Events (both beneficial and adverse) that occur in the aftermath of the traumatic event introduce additional layers of complexity. The nature of children’s moment-to-moment reactions is strongly influenced by their prior experience and developmental level. Children’s thoughts and actions (or inaction) during various moments may lead to feelings of conflict at the time, and to feelings of confusion, guilt, regret, and/or anger afterward. Children may consider a range of possible protective actions during different moments, not all of which they can or do act on. Trauma-exposed children experience subjective reactions to these different moments that include changes in feelings, thoughts, and physiological responses and concerns for the safety of others. These moments may include varying degrees of objective life threat, physical violation, and witnessing of injury or death. 1 – Traumatic experiences are inherently complex.Įvery traumatic event, even events that are relatively circumscribedis made up of different traumatic moments. The 12 Core Concepts were developed by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Although many of us may experience reactions to stress from time to time, when a child is experiencing child traumatic stress, these reactions interfere with his or her daily life and ability to function and interact with others. Child traumatic stress occurs when children and adolescents are exposed to traumatic events or traumatic situations that overwhelm their ability to cope. Hyper vigilance ‐ an enhanced state of sensory sensitivity accompanied by an exaggerated intensity of behaviors with the purpose to detect threats.The 12 Concepts can help you better understand and assist trauma-exposed children.
Efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, activities, places or people that trigger their trauma.
Acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring. Taking control of creating drama helps the victim feel like they have at least some fragment of control in their lives. Feeling out of control or “going crazy,” these reactions are post‐traumatic stress symptoms Victims who feel out of control may often create more drama because they are not used to a life without it. Highly stressed and overwhelmed (unsure of options and confused about what is happening within the system)‐ This leads to the victim feeling helpless and in need of specific direction. Recurrent intrusive recollections of the event, this includes recurrent distressing dreams. Inability to recall important aspects of the traumatic event. This is a noticeable reaction we most often see when a victim is under high stress related to the trauma, where the victim appears to be physically present but is unresponsive (this may occur often during forensic interviewing). Dissociation is a defense mechanism commonly used by victims of trauma to avoid emotional pain and suffering. The result then, is that the traumatic information becomes stuck in the amygdala‐ which performs a primary role in the processing and memory of emotional reactions, explaining the often high level of emotions and lessened ability to recall specifics of the event.ĭissociation is an altered state of consciousness characterized by partial or complete disruption of the normal integration of a person’s normal conscious or psychological functioning. While under high stress, the brain works to regulate and protect, by shutting down the hippocampus, limiting the amount of information allowed to be processed into memory. When the stress occurs for an extended period of time, the hippocampus stops recording, but emotionally the event keeps occurring, therefore, leading to a recall of the event emotionally with fuzzy memory of the actual experience. When under trauma, the brain creates stress hormones which trigger the brain’s fight, flight or freeze response. When under high stress, a part of the brain called the hippocampus, works to record and document stressful events. Trauma is an emotional or psychological injury, usually resulting from an extremely stressful or life‐threatening situation rendering the person temporarily helpless, making ordinary coping and defense mechanisms irrelevant (Childhood Traumas: An Outline and Overview, pg. Understanding Trauma Reponses Understanding Victims: Common Responses to Trauma
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