By James Gordon, The Telegraph, November 10, 2019
There are two common and dangerous misconceptions about psychological trauma. The first is that trauma (the word is Greek and means “injury”) comes only to some of us: combatants or civilians in a war, victims of natural disasters, survivors of rape and incest, children who’ve grown up in the most callous and sordid families.
The second is that trauma is an unmitigated disaster, causing permanent emotional crippling, requiring never-ending treatment, severely limiting the lives of those who’ve experienced it. In fact, trauma comes, sooner or later, to all of us.
In a recent US government survey, 60 per cent of adults said that as children they had experienced significant abuse and/or neglect. Having a life-threatening illness, a long-term disability, or chronic pain is traumatic. So is caring for someone with these conditions.
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