Loading your learn pack…
Read the summary, then start training!
Psychological trauma is an emotional response to severe distressing events, with indirect exposure sometimes contributing but not always leading to trauma.
Psychological trauma (also called mental/psychiatric trauma, emotional damage, or psychotrauma) is an emotional response that occurs after severe distressing events, such as bodily injury, sexual violence, or threats to the life of the person or their loved ones. It can also result from indirect exposure—such as watching distressing news—when the exposure is extremely distressing, though not everyone who experiences such events develops trauma. The scope of psychological trauma includes both short-term and long-term effects. Short-term reactions may include shock and denial, while longer-term outcomes can involve intrusive memories and flashbacks, panic attacks, insomnia and nightmares, emotional dysregulation, difficulties in relationships, and conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and brief psychotic disorder. Trauma can also be associated with physical symptoms (e.g., migraines, nausea, hyperventilation), and people vary widely in their risk depending on factors such as resilience, coping resources, and the availability of support or treatment. Psychotraumatology is the study of psychological trauma, and the topic is further broadened by related concepts such as situational trauma, stress-related disorders, moral injury, and vicarious trauma.
Psychological trauma is an emotional response to severe distressing events, with indirect exposure sometimes contributing but not always leading to trauma.
Long-term effects can include intrusive re-experiencing (flashbacks), hyperarousal (e.g., hypervigilance), avoidance/numbing, sleep problems, relationship difficulties, and PTSD or related disorders.
Risk and outcomes vary across individuals due to protective factors (e.g., resilience) and the support/treatment received; psychotraumatology studies these processes.
An emotional response caused by severe distressing events that can produce overwhelming physiological stress reactions and lasting psychological effects in some people.
A benign cue that becomes linked to the traumatic experience and can provoke distressing re-experiencing and anxiety.
A dissociative experience in which a person feels as though the traumatic events are recurring, ranging from distraction to loss of awareness of the present.
A trauma-related disorder characterized by persistent symptoms such as re-experiencing, avoidance/numbing, and hypervigilance following a traumatic event.
The field of study focused on psychological trauma and its causes, effects, and treatment.
“Can you explain what "Psychological trauma is an emotional response to severe distressing events, with indirect exposure sometimes contributing but not always leading to trauma." means in simple terms?”