When someone goes through a trauma, it can affect every area of their lives. This includes their mental and physical health. Trauma may cause someone to act in confusing ways and be triggered by otherwise ordinary things. When your daughter struggles and acts in ways you are not prepared for, it can feel overwhelming. Thus, knowing whether your daughter is struggling with underlying trauma will allow you to find the best way to help her. You may not know where her behavior is coming from or how to curb it or assist her with it. This is why it is important to find a care team and facility like Clearview. At our facility, we work toward understanding trauma and help our students address the roots of their behavioral issues.
Addressing underlying trauma creates the best path toward healing mental health and addiction issues. Having trauma-informed care is key to working through the underlying emotional pain. Meanwhile, untreated trauma may lead to worsening mental health conditions and even substance use. This is why understanding trauma and its effects on well-being is essential. Finding types of therapy that get to the roots of your daughter’s issues will help her flourish during long-term recovery.
Understanding Trauma
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) explains that individual trauma is any event or circumstance that happens that causes physical, mental, or life-threatening harm to an individual. They state, “Research has shown that traumatic experiences are associated with both behavioral health and chronic physical health conditions, especially those traumatic events that occur during childhood. Substance use, mental health conditions, and other risky behaviors have been linked with traumatic experiences.”
Traumatic events can affect each person differently. While someone with a strong support system may not continue to struggle, other people may be affected their entire lives by their traumas.
Trauma can continue to affect someone long after the event has passed. Individuals may become triggered and experience flashbacks, which are moments where they relive the trauma and the feelings associated with it. If the trauma reaction is significant and long-lasting, it could be classified as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Moreover, when dealing with PTSD especially, it is important to find a care team that understands how trauma affects the mind and body.
Recognizing the Triggers of Trauma
Triggers are situations that remind a person of the traumatic event. These can be sensory experiences from the event or something that reminds them of that time or person. Triggers can also be certain feelings that bring the person back into the mindset associated with the trauma.
Knowing your daughter’s triggers will help you to manage her reactions and mental health. Working with someone with trauma means being prepared for being triggered and working to avoid it if possible.
Understanding Trauma in Therapy
As we’ve stated before, finding trauma-informed care is integral to long-term treatment. If your daughter struggles with trauma and her reactions to it, she may begin to struggle in life or school. Without treatment that helps her understand and work through her trauma, progress may not happen. Thus, it is essential to find a facility that offers therapy focused on emotions and healing trauma in a safe environment. For most people, a care team that specializes in understanding trauma is the best choice.
The behaviors of someone who is traumatized are often the focus of treatment, such as substance use or self-harm. However, truly addressing these behaviors or struggles requires going deeper to look at the underlying struggles. Often girls who struggle with trauma may feel that therapy has not worked for them in the past. This can be because they did not feel safe to open up to previous therapists and care teams. It could also be because they were not ready to approach it yet. However, finding the right care team and forms of therapy can make all the difference.
A document published by the SAMHSA, created Center for Health Care Strategies, expresses the importance of finding trauma-informed care. Trauma-informed care includes strategies like working alongside a person to include them in their care and meeting them where they are at. Working to alleviate struggles that a student may be having means not overwhelming them when they first arrive. Furthermore, trauma is difficult to approach and requires a care team that is willing to make a connection with those seeking healing. Clearview believes in an approach to treatment that works alongside our students and addresses the deeper roots of their issues.
Working Toward Recovery From Trauma
Long-term recovery is possible even if your daughter has struggled with a trauma in her past. It is integral to find treatment and therapies that will support and heal your daughter throughout her recovery. If the work is done to alleviate triggers and talk through the traumatizing memories, relief can be found. Working to stop substance addiction and treat mental health disorders requires a look at what is happening beneath the surface. If you and your daughter are committed to working toward the future during her treatment, lasting recovery is possible.
If your daughter is struggling with trauma and its lasting effects, it can feel like a struggle to find effective help. This is why it is important to find a facility and care team that focuses on trauma-informed care and works toward understanding trauma. If your daughter feels that she can trust who she is working alongside, then she will feel safer in getting to her deeper issues. Addressing underlying trauma will alleviate many of the issues your daughter may be struggling with now. It is important to support your daughter as she works to move beyond any past traumas. If your daughter is struggling with the effects of past trauma, Clearview can help at 866-584-4788.
