Trauma is any event that causes such overwhelming feelings that our emotional system cannot handle them all at once, and so has to go into crisis-mode.
Usually extreme fear is one of these feelings.
Generally, the first reaction to trauma is shock, numbness, disbelief.
While the numbness and disbelief may come and go and come again, feelings of anger, sadness, and fear erupt through it for various periods of time.
This may last only for hours or days, if the traumatized person feels safe to express all the feelings to an empathic listener.
When there is pressure or danger that dictates the person who experienced or witnessed the traumatic event not express the feelings involved, the symptoms of unresolved trauma can last for many years.
When our emotional systems get overloaded, we shut down regular operation to protect ourselves from the overload.
While we are in this state (which itself can last from a few days to years) people can have nightmares and flashbacks (visual, auditory, and/or emotional experience of the trauma as if it were happening now, rather than in the past).
We can also develop an exaggerated startle response, anxiety, panic attacks, depression, hopeless, helpless, even suicidal feelings.
We can see scenes from the trauma replayed over and over in our minds.
We can forget pieces of the experience, have trouble concentrating or relating to others, feel irritable, and angry at people close to us.
We can feel the need to be watchful, and have trouble sleeping, and we can begin to believe that we are doomed.
Feeling unsafe is common, as are rational and irrational attempts to find safety.
Intense emotional and physiological responses to reminders of the trauma are also common.
People who have had previous traumas (including sexual assault, physical assaults, war experiences, car accidents, etc) may find themselves reliving, at least emotionally, those traumas too.
They are also much more likely to have lasting symptoms from a trauma.
There is also another kind of trauma, which not one dramatic event, but repeated emotionally hurtful experiences.
For example, if a Nun in a school hit a child hard with a ruler across their knuckles so many times the adult years later doesn't even remember specific incidents, this is also trauma.
Or if a parent gives a child a contemptuous look so often that it is part of how the child thinks about the father--as the one who shames her/him, that is trauma, and so forth.
The most important things to do to heal trauma are to talk with trusted people about your thoughts and feelings about what happened, and also express them physically--in crying, sobbing, punching/hitting something safe, playing sports, etc.
Also art, and writing, as well as other creative outlets can be healing.
People find it helpful to call on whatever spirituality they have.
Even without any belief in God, focusing on what is still good, what is still safe, what is meaningful, what good may even come of tragedy, how we are strong, and where there is love can help enormously.
Love is an antidote to fear, so going toward love and whatever is meaningful can help.
Anyone who feels suicidal or homicidal, very depressed or very anxious, is unable to function (sleep, eat, work, relate, love, make love, etc.
) normally, or unable to feel anything, finds themselves abusing alcohol, street drugs, or prescription drugs, is experiencing intrusive horrific images, or frequent nightmares should seek professional help.
Treatment may include forming a trusting relationship with a therapist so that your feelings and thoughts associated with the trauma can be expressed, grieved, and healed.
Often EMDR is used for trauma therapy, and can be very effective.
EMDR is a revolutionary treatment which has been used, developed and researched for 20 years now.
It offers a much faster and more humane way to resolve trama permanently, relieving symptoms left by the trauma.