#2 Trauma Is Subjective

Trauma is defined as a mental, behavioural and emotional response to an event or an experience that is deeply disturbing or distressing. Contrary to my previous belief, it’s your SUBJECTIVE emotional experience of an event that determines whether it was traumatic. In other words, just because something might not be recognized objectively as devastating does not mean it wasn’t traumatic for you.

Rosalien shares her thoughts on what it means to experience trauma subjectively. 

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Transcription

I once understood trauma as an experience only known to war veterans, survivors of natural disasters and damaging childhoods. I was wrong.

My study and practice have led me to believe something much different. Trauma is defined as a mental, behavioural and emotional response to an event or an experience that is deeply disturbing or distressing. Contrary to my previous belief, it’s your SUBJECTIVE emotional experience of an event that determines whether it was traumatic. In other words, just because something might not be recognized objectively as devastating does not mean it wasn’t traumatic for you.

When I was a teenager, I lived on a farm. One of my tasks was to butcher chickens. To someone who didn’t grow up like I did, it might be considered gruesome. Those of you who are squeamish, feel free to close your ears.

Among other things, two of my jobs were to behead and defeather the chickens. Years later, my sister-in-law and her teenagers wanted to watch me do the task. It was their first time butchering poultry and they needed my expertise.

For me, butchering chickens was normal and a normal part of farm life. For my sister-in-law it was shocking, devastating and apprehensible. The traumatic, or not so traumatic, nature of experience was subjective.

Another example would be spankings. Some families say it’s good. Others think it’s a barbaric practice that should be outlawed. Traumas are influenced by our own ideas, personal feelings, beliefs and opinions. I repeat: traumas are subjective.

Your experience of an event may vary greatly from someone else’s.