There are several responses a body undergoes once a person has experienced very significant trauma. Many factors influence how a person responds to trauma, including the type and severity of the traumatic event, the availability of support following the incident, other stressors in the person’s life, the presence of certain personality traits, natural levels of resilience, and whether the person has had previous traumatic experiences. Mental, emotional, bodily, and behavioral responses are all common. As the body’s natural healing and recovery process takes hold, these reactions are likely to fade away.
The major responses or rather reactions to significant traumas include; mental responses, behavioral responses, emotional responses, and physical responses as well. Behavioral responses undergone by the body after a significant trauma include; sleeping problems, involvement in drugs, and substance abuse, for example, alcohol, coffee, and cigarettes. Also, there is a loss of touch with normal daily routines, an inability to stop focusing on what happened, avoiding reminders of the event, and also a change in appetite. Moreover, one may get immersed in recovery-related tasks.
The physical responses of a body after experiencing a significant trauma include headaches. This is brought about by always having fresh memories of the event which happened. There is also a sign of excessive sweating when one experiences significant trauma. On occasions of traumatic experiences, there is an increased heart rate due to tension and panic.
Fatigue, as well as exhaustion, is part of the physical responses. There is the effect of having disturbed sleep, nausea, vomiting as well as dizziness. All these physical responses deteriorate one’s health as the impacts are totally negative, and therefore needs to engage in a recovery process to have a positive change.
Emotional reactions to trauma are several. In the event of the occurrence of significant trauma, the body tends to respond to the event the reaction might be in terms of emotions. Examples of some emotional responses ways include shock; this response implies difficulty in believing the event which recently happened, feeling confused, and much detached. One feels numb, and there is fear, panic as well as anxiety when a significant trauma happens.
There is an aspect of continued alarm in that one may still feel like the danger is still present or the event is continuing. After a crisis is over, fatigue and exhaustion become obvious. Emotional reactions to the event are felt during the let-down phase and include depression, avoidance, guilt, oversensitivity, and withdrawal.
Mental responses to significant trauma include a reduced level of concentration as well as memory. Due to significant traumatic experiences, there might be the effect of memory loss due to shock from the occurrence of the event. Also, there are intrusive thoughts about the traumatic event. Traumatic experiences when it comes to mental response may result in confusion and disorientation. Moreover, there might be a repeated play of parts of the event in mind, which leads to stress and depression in the long run