How the Simple Act of Talking Can Help You Deal with Trauma
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Mental health is a subject that is gaining increasing levels of coverage in the public sphere, as both professional and personal conversations about it work to destigmatise the topic for those unfortunate enough to suffer it. While many conditions develop over time or as a result of hereditary issues, there are those that have poor mental health thrust upon them, as a result of a traumatic event. Can talking help them?
Trauma and Mental Health
Traumatic events can have a wide spectrum of impacts on mental health, from the trifling to the catastrophic. One of the more well-known psychological impacts of trauma in people is that of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.
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Traumatic events, be they experiences of domestic abuse, involvement in a dangerous incident or experience in military conflict, can alter the way your body and mind respond to stress; ‘triggering’ events that reflect or remind you of your experience can result in acute symptoms such as panic attacks, nerve pain, numbness and a host of other symptoms.
Trauma victims do not have to have developed PTSD to be victims, though it is the most common disorder to occur as a result of them. As a victim, you may develop a generalised anxiety disorder or experience discomfort when recalling the event.
Logistical Concerns
There are many ways to approach your response to a traumatic event, but worry about logistics can often get in the way of recovery. A support network is excellent from the point of view of the ‘talking cure’, which we will get to shortly, but is also indispensable in helping you manage the logistics of your recovery. Whether helping draft the particulars of civil abuse claims or helping navigate access to formal care, it is important to be able to lean on others.
The ‘Talking Cure’
Approaching recovery from a traumatic event or trauma-originating mental health diagnosis can be a terrifying thing. At the bottom of the well, before any real recovery has begun, the options available can feel at once inevitable and ineffective; many people with severe mental health problems hold the belief that their condition is guaranteed to remain or worsen.
Some of the options available, dependent on the specific nature of the trauma response, can be directly worrying too. There are various reasons for which certain patients might be reticent to take medicine, whether due to symptoms preventing the taking of medicine (such as eating phobias or disorders) or the side-effects of particular drugs. Drugs are not the only solution, though – and, indeed, not often the most effective.
The ‘talking cure’ gained real traction as a medical theory towards the end of the 20th century, as leaps in psychology research and therapy programme designs formed a collectively strong argument for non-pharmaceutical intervention.
Trained therapists are well-suited to navigating complex discussions around traumatic events, with effective roads to recovery built through nuanced and careful discussion of your feelings and responses. In the meantime, your friends and family can be conversational rocks to keep you moored between appointments.
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