Why is Past Trauma Affecting You Now?

One of the questions that I often hear from clients in my New York City psychotherapy private practice is, "Why is trauma from a long time ago still affecting me now?" (see my article: Reacting to the Present Based on Your Traumatic Past).

Getting Help in Trauma Therapy

Before discussing why past psychological trauma can still impact you now, let's first discuss the possible physical and emotional effects of unresolved trauma.

Possible Physical Effects of Unresolved Trauma

• Headaches
• Aches and pains throughout the body
• Tiredness
• Sweating
• Changes in appetite 
• Difficulty managing stress
• Sleep problems
• Memory problems
• Dizziness
• Changes in vision
• Long term health problems
• Fight response
• Fawn response
  
• Flight response
• Freeze response
  
• Substance Misuse and other addictive and compulsive behavior (e.g, gambling overspending, etc)

Possible Emotional Effects of Unresolved Trauma

• Anger/irritability
• Emotional numbing (an inability to feel strong emotions)
• Sadness and Grief
• Worrying
  
• Confusion
• Problems with knowing what you want
• Shame
  
• Fear
• Panic
  
• Hypervigilance: Being very alert to your surroundings because you fear something is going to happen
• A loss of a sense of who you are
• Flashbacks triggered by current situations
• Hypersensitivity to the comments and behavior of well-meaning people who are close to you

What Are Possible Day-to-Day Responses to Unresolved Trauma?

Unresolved trauma can impact your day-to-day living in terms of:

• Taking care of yourself
• Difficulty trusting others even when you have no objective reason to mistrust these particular people
• Difficulty maintaining romantic relationships, friendships and familial relationships
• Difficulty in school and college
• Difficulty setting goals
• Difficulty maintaining a job and getting along with managers and colleagues
• Difficulty making decisions
  
• Lack of motivation
• Difficulty with change
• Difficulty with how to manage free time 

Why Does Trauma That Happened a Long Time Ago Affect You Now?

Unresolved trauma remains stored in your mind and body.  

Regardless of when the trauma originally occurred, the impact can last for years if the trauma remains unresolved and untreated.

Everyone experiences unresolved trauma in their own way and symptoms can change over time.

You might not experience a noticeable impact of the trauma until it gets triggered later in life and, at that point, you might not understand what you're reacting to when you experience symptoms.

Even if the trauma occurred decades ago and the current situation doesn't appear to be related to what happened in the past, you could experience emotional and/or physical symptoms now based on what happened in the past (see Example #3 below).

Examples

#1. As a child, you grew up in a household where your parents would often have loud arguments at night which made you feel scared. As an adult, you live next door to a couple who has loud arguments and you feel scared because your neighbors are triggering your earlier experience.

#2. You were traumatized during combat by a nearby explosion and after you leave the military, you react physically and/or emotionally when a car backfires near you.

#3. When you were a child, you were in a situation where you were scared and helpless and then, as an adult, you're in a plane where there's a lot of turbulence which triggers your childhood feelings of fear and helplessness.

    

    Note: In Example #3 the two situations are different, but what gets triggered, fear and helplessness, is the same.

There are many other obvious as well as subtle triggers that can impact you long after the original trauma occurred.

Shock Trauma vs Developmental Trauma

Psychological trauma is usually categorized as either a one-time trauma, also known as a shock trauma, or developmental trauma, also known as childhood trauma.

Shock trauma tends to be incidents that occur once, such as a tornado, a car accident, a robbery, and so on (see my article: Understanding Shock Trauma)

Developmental trauma, which is trauma that tends to be ongoing during childhood (see my article: How Developmental Trauma Affects How You Feel About Yourself).

Developmental trauma usually tends to be of a more serious nature because it's ongoing.  However, a shock trauma can also trigger symptoms related to developmental trauma.

For instance, if a person is beaten up and robbed, which is a one-time trauma, that one-time incident can trigger symptoms related to being physically and emotionally abused as a child.

So, even when it appears that there aren't layers of trauma involved with a one-time incident, a trauma therapist needs to explore whether there are underlying traumas that are getting triggered, similar to Example #3 above.

Intergenerational Trauma

In addition, psychological trauma can get unconsciously passed on from one generation to the next (see my article:  What is Intergenerational Trauma?).

Getting Help in Trauma Therapy

Unresolved trauma can get worked through in trauma therapy (see my article: What is Trauma Therapy?).

Getting Help in Trauma Therapy

There are now many different types of trauma therapy, such as:

EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy)

Somatic Experiencing

And other modalities that were developed specifically for trauma that can help you to work through trauma (see my article: Why Experiential (Mind-Body Oriented) Therapy is More Effective Than Regular Talk Therapy).

Rather than struggling on your own, seek help from a licensed mental health professional who is a trauma therapist.

Once you have worked through your trauma, you can live a more meaningful life.

About Me

I am a licensed New York psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP, EFT, Somatic Experiencing and Sex Therapist.

With over 25 years of experience as a trauma therapist, one of my specialties is helping clients to work through unresolved trauma.

I work with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW.- NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.