Written by | Chuang Wei-Hsuan, Intern Psychologist
Reviewed by | Chang Tzu-Jung, Counseling Psychologist
Facing insurmountable forces, people feel helpless. Both natural disasters and human atrocities can destroy the sense of security in daily life. Natural disasters include earthquakes, landslides, etc., while human atrocities include domestic violence, sexual assault, and other man-made calamities.
Regardless of the type of trauma, there is always a feeling of "extreme fear, loss of control, and facing threats."
Among these, there is a type of traumatic experience that is often overlooked, stemming from adverse experiences in one's family of origin. This includes tangible and intangible wounds, such as concrete acts of being beaten or abused, as well as emotional harm caused by neglect.
Trauma Scars—Adverse Childhood Experiences
Research on adverse childhood experiences shows that experiencing traumatic events in childhood can lead to emotional and stress-related problems, continuously affecting physical and mental states in adulthood (Vu et al., 2022). When we confront these potential roots of current physical and mental impacts, we have the opportunity to reinterpret our difficulties.
Adverse childhood experiences refer to individuals who have experienced the following before the age of 18:
- Abuse: sexual abuse, physical abuse, psychological abuse
- Neglect: emotional neglect, physical neglect
- Household dysfunction: parental divorce or separation, witnessing violence, family member alcoholism or drug addiction, family member suicide or mental illness, family member incarceration, etc.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) questionnaire can be used to initially assess an individual's experience with negative events during childhood. Individuals who have experienced one adverse event in childhood are often more likely to experience other adverse events.
Impacts of Adverse Childhood Trauma
Major trauma can cause us to experience "dissociation." Dissociation stems from intense emotional reactions to traumatic events, blocking the connection between cognition and emotion, leading to a state where "emotional reactions should be present but are not felt." Sometimes, we even cannot understand what is happening to us.
The state of extreme calm after trauma is a form of self-protection. When perception becomes numb and consciousness cannot interpret the current state (or physically deliberately avoids feeling to maintain a sense of security), the traumatized individual may feel that the event is not happening to them, observing it from a third-person perspective, maintaining distance as they interpret the event.
Hyperarousal, intrusive memories, and withdrawal are also common post-traumatic phenomena. Traumatized individuals are easily re-triggered, leading to fright or anxiety, and even insomnia. Often, traumatized individuals are unwilling to take risks and interact with others, to avoid being hurt again.
Three Stages of Recovery for Survivors of Adverse Childhood Experiences
Stage 1: Establishing a sense of safety
Stage 2: Recalling and grieving
Stage 3: Re-establishing normal life connections
First, it begins with regaining control over one's body, taking care of one's health, such as maintaining stable eating and sleeping habits. Then, allow oneself to have financial and personal freedom, creating a safe environment. Initially, the traumatized individual also needs to find safe, reliable relationships. If still in an abusive environment, the traumatized individual must build self-defense abilities and set boundaries.
The process of healing trauma may involve revisiting traumatic experiences, becoming aware of their impact, and allowing traumatized emotions to be acknowledged. When there is an opportunity to reinterpret the meaning of traumatic experiences from different, diverse, and positive perspectives, such as finding positive qualities (courage, resilience, etc.) within the traumatic experience, there is a chance to find the strength to try again after grieving.
Finally, the traumatized individual has the right to autonomously choose how to respond to this experience – they can let go, fight, or transform it into future actions for change. The traumatized individual will slowly return to normal life, re-engage in interpersonal interactions, practice building connections with people, practice maintaining autonomy in relationships, and respond to their emotions in different ways.
An Important Force in Recovery—Social Support
Many times, trauma does not need to be borne alone; one can also borrow strength from others.
Trauma destroys an individual's sense of safety, making it difficult to trust others, which complicates interactions with people. However, supportive responses from others can mitigate the impact of adverse childhood trauma. The self-identity of these trauma survivors is rebuilt through re-establishing connections with others and rebuilding trust between people. Therefore, finding people who can understand and support is also a crucial part of trauma healing.
When a traumatized individual can build initial trust with a small group of people, they will gradually repair damaged interpersonal connections in their lives.
Trauma itself is a difficult thing that requires a lot of time to heal. If someone can provide support, and the traumatized individual is willing to allow trustworthy people to get a little closer, that might be a wonderful start to healing.
References:
Lai, H. W. (2025). A brief discussion on the application of positive psychology in trauma counseling for adverse childhood experiences. Journal of Taiwan Psychotherapy Association, (3), 32-35.
Herman, J. (2018). Trauma and Recovery (H. D. Shih, W. C. Chen, & S. R. Hsiang, Trans.). Leftbank Publishing. (Original work published 2015)
Schiraldi, G. R. (2023). The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook (W. S. Wu, Trans.). Happiness Culture. (Original work published 2021)
Vu, T. H., Bishop, J., McGill, L., Valmadrid, L., Golden, S., Emmerling, D., & Saeugling, S. (2022). Using systems-mapping to address Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and trauma: A qualitative study of stakeholder experiences. PloS one, 17(8), e0273361. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273361
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