Unhealed trauma can have a profound impact on a person’s mental, emotional and physical health. When trauma is left unaddressed, it can lead to chronic stress, anxiety, depression, addiction, chronic pain and other health problems. Understanding the signs and symptoms of unhealed trauma is the first step in getting the support needed to recover.
What is trauma?
Trauma is defined as any disturbing or distressing event that overwhelms a person’s ability to cope and leaves them with intense fear, horror or a sense of powerlessness. Trauma can be caused by a single event like a serious accident, physical or sexual assault, or witnessing violence. It can also be the result of ongoing abuse or neglect during childhood. The effects of trauma vary from person to person and depend on the nature of the event, age when it occurred, support received after, and individual resiliency.
Why does trauma need to be healed?
When a traumatic event occurs, it creates a surge of stress hormones in the body putting it into a state of hyperarousal. The rational brain essentially shuts down and the emotional brain takes over. This is to allow a person to react quickly and instinctively for survival. But chronic stress from unresolved trauma keeps the body locked in fight-or-flight mode even when real danger has passed. Over time, this takes a toll mentally and physically.
Healing trauma allows the body to return to a calm state and regain balance physiologically and emotionally. It allows the rational brain to process the memories and work through the intense emotions surrounding the event. Healing involves making meaning from the trauma so it is integrated into the person’s life story in a constructive way. Unhealed trauma often leads to avoidance of memories/feelings about the trauma which prevents integration.
Signs and symptoms of unhealed trauma
Physical symptoms:
– Chronic headaches, stomach aches or pain
– Ongoing fatigue and low energy
– Difficulty sleeping
– Muscle tension, aches and pains
– Sexual problems
Emotional symptoms:
– Flashbacks or intrusive memories
– Heightened emotional reactivity
– Difficulty managing and expressing emotions
– Feeling disconnected, numb or dissociated
– Feeling anxious, fearful or unsafe
– Feeling depressed, hopeless or worthless
Mental symptoms:
– Difficulty concentrating or remembering things
– Feeling spacing out or “not present”
– Detachment from self or reality
– Distressing dreams or nightmares
– Suicidal thoughts
Behavioral symptoms:
– Withdrawing from others socially
– Avoiding situations that trigger memories
– Using alcohol or drugs to cope
– Engaging in self-harm behaviors
– Difficulty maintaining relationships
– Reckless behaviors
How unhealed trauma leads to mental and physical health problems
Leaving trauma unresolved can manifest in a myriad of long-term mental, emotional and physical health issues:
PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common outcome of severe trauma if left untreated. PTSD causes intense mental and emotional distress from unwanted memories, hypervigilance, and avoidance behaviors. Symptoms include flashbacks, emotional numbing, feeling constantly on edge, angry outbursts, and dissociation from reality.
Depression
Unhealed trauma fuels clinical depression in many cases. Depression is marked by ongoing feelings of emptiness, sadness, hopelessness, guilt or worthlessness. Lack of motivation, fatigue, and suicidal thoughts may occur.
Addiction
Turning to drugs or alcohol to self-medicate and avoid painful trauma memories and emotions is extremely common. Seeking relief leads to addiction and greater life chaos.
Anxiety disorders
Anxiety often stems from feeling unsafe and the world being unpredictable after trauma. Feeling tense, panicky and having irrational fears are common with disorders like generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic attacks and phobias.
Chronic pain
Emotional pain from trauma can morph into chronic physical pain in the form of headaches, stomach issues, body aches and pain disorder like fibromyalgia. The brain-body connection is very real.
Autoimmune diseases
Studies link trauma to increased inflammation that can trigger autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus or inflammatory bowel disease.
Eating disorders
Trauma survivors may cope by restricting food or binging/purging. The structure gives a sense of control while numbing painful emotions.
Personality disorders
Unhealed developmental trauma is strongly associated with borderline, narcissistic or antisocial personality disorder in adulthood. Marked by unstable relationships, impulsivity, reckless behavior and mood swings.
Suicidal thoughts
Trauma often destroys one’s sense of self-worth and purpose. This despair and hopelessness can lead to suicidal ideation and attempts.
Barriers to healing from trauma
Many obstacles can prevent someone from getting the help they need to work through traumatic experiences. Some common barriers include:
– Avoiding thinking or talking about the trauma
– Feeling ashamed, blaming self or believing it can’t be worked through
– Distrusting others or not feeling emotionally safe to be vulnerable
– Lacking support system or resources for help
– Ongoing life stresses and limited capacity to cope
– Being re-traumatized by stressful situations or events
– Fear of being judged, invalidated or stigmatized
– Suppressing emotions and memories with alcohol or drugs
– Believing therapy won’t help or nothing will change
Steps to heal from trauma
Trauma healing is a process but one that can transform your life. Important steps include:
1. Acknowledge the impact of trauma – Accept that the traumatic event(s) are affecting you in profound ways. The first step to healing is removing any denial.
2. Learn about trauma – Education helps you understand your reactions and symptoms so they feel less scary and overwhelming. It brings validation.
3. Tell your story – Being able to share your experiences and emotions with a therapist or support group lifts shame and isolation.
