hey everybody happy Thursday now we're
back at the vlog wall or at least that's
what I used to call it back in the day
when I used to five videos a week oh
that was a lot of work holy schmoly but
today's question is something that got a
ton of chatter on the website if you
haven't hopped over to katimorton.com
I'll put a link here to it but you can
swing over a sign up and chat amongst
each other about things that you're
thinking about concerned about etc and
the question is hey Kati my therapist
says that I'm really traumatized I never
really thought that I was but I've
recently realized that I am I was
wondering if you'd be able to do some
more videos on trauma and being
traumatized also how to know if you are
traumatized and just things around it
like what can be a trauma or what can
cause it not just PTSD because that
doesn't always come with trauma a
question mark so yeah it would be really
great if you maybe could well here I am
we're going to talk about it so I want
to start off and I'm looking at my
computer because I want to give you the
definition of traumatized and I'm
looking at Miriam Webster's dictionary
you can look it up yourself if you're
curious or think that I'm giving you
false information but Ramat eyes is to
cause someone to become very upset in a
way that often leads to serious
emotional problems to cause someone to
suffer an emotional trauma that is to
traumatize now Trump being traumatized
is not something that can be diagnosed
there are no certain sets of symptoms
that you have to have in order to get
that diagnosis there isn't a certain
amount of time it needs to go on none of
that stuff pertains to being traumatized
trauma really means that something has
happened to you that was so
psychologically disturbing that you
can't process it it's too much and you
find it bothering you later in life
sometimes that can lead to PTSD but not
always so with regard to this question
what can cause us to be traumatized and
like I said trauma can be caught or
traumatization can be caused by anything
happening in our life when we're not
able to process it it's so intense
emotionally and psychologically that we
can't process it in the moment we maybe
don't process it for years there can be
things that pop back up and we
really struggle to cope or certain
situations or sounds or signs or
symptoms that can even cause flashbacks
because having a flashback doesn't
necessarily mean that you have PTSD you
click here I will link to my PTSD video
so that you can listen to the diagnostic
criteria around that but you can be
traumatized you can have a situation
happen that's so overwhelming and too
much to process without having PTSD and
so honestly in order for us to be
traumatized it just means that something
has to happen that we weren't able to
process and everyone's going to be
different this is something a lot of my
clients have struggle with is wait so my
brothers and sisters and I let's say
there's like four of them or something
we're all in the same situation and we
all were in that car crash however I'm
the only one that still struggles with
it why is that
and there's a lot of thoughtfulness and
actually there was an answer in the
website that was really great which
talked about resiliency and that is a
true thing each person has their own
level of resiliency meaning how many
healthy coping skills do I have what's
my support system like how am I put
together as a person do I have secure
attachment as a child there are a
million factors that make up our
resiliency how resilient we can be in a
situation and so let's say you didn't
have the same resiliency as your
brothers and sisters maybe mom was
working full-time and wasn't around much
when you were kids so you don't have
quite as secure of an attachment or
maybe something else has happened to you
when you're younger
it doesn't matter there's a ton of
things that can lead to our resiliency
and there are a lot of factors that can
cause us to be traumatized when other
people in the same situation won't so
that I guess is my caution to use don't
compare your experience near
traumatization to others who've been
through it as well because everyone is
going to be different and so on that
note we might not know if we've been
traumatized things can happen that are
overwhelming things happen all the time
that are overwhelming but we may not
have a traumatized response until later
we're talking about that situation or
being in similar situations are just too
much and can cause things to come back
we can have flashbacks
we can even dissociate all of those
things can be part of PTSD as well but
they could on there
own standalone as a trauma response and
so know that we may not know in the
moment that we are traumatized but it
may be something that can come up later
and if it is coming back and bothering
you call somebody see a therapist start
working on it if it just happened and
it's bothering you see someone because
we know that talking through traumas
giving our brain that time it needed to
process it walking it through moment by
moment can help our brain process it and
put it to rest so then it doesn't
continue to bother us throughout the
rest of our lives and the sooner the
better and know that we all go through
difficult times there's nothing weird
about this it's okay to have been
through hard things and to be struggling
with them now just know that the sooner
we get help the better and please as
always share your thoughts about this
have you been traumatized if you know in
someone who's been through a trauma do
you have PTSD or maybe not
and what did what does your therapist
giving you four tips and tricks a lot of
things that I work on with my clients
what techniques I give them have to do
with breathing techniques grounding
techniques and other DBT skills one of
those being mindfulness just being aware
of how your body is responding and
knowing how to bring that anxiety level
down to stay in your body to stay
present in the moment there's a lot of
different tools and tips and tricks that
we can utilize so let us know what your
therapist is offered up for you and if
you like this video and you want more
content about trauma give it a thumbs up
and I will see you on Monday bye