13 Comments

At its extreme, trauma takes the crippling of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD), long known to harm soldiers (it was first known as "shell shock" during WW1), but increasingly known to be part of the general public's makeup as well.

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Yes, very much so. PTSD is helping the public to become aware of trauma, more broadly. It's horrible that we need to have such a huge cohort of PTSD soldiers dealing with this, but if it wasn't for this critical mass, we'd almost certainly be even more in the dark. Silver lining, I guess?

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I do wonder, though, if our casual use of the word trauma has done us a disservice as it underplays the seriousness of the scars left by these wounds. I feel like when we think everyone is walking around with trauma, it minimizes the impact of these experiences.

Though I had long recognized my own trauma, I didn't really understand the magnitude of it until I was diagnosed with PTSD. With that diagnosis, it was almost like I could finally see the many ways it had infiltrated my life.

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Excellent point, Kristi. I struggled with tiptoeing this line when I was writing today. I think I wanted to point out mostly that trauma doesn't really describe an event as much as what comes after, but i also didn't want to overstep and make any specific recommendations or comparisons.

I'm also very aware that we don't always realize when we're carrying something around. I suspect some of my readers are unaware they're living with trauma today.

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Totally. It’s impossible to know all the ways our trauma has infiltrated different aspects of our lives. Your post was a solid example of that. And I agree with your point. Most of us see trauma as the thing that happened, but it’s actually our response to it, or more accurately our body’s response to it. Great topic!

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Thanks for making it better by commenting, too! I always appreciate your perspective on the things I'm thinking about.

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We all are wounded, one way or another.

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This is a completely brilliant explanation of trauma – thank you.

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It seems to me that if it follows you around, you are being haunted (hunted) by it…

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Some years ago, we visited friends at their new place. Many of the rooms had really high thresholds (convenient foreshadowing: definitely higher than my pain threshold), including the one from the living room to the kitchen. At one point, I got up to bring some water and moved quickly towards the kitchen. I was only wearing socks on my feet.

I trust you can tell where I'm heading with this. I stubbed my toe so bad that it eventually turned blue and came off.

I hope you're happy to bring this repressed trauma back into my life.

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How do you say "Danny Nine-Toes" in Danish?

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Growing up, I took dance lessons. Before a performance, my fellow dancers would wish each other, “Break a leg,” as is customary (⬅️if you haven’t explored this, you are welcome for the idea 😂). I always felt it was too much, so my customary pre-performance wish to others was “stub a toe!”

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Ouch! Yes, "break a leg" is a really neat phrase. I think I just triggered myself by reading the bit about stubbing the toe! Yikes.

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