Trauma is a subjective emotional experience of an event. It is a personal response; what is traumatic for you, may not be for someone else. The more endangered, helpless, and unprepared you feel, the more likely you are to be traumatized.
Types of Trauma include:
- Acute Trauma – A single event that is limited in time (a robbery, a car accident)
- Chronic Trauma – Multiple, repeated, prolonged traumatic events (domestic violence)
- Complex Trauma – Exposure to chronic trauma and further impacted by wide-ranging, long-term, early onset, often by caregiver (abuse)
- Chronic stress – Extreme stress experienced during childhood (poverty, neglect, physical abuse)
- System Induced – Interventions meant to protect the child (removal, foster care, court)