me, my friend has trouble making her trauma learning deliverable to and practical for someone who hasn’t spent hours studying trauma. 

But, like me, she agreed that it’s information that everyone, especially educators, needs to know about the topic. 

 

Here are some things we deemed important:

 

1. Generational trauma is real. It can take up to 7 generations without trauma to heal generational trauma and break its cycle. 

 

2. You can’t fix someone else’s trauma by yourself. You can love. You can give tools. You can help build resilience. You can hold space. You can help. But you can’t fix trauma alone.

 

3. Trauma is stored in the body and must work itself out of the body for healing. Sometimes this is through sports and exercise. Sometimes through self harm. Sometimes through therapeutic practices. Sometimes through yoga or dance. Sometimes through religious experiences. Sometimes never at all. 

 

4. Trauma responses often look like ADHD. Hyper-vigilance and inability to focus are often side effects of abuse, neglect, and other traumas. 

 

5. Infant and toddler trauma will show up later in life. A person may not consciously remember the trauma but the body does. A lot of the anger and “bad” behavior stems from early childhood trauma. 

 

6. Trauma is a response rather than an event. The same event might traumatize one person but not another. It’s uncontrollable and unpredictable. That’s what makes it so tricky. 

 

7. Unprocessed trauma comes out in wonky ways. 

 

There’s more. 

There’s so much more. 

And maybe I will share more in the future. 

But for now, I will simply challenge you to hold space for people today. 

Hold safe, non-judgmental space for people, 

Including yourself, 

To heal. 

 

Amen.