A Thousand Paper Cuts

Let’s talk about trauma. We have learned to consider trauma as only the big stuff: sexual abuse, severe neglect, fighting in a war. While those are certainly traumatic experiences, trauma is not always packaged in a big, sudden event, like a stab wound. Sometimes it is a thousand paper cuts.

Trauma can be from any situation, interaction, or moment that we experience a threat or danger. When we feel fear, our nervous system responds, faster than you can blink. We see post-traumatic symptoms when our nervous systems does not get the chance to return to a regulated state and feel safe again. The fear then compounds, our body continues to respond (i.e. faster heart beat, quicker breathing, constant muscle tension), and we end up reliving that fearful feeling and the related physical effects, even sometimes without recognizing it. Sometimes flashbacks are visible and obvious, and sometimes they are subtle and waves of a feeling that do not seem to make sense. We adapt to a more chronic, fearful state and our bodies hold on to that.

Trauma can be from a long time ago, recently, or even vicarious, meaning observed and not directly experienced ourselves. Trauma can be big and small. Trauma impacts us all, no matter age, income, gender, or race. Many individuals have unresolved trauma that effects them daily from the moment they wake up. Unfortunately we cannot avoid trauma in life, life is traumatic sometimes. But recognizing the trauma and its effects is the only way our body will release the fear and return to a safe state over time. Practice paying a little more attention to your body, you might learn it has more to tell you than you realized.

Written by Lacey Wright, PsyD