Mar 5
2021
The Importance of Addressing Mental Health Trauma
In the past mental health has sometimes been ignored and even today it indeed carries something of a stigma in certain walks of life and even different cultures. Addressing mental health issues and the effects of trauma is paramount to helping a person to come to terms with what is happening and to recover their health.
Trauma can impact the quality of life for a person and something that happened in childhood can even carry on through to adulthood and affect someone their entire life. Therefore it is important to understand the effects and health implications of someone who has suffered a mental health trauma and to aid them in their recovery.
What is mental health trauma?
When considering what are mental health problems you would think of emotions and psychological effects on a person. Mental health problems can affect mood, behavior, and the way someone thinks. They can make it difficult to process and deal with stress and lead to anxiety and depression among many other symptoms.
If someone experiences a traumatic event then this can have a profound effect on their mental health and cause a range of negative effects. Someone doesn’t necessarily have to be part of a traumatic event either, they may have witnessed one or they could be living in a traumatic environment for years.
How do you define a traumatic event?
A traumatic event could be defined as an event or series of events that put someone in harm’s way or at risk of death. This could mean living in a war zone, witnessing a violent crime, being in a car accident, or being cared for by someone with substance abuse problems.
A child living in a neglectful situation or being emotionally, physically, or sexually abused could suffer from deep-rooted trauma that carries on for the rest of their lives. The environment someone lives in can cause trauma too. For instance, if you lived on a crime-ridden estate you may spend much of your time in fear, ironically in the one place you should always feel safe, your home.