What Is Trauma? 20

Trauma is a permanent feature of our human condition.  I would go as far as to call it our defining feature.  Life is hard, and life has always been hard.  Only the strong survive.  With this ugly Darwinist reality how could anyone possibly get through unscathed?  By virtue of being human we are all walking wounded.

I remember a passage from a novel by Doris Lessing I keep reading over and over again, titled "The Four-Gated City".  Ms. Lessing offers the image of the grief of a mother, when her young child first
plays outside, falls on the pavement and scrapes her knee.  The mother's grief is caused by that sense of loss of that beautiful innocent wholeness, suddenly being claimed and wounded by the cruel world.  It is a kind of relinquishment of something very precious and pure to forces outside of our control.

Helicopter parents are, of course, pretty pathetic.  They labour so long and hard sheltering their little darlings from the cold cruel world, creating infantilized teenagers that will grow into the most useless young adults that ever crawled the surface of the earth.  The world is still going to claim their little babies.  That is the job of the world.  Overprotected from the evil and surrounding harms that await them, they will go into the world, the easiest prey imaginable.

Trauma is the universal reality.  We all respond to trauma differently.  Some have amazing resilience, are made even stronger, and soldier on in life conquering and to conquer.  Many others do okay.  They are impacted, yes, and might be a little bit scarred for life.  But they can still get on with their lives, earning a living, raising a family, and generally having a fairly good time.

Then there are those whose lives are damaged, even ruined by trauma.  Those who will need medical and community support, mental health support, medications, counselling, therapeutic groups and activities, hospitalization. 

My question?  What is it that makes victims of trauma different from trauma survivors and trauma victors?  What traits do each group seem to share in common?

I am thinking here of how the values of the traumatized collective define and interpret the wellbeing of those who have been through specific and impactful trauma.  We live in a society largely defined by capitalist economic priorities, individualism and consumerism.  Outside of liberal human rights there is no defining code of ethics that provide mordant to our collective values, such as they are.  Mental wellness and mental health recovery are going to be perceived through this kind of lens.  If you remain employable and well-employed, and function well socially, then you are considered well, or at least not traumatized and certainly not ill.

If you are a trauma survivor or victim who has a high ethical sense, a developed sense of spirituality and humanity, and who values the beauty of nature and the dignity of other persons, you are not necessarily going to be regarded as well.  If you are not able to work and earn a living, and if there is anything lacking in your family or social network, or your ability to cope under stress and pressure, your wellness is going to be held in question.

Other symptoms of trauma: short temper, outbursts, withdrawal, anxiety and depression could be equally present in the victors, survivors and victims.  Should survivors and victims be a little more honest and open about their feelings and experience, their disclosure could incriminate and be used against them.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, like many other mental health diagnoses, is in some ways a social construct.  Everyone is damaged to some degree.  This isn't to say that there will not be those who are particularly fragile who will be needing extra support and care.  Rather, I think we need to take care not to assume that the rest of us are all right just because there are those in our care who manifest troubling symptoms and behaviours.  Some lie better than others.

One of my highly esteemed supervisors mentioned to me recently that we need to take the word disorder out of PTSD as the word disorder facilitates stigma.  If the rest of us were entirely honest about our own personal demons, fears, hurts and nightmares it could plausibly be maintained that we are all trauma cases, because really, we are all trauma cases, and I think that being willing to own this will make us a little bit less smug and more helpful in supporting those who have been particularly wounded by life.