4. Address negative coping habits – Make needed lifestyle changes to manage stress, improve health, and stop self-medicating with alcohol/drugs.
5. Work through emotions – Feelings like anger, fear, grief and shame need to be fully felt in order to heal. A therapist can help safely process them.
6. Integrate memories – Talking through memories helps disarm their power. EMDR and somatic therapies are useful here.
7. Take back power/control – Trauma leaves a sense of helplessness. Making empowered choices supports healing.
8. Develop self-compassion – Counteracting self-blame and shame helps instill a caring inner voice.
9. Build healthy relationships – Positive social bonds foster trust and reconnection after feeling detached.
10. Find purpose – Discover meaningful ways to rebuild life and help others. Altruism is restorative.
When to seek professional help
If trauma symptoms like flashbacks, panic attacks, depression, or self-harming behaviors persist for more than a month, it is imperative to seek professional support. A trauma-informed therapist can provide both counseling and targeted treatment methods to effectively process trauma memories and emotions for healing. Other reasons to reach out for help include:
– Suicidal thoughts or planning suicide
– Self-injuring behaviors
– Substance abuse or addiction
– Highly disruptive anxiety or ptsd symptoms
– Inability to function normally in daily life
– Relationship problems or volatility
– Ongoing physical health issues
Ignoring symptoms or toughing it out often makes trauma impact worse over time. There are many highly effective therapies to resolve trauma, the most powerful being EMDR, somatic therapy, and IFS.
Treatments for healing trauma
Many different psychotherapy approaches have proven helpful for overcoming trauma, including:
EMDR – Uses bilateral stimulation like eye movements or tapping while recalling memories. This shifts traumatic memories so they are less distressing. Very effective treatment.
Somatic therapy – Uses mindfulness of body sensations to process and release trapped trauma energy/emotions from the body.
CBT – Identifies unhelpful thought patterns from trauma and replaces them with more balanced thinking.
ACT – Uses mindfulness, cognitive defusion, and values-based action to reduce trauma’s hold over life.
IFS – Accesses various ‘parts’ of the self, like inner child and protector, to resolve past trauma.
Group therapy – Connects with others who have experienced similar trauma for support.
Medication – May be helpful short-term for severe anxiety, depression or sleep issues related to trauma.
Finding an experienced trauma therapist you connect with and feel understood by is key. Different treatments work for different people. A combination of therapies tailored to your situation often brings the best results.
Lifestyle changes that support trauma recovery
Making key lifestyle changes greatly assists the inner work of healing from trauma. Helpful strategies include:
– Adopting stress management practices like yoga, meditation, deep breathing, spending time in nature. These calm the nervous system.
– Building physical health through proper nutrition, adequate sleep, and regular exercise. This relieves mental health symptoms.
– Making time for enjoyable activities and relationships that counteract isolation and hopelessness.
– Setting healthy boundaries and communicating needs assertively to improve relationships.
– Keeping a journal to express emotions. Writing helps integrate experiences.
– Avoiding retraumatizing situations by identifying triggers and setting needed limits.
– Being compassionate with self when trauma symptoms are triggered or flare up.
– Joining a support group to feel less alone. Shared experiences provide comfort.
How friends and family can support trauma healing
For trauma survivors, having the caring support of loved ones eases healing:
– Listen without judgment when they need to talk. Don’t pressure them to open up before ready.
– Validate their feelings and experience. Trauma can make someone feel very alone.
– Don’t take mood swings or numbness personally. These are symptoms, not how they truly feel about you.
– Encourage professional help if needed but don’t try to force it.
– Ask how you can best support them. Respect their requests.
– Educate yourself on trauma and recovery. Your understanding helps more than you realize.
– Be patient, trauma healing isn’t linear. Expect ups and downs.
– Help establish healthy routines. Daily structure is grounding.
– Offer to accompany them to appointments or support groups.
– Check in on how they are coping. But don’t nag them to share more than ready.
– Remind them of their strengths and that you believe in their ability to heal.
Learning to thrive after trauma
With proper support, trauma can be overcome and transformed from a source of pain into a source of growth. Many people emerge stronger, more compassionate, and empowered on the other side of trauma recovery. They have learned important lessons about life and human resilience.
Trauma permanently changes people—there is no going back to who you were before it happened. But working through the emotions, memories and beliefs surrounding a traumatic event allows the person to move forward in an enlightened way. They feel wiser, stronger, more self-aware, and capable of creating a life of purpose, meaning, and joy.
Post-traumatic growth is real. People can not only heal their trauma, but allow it to be catalyst for profound personal development. They move forward feeling deeply grateful for life.
Conclusion
Unresolved trauma takes an immense toll mentally, emotionally and physically. But the human spirit has tremendous capacity to heal and thrive again after tragedy and loss. With courage, resilience and proper support trauma can be faced, processed and resolved so that life isn’t defined by it. There are now many effective treatments that can free someone from persistent trauma symptoms so they can reclaim a sense of safety, control and purpose.
The journey requires patience, compassion and time to trust and access such intensely painful parts of oneself. But working through the shattering effects of trauma creates space for wisdom, strength and hope to take root again. We come to see ourselves and the world differently—with greater kindness and empathy.