Life inevitably brings us pain of all kinds — being betrayed, being hurt, even facing illness, ageing and death. These wounds are challenges that everyone faces, but pain does not necessarily develop into what we call psychological trauma. So when does pain turn into trauma?
In this article, we look at three psychology-backed approaches to self-healing that can help you move through psychological trauma.
The Features of Psychological Trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychological condition triggered by a severe traumatic experience, and it can have a profound and lasting impact on daily life (National Health Service, 2022). For example, avoidance is a classic feature of PTSD. If a car accident left you traumatised, you might begin to avoid going anywhere near a road. Every time you reach the roadside, you feel intense fear and anxiety — perhaps so severe that you no longer dare go out at all, with your daily functioning significantly affected as a result.
Another common reaction is emotional numbness — losing the capacity to respond emotionally. For example, one study interviewed survivors of the Second World War concentration camps and found that, on being liberated, they did not feel the elation one might have expected; instead they were blank and expressionless, as though everything around them had nothing to do with them. This phenomenon is a psychological defence mechanism, one that helped them shut off their emotions in order to survive in an extreme environment. Yet once they returned to everyday life, this same mechanism could make the world seem grey, and could even bring on a depression-like state.
From a neuroscience perspective, trauma may affect the hippocampus — the region responsible for contextual memory (Bremner, 2006). When someone experiences extreme trauma, the hippocampus may temporarily shut down, leaving them unable to remember the details of the event clearly. Yet the emotional and bodily memories remain, so a person feels the pain without being able to explain its cause. In the short term this memory disconnection offers a form of protection, but over the longer term it makes traumatic memories harder to process and adds to the psychological burden.
The Causes of Psychological Trauma
When is pain more likely to evolve into long-term psychological trauma? Several factors are at play, and one of the key ones is a person's psychological make-up. In psychology there is a "diathesis-stress model" (Zuckerman, 1999) that vividly likens each person to a bucket of a different size. The capacity of the bucket represents a person's psychological resilience, while stress is like water poured into it. Because people's psychological capacities differ in size, their responses to the same event differ too. The very same traumatic event might be a minor injury for Person A, yet amount to a trauma for Person B.
On top of this, social support and the space society allows also play an important role. Take the loss of a loved one: although this is a profound source of pain, in most cases it does not develop into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The reason is that rituals such as funerals offer a chance for collective healing, giving people the space to express their grief and receive support — and this grief is something society permits and even expects.
By contrast, some traumas that are hard to speak of, such as sexual assault or childhood abuse, are more likely to become long-term trauma precisely because they lack an adequate social support network and space for healing. This is especially so when the perpetrator is a close family member, or when the events continue over many years; such traumas often involve suppressed emotions and long-lasting psychological effects, making treatment and recovery all the harder.
Lesson One in Facing Psychological Trauma: Build a Social Support Network
When facing psychological trauma, a support network plays a crucial role. Whether pain evolves into trauma often comes down to whether there is enough space for a person to work through their emotions — and that is exactly where a support network matters.
For example, when survivors of sexual assault take part in a support group, they can share their experiences in a safe environment. These groups let participants feel that their pain is understood and accepted, and they offer a way of normalising painful experiences. For traumas that are hard to speak of, support groups help survivors release memories from suppression, further encouraging the processing and resolution of their emotions. So if you are going through trauma or significant pain, it is worth considering joining a similar support group — connecting with people who have had similar experiences, or exploring your own emotions and experiences under the guidance of a professional.
At the same time, the friends around you can offer support too. It is especially valuable to find a friend who can listen to you without judgement. They don't need to fully understand your experience, but they can respect what these wounds mean to you, avoiding remarks like "you shouldn't be reacting this strongly." Being heard in this way not only eases your emotions, but also helps you re-understand and face your own pain.
Lesson Two in Facing Psychological Trauma: Break the Vicious Cycle in Daily Life
After going through pain or trauma, feeling that the world has turned grey and losing interest in any activity is a common reaction. If this state persists, however, it is easy to fall into a vicious cycle. For example, pain has already left you feeling exhausted, and then stopping exercising, eating poorly, or even avoiding social activities further weakens your support system, intensifies your symptoms, and makes you all the more resistant to engaging with life.
The key to breaking this cycle lies in behavioural activation (Gros et al., 2012). Even if it feels difficult at first, try to set aside a little time for a simple activity — going for a walk, working out, or meeting a friend. The point is not whether you feel happy or satisfied straight away, but to use these actions to help yourself gradually climb out of the trough. It helps to understand that numbness and low mood are a natural part of the mind processing pain; rather than focusing too much on how you feel during an activity, it is better to focus on building a healthier routine for yourself.
Trying out some activities is worth it even if there is no obvious effect to begin with. Over time, you may find that things gradually improve. The key is to give yourself the chance to reconnect with life, and to find the strength to rebuild within small changes.
