People can experience many different kinds of trauma. You may have experienced physical or sexual abuse as a child or an adult, witnessed or been a victim of domestic violence or community violence, been impacted by a war as a veteran or a civilian, or you may have been through a natural disaster or a serious accident. Even having been chronically bullied at school as a child can be traumatic. People react in various ways to these kinds of experiences; sometimes people can work through what happened to them fairly quickly, sometimes it takes a very long time. It is also common to experience a trauma in your childhood and not have any symptoms related to the event for years and years. Something in your adult life may be triggering feelings or memories that just didn’t get triggered earlier on. For some people this might be work conflict, relationship troubles, a loss like a divorce or a death, or even a positive change like the birth of a new baby or a new love relationship.
The U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs Website lists the diagnostic criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from the DSM-V. This criteria applies to anyone (not just veterans) who meets the criteria listed.
https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/PTSD-overview/dsm5_criteria_ptsd.asp
(You may not meet the criteria for a full diagnosis but be experiencing just some or a few of these symptoms. Whether you meet full criteria or have just one or two of these symptoms, my services would likely be very helpful to you)
* Another helpful link about trauma:
https://www.sidran.org/
* CPTSD Foundation offers resources for trauma survivors:
https://cptsdfoundation.org
Caroline Loewald Farnham, LCSW 