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Understanding Trauma

Trauma is an emotional response to a scary, harmful, or stressful event. Some possible traumatic events are abuse (such as when a parent hits a child), accidents (such as a car crash), natural disasters (such as a tornado), sudden death of a loved one, seeing violence (such as when a parent hits the other parent), serious health events (such as a major surgery).

Can trauma cause mental health problems?

Many kids face difficult events and recover from them on their own with time. But some children or teens have trouble functioning because of trauma or continue to struggle for a long time after an event has ended. They might develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a mental health problem where you struggle to recover after a difficult event and do important things at school, home, or with friends.

Possible traumatic events

Children or teens may experience trauma in other situations where they feared for their safety, believed they would be harmed, witnessed violence, or feared they might lose a loved one.

an adult grabbing a kids wrist

Physical, sexual, or emotional abuse

Little girl crying on the couch next to her father

Neglect from caregivers

two cars crashed into each other

Accidents (such as a car crash)

tornado destroyed house

Natural disasters (like tornadoes, fires, or floods)

A woman carrying a rose while walking to a gravesite

Sudden or violent death of a loved one

social worker with a little girl

Separation from loved ones (like entering foster care)

Racism protest

Discrimination, prejudice, or racism

crime scene tape

Violence at home or in the community (like school shootings)

kid in hospital

Serious health events (like a major surgery)

a little boy hugging his military dad

Military family stress (like deployment, loss, or injury)

refugees waiting to get into a country

Refugee or war experiences

What are the symptoms of trauma and PTSD?

Intrusive Thoughts or Reactions:

  • Repeated scary memories of the event
  • Playing about the event or related themes
  • Bad dreams about the event
  • Feeling as if the event is happening again, even though it’s not
  • Strong emotions or behaviors when reminded of the event
  • Have a hard time focusing or remembering things

Avoidance:

  • Trying hard not to think or talk about a scary event
  • Staying away from people or places that remind them of the event

Negative Thoughts or Feelings:

  • Feeling less happy or loving toward others
  • Feeling afraid, angry, guilty or ashamed a lot of the time
  • Not want to do fun things or play anymore
  • Difficulty remembering big parts of the event
  • Blaming themselves for the event
  • Negative beliefs about themselves (“I’m bad”), the world (“the world is unsafe”), or others (“I can’t trust anyone else”).

Changes in Physical or Emotional Reactions

  • Anger and irritability
  • Reckless or impulsive behavior
  • Constantly looking for danger
  • Feeling jumpy or easily scared
  • Sleep problems
  • Problems concentrating