The Living Legacy of Trauma

Many people have the belief that after an event is over, it is over and it should no longer have an impact on their life. This is simply not the case, especially with traumatic events. Everything we experience shapes in some way, whether we realize it or not.  

For example, if you eat a slice of pizza and you really enjoy it, pizza may become your favorite food, but let's say you go to a restaurant and they undercook the pizza and you get sick. Rather than associating being sick with one incident with pizza your brain may then begin to associate pizza as being aversive because the neural pathways in your brain that remember the food poisoning incident will see pizza and set off the internal fire alarm telling you to avoid the food you once loved.

This internal fire alarm is supposed to protect you. However, for people with PTSD or other trauma spectrum conditions, this alarm goes off even when the person is safe, which isn't always appropriate or adaptive for the individual's current life.  

Look at this image showing some of the ways that trauma lives on in individuals: 

Do you recognize any of these common responses to trauma in your life?