Lesson Three in Facing Psychological Trauma: Try Exposure Therapy with a Professional
One important way of dealing with psychological trauma is to face traumatic memories afresh, step by step, with a professional alongside you. This approach is usually carried out with the help of a mental-health practitioner and in a safe environment. For example, exposure therapy (Foa et al., 2007) within cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a common intervention. By gradually guiding the patient to confront the source of their pain, this therapy helps them rebuild their understanding of the event and reduce the impact of fear and anxiety.
Take "not daring to cross the road after being hit by a car" as an example: exposure therapy guides the patient to approach the relevant situation in sequence and stages — first observing the traffic, then walking across the road with support, and finally regaining a sense of control over everyday life. The aim of this process is to let the patient see the road in a new light, to understand that the accident was a chance event rather than an inevitable danger, and so to break free of the grip of negative emotions.
So if you feel a trauma is one you cannot process on your own, seeking help from a mental-health professional is an important step. Facing your pain afresh in a safe environment can not only help you gradually release stress, but can also bring about a positive shift, helping life regain its balance.
Lesson Four in Facing Psychological Trauma: Release Pain Through Writing
There is a self-help method that can help everyone face trauma, and that is journaling. Psychologists believe that the practice of writing can effectively help us sort through and process unhappy memories from the past (Sohal et al., 2022). When we write down our feelings and memories, we are in fact activating the cognitive and emotional regions of the brain, reorganising an event into a story and giving it expression. This process not only helps us put our thoughts in order, but also lets our emotions find release.
Of course, if your emotions are too intense, or you have suicidal or extreme emotional reactions, the best course of action is to seek professional help. But if it is just some ordinary unhappiness, and your emotions are within a manageable range, you can try writing these feelings down. You might write about the same incident on paper for several days in a row, then look back on it periodically over the following weeks, seeing whether each piece of writing differs and whether your feelings about the event have shifted. This kind of writing practice helps you sort through and release unhappy memories.
What's more, writing can also help us reflect on Post-Traumatic Growth (Tedeschi, & Calhoun, 1996). This concept emphasises that although trauma brings pain, it can also foster personal growth, letting us see more clearly what matters in life and feel the deep connections between people. Through writing, ask yourself: what have I learned from this experience? Reflection of this kind can help us find strength within trauma, and so achieve emotional recovery and growth.
Download the MindForest App to Help You Overcome Trauma and Set Out on the Road to Healing
In the process of facing trauma, MindForest is your companion in support, helping you learn how to step out of the shadows and develop psychological resilience. Here are the features of MindForest, designed specifically to help you overcome trauma:
1) Personalised AI coaching to strengthen your emotional processing: Have in-depth conversations with an AI coach and learn to analyse and process the emotional reactions that follow trauma. The coach guides you through perspective-shifting, helping you understand your own emotional responses and offering effective coping strategies, so you can reduce anxiety and fear and improve your ability to regulate your emotions.
2) An inspiring journal to encourage emotional awareness and release: MindForest offers a journaling feature that lets you record and release your daily emotions and memories. This process helps you walk out of the shadow of trauma, deepen your self-awareness, and gradually learn to handle your feelings in healthier ways.
3) Psychology courses to learn about post-traumatic psychological resilience: MindForest offers a series of interactive courses to help you understand the process of post-traumatic growth. These courses introduce how to cultivate psychological resilience and provide practical tips, so you can learn how to turn trauma into an opportunity for personal growth.
Download MindForest now to begin your journey of healing and learn how to overcome trauma.
References
Bremner J. D. (2006). Traumatic stress: effects on the brain. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 8(4), 445–461.
Foa, E. B., Hembree, E. A., & Rothbaum, B. O. (2007). Prolonged exposure therapy for PTSD: Emotional processing of traumatic experiences: Therapist guide. Oxford University Press.
Gros, D. F., Price, M., Strachan, M., Yuen, E. K., Milanak, M. E., & Acierno, R. (2012). Behavioral activation and therapeutic exposure: an investigation of relative symptom changes in PTSD and depression during the course of integrated behavioral activation, situational exposure, and imaginal exposure techniques. Behavior modification, 36(4), 580–599.
National Health Service. (2022, May 13). Symptoms – Post-traumatic stress disorder. Retrieved November 27, 2024, from
Sohal, M., Singh, P., Dhillon, B. S., & Gill, H. S. (2022). Efficacy of journaling in the management of mental illness: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Family medicine and community health, 10(1), e001154. https://doi.org/10.1136/fmch-2021-001154
Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (1996). The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory: measuring the positive legacy of trauma. Journal of traumatic stress, 9(3), 455–471.
Zuckerman, M. (1999). Diathesis-stress models. In M. Zuckerman, Vulnerability to psychopathology: A biosocial model (pp. 3–23). American Psychological Association.
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