Psychological Trauma and Recovery

Nowadays, more and more people are suffering from psychological trauma diseases, which are generally difficult to cure. Their specific manifestations include depression, mental disorders, frequent insomnia, etc. Over time, mental weakness will occur, and severe cases will even lead to world-weariness. If this disease is not treated in time, the psychological damage to people is difficult to reverse. So, how do we recover after suffering psychological trauma?

1. Basic Overview

Psychological trauma has attracted the attention of scholars and relevant personnel, especially the veterans who returned home from the Vietnam War. Although their lives have returned to normal, they experience it as if they are always on the battlefield every day, with constant flashes of war scenes, dead comrades, killing scenes, gunshots and shouts, etc. Sleep disorders, very unstable emotions, no sense of happiness in life, living in memories of the past every day, and in a fragmentary and piecemeal manner. Later, psychological intervention was conducted on these retired veterans, and a diagnostic term was proposed: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The scope and depth of research on psychological trauma has developed faster and wider.

As Armsworth and Holladay pointed out in their systematic review of the literature on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children and adolescents, the current concept and diagnostic criteria of PTSD still have certain limitations. Therefore, therapists should recognize and understand the numerous clinical symptoms that do not meet the Diagnostic and Psychiatric Disorders-Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) diagnostic criteria but may be helpful in diagnosing PTSD in children and adolescents.

2. Concept

Type I Concept

Thiel (1989) called one-time trauma occurring in adulthood Type I trauma; it includes acute stress disorder (ASD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), adjustment disorder, etc.

This concept classifies trauma based on time periods. I think the time period of this concept can be considered applicable to childhood. Any traumatic event, whether in childhood or adulthood, can be diagnosed as Type I psychological trauma. The trauma formed in childhood may not develop into Type II psychological trauma. I don't know much research material on this subject. Whether trauma inflicted in childhood (with symptoms or diagnosis) can lead to Type II trauma requires further research.

Type II Concept

Depending on the severity of the trauma, the presence of trauma-related elements in the environment will cause about 1/4 (traffic accidents) or even half (sexual violence) of the victims to be trapped in the long-term invasion of negative emotions caused by the trauma. In surgical terms, (psychological) trauma does not heal naturally and often leaves many complications.

In clinical research, people have gradually discovered that patients with the same trauma may have very different subsequent symptoms due to the nature of the traumatic event, especially the age at which the trauma was experienced. This has been confirmed with the development of trauma imaging and therapy. Therefore, the Terr classification (Terr, 1989) is now widely used: one-time trauma occurring in adulthood is called Type I trauma; and slightly more complex trauma (longer duration, repeated occurrence, starting in childhood) is called Type II trauma, that is, complex trauma.