- [Narrator] Have you ever had a traumatic experience
in your life?
Even if you've never been in an accident,
had your life threatened or been in serious physical danger,
the answer can still be, yes.
A traumatic experience can refer to any situation
that evokes an intense, overwhelming
and long lasting sense of fear, anxiety, and stress.
Emotional and psychological trauma
is something unfortunately, a lot of people go through.
If left unresolved, trauma in any form
can manifest in negative cognitive, behavioral,
or even physiological ways.
Here are seven signs that you're not broken
but maybe struggling with some unhealed trauma.
Number one, you are in a toxic relationship.
Many people are uncomfortable with seeking help
or reaching out about toxic relationships.
This is most likely because
while it may be easy to spot toxic relationships from afar,
it's a lot harder to do up close and personal,
especially with our own feelings clouding our judgment
and living with the emotional baggage
a toxic relationship brings
can lead to a lot of problematic behaviors
that make it more difficult for us to connect
with other people
in a healthy, meaningful, and emotionally intimate way.
Number two, you suffered a significant loss.
Another reason why a lot of people may suffer
from psychological trauma
is if they have recently experienced
a significant loss in their lives
that they don't know how to deal with.
Grief if left unresolved
can lead us who become more detached and isolate ourselves
from those around us.
It may make it more difficult to sleep,
concentrate or think clearly,
and it could lead us to become moodier
and emotionally volatile,
prone to lashing out or breaking down
over seemingly nothing.
Number three, you have certain triggers.
Even if you feel that you already moved on
from your difficult past,
unresolved trauma may still linger in your subconscious
and form triggers.
Triggers are defined as provocative content,
images or speech
that evokes an immediate emotional or psychological response
such as panic, anxiety, stress,
tension, dissociation, or extreme discomfort.
So when you feel triggered by things
that you may or may not associate
with a traumatic event in your life,
then there's most likely still some unhealed trauma
blocking your path towards mental, physical,
and emotional wellbeing.
Number four, you have unexplained symptoms.
Similar to the last point,
unexplained somatic symptoms are our mind's way
of telling us while we might think nothing's wrong,
we might still be harboring some psychological wounds
that need tending to.
So if you've been having symptoms lately
that you or your doctor just can't explain
such as migraines, muscle tension,
body aches, insomnia, loss of appetite,
memory loss, difficulty concentrating,
fatigue, low energy, and depressive effect,
you might be better off speaking to a therapist about it
than a physician.
All these are common in patient suffering from PTSD.
Number five, you struggle with emotional intimacy.
Do you find it difficult to open up and trust
even your closest friends and family members?
Do you struggle to maintain close long-term relationships
in your life?
Or feel uncomfortable expressing your true feelings
to others?
This fear of emotional intimacy and vulnerability
may stem from a previous traumatic experience in your life
that you've not yet come to terms with.
After all, trauma has the power to impact
not only how we feel about ourselves,
but also how we relate to other people.
Number six, you suffer from feelings of depression.
Although many people might not be aware of it,
there's a difference between feeling depressed
and being depressed.
In certain situations,
such as following the death of a loved one,
a major event, illness,
injury, and so on,
it's perfectly normal to wrestle with such feelings.
So if you find yourself feeling depressed
after having experienced a traumatic event,
no matter how long ago it may have been,
then it might be your mind's way of telling you
that something's not right,
and that there are still some issues you've left unresolved.
And number seven, you have unhealthy coping mechanisms.
Last but certainly not least,
even if you feel that
none of the things we've talked about so far apply to you,
if you have any unhealthy coping mechanisms
for your personal problems,
then it's a good sign
that you're still struggling with some unhealed trauma.
Alcoholism, substance abuse,
gambling, overspending,
over eating, withdrawing socially, and self-harming
are just a few of the most common examples.
Oftentimes we turn to these problematic coping mechanisms
when we don't want to acknowledge
or don't know how to process what it is we're feeling
and what to do about it.
So do you relate to any of the things we've mentioned here?
Please, don't hesitate to reach out
to a mental healthcare professional
so you can better understand your trauma
and how it's affecting your life.
Healing from trauma takes time,
but seeking help is the first step towards recovery.
(gentle music)