Also known as Psychological trauma, Emotional trauma, Traumatic event
An event or series of events frightening or harmful enough to overwhelm a person's ability to cope, and the lasting effects it can leave. Most people exposed to trauma recover.
In Psychology
In psychology, trauma means both an overwhelming event — violence, abuse, a serious accident, a disaster, sudden loss — and its effects on the person. The US mental-health agency SAMHSA describes it as three E's: the event, how the person experienced it, and the lasting effects on their functioning and well-being. The same event can be traumatic for one person and not for another.
Most people who live through a traumatic event have upsetting memories, poor sleep, jumpiness and low mood for a few weeks, then gradually recover. The NHS estimates that about 1 in 3 go on to develop . Repeated trauma over years, especially in childhood, can lead to .
In everyday speech "trauma" now covers almost any painful experience. Hard experiences matter, but the definition used for diagnosing PTSD is narrower: exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury or sexual violence.
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