Kelsey Bates, APRN
When you hear the word “trauma” what immediately comes to your mind? Is it something that you view as more physical, mental or both? In general, the health care industry has a decent grasp on dealing with physical trauma. As for mental trauma, there is room for improvement in terms of how to handle and help heal. This is no secret considering the mental health crisis that is currently going on in our nation. You would think that with all the prescription medications on the market to treat “mood disorders” we would see the mental health issues start to decrease but it is the opposite, they continue to rise.
Get to the Root of the Problem
I truly feel in my heart if we would focus more on getting to the root of the mood disorder, we could help individuals heal and turn this mental health crisis around. Mainstream, if a patient comes in with anxiety or depressive symptoms they are labeled with a diagnosis and prescribed medication that may or may not help. What if their anxiety or depressive symptoms are related to a loss of a loved one, a divorce or a major life change?
Medications to treat trauma
While a medication may help it is not going to fix the cause of their issues. A few options that could help individuals learn to cope and heal would be counseling, some form of talk or psychotherapy and support groups. It can be challenging for patients to get access to this type of care due to finances, time, and not enough mental health professionals to go around. I don’t have a specific solution to these problems. I do know that as a society we need to make a shift in our culture around mental health issues. Many people feel ashamed if they suffer from mental health issues and they don’t talk about it. We need to develop a culture where people feel safe and unjudged discussing their mental health issues.
The root of many mental health disorders is trauma. Trauma comes in all shapes and forms. Physical trauma is easier to treat because it is something we can visualize. Mental trauma is quite tricky because it lies on the inside. Many times, the trauma that is causing the issues happened many years ago and the individual may not even realize that traumatic event is causing them issues, or they may have suppressed the traumatic event so deep down that they don’t even recall the traumatic event ever occurring. The brain can do some interesting things when trying to protect the body.
Fix what trauma you can, cope with what you can’t
I’ve been reading The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, M. D., if you haven’t read it, I highly encourage you to do so. It is a very eye opening book and has really got me to thinking. Working in health care, I’ve seen a lot of sad situations to where I think things can’t be much worse. Some of the stories and statistics in this book proved me wrong. The trauma many people have dealt with and continue to deal with is far worse than I could have imagined.
Dr. van der Kolk (2014) explains that abuse, rape, molestation, or any other traumatic event can not be “treated,” what has happened can not be undone. What can be helped are the imprints on the body, mind, and soul that the trauma has left behind. Such as, the crushing sensation in an individual’s chest that is labeled as anxiety, the fear of losing control, self-loathing, always being on edge, nightmares, flashbacks, the fog and the inability to open up to another individual. These symptoms can be helped. Dr. van der Kolk (2014) goes on to discuss that by being able to feel what we feel and know what we know without becoming overwhelmed, enraged, ashamed or collapsed is key.
How does one get to this point?
- Finding a way to become calm and focused
- Learning to maintain that calm in response to sensations that remind us of the past
- Finding a way to be fully alive in the present and engaged with those around you
- Not keeping secrets from yourself
This is only a brief snapshot of the pearls of knowledge that this book offers. Trauma is both physical and mental. As a health care providers, we need to continue to deepen our knowledge about trauma and how to best help heal our patients.
References
Van Der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind and body in the healing of trauma.
Penguin Books.
