Isn’t everyone traumatised?
Jess answers a common question - whether she believes that all humans are traumatised.
What is a trauma, and why do I believe that everyone has been subjected to trauma of some kind?
One of the questions I am asked frequently is whether I believe all ‘mental illnesses’ are related to human trauma. I always say yes. Some people struggle with my answer because their understanding of what constitutes a ‘trauma’ is still limited. They don’t understand yet that the potential list of human traumas is truly staggering.
The purpose of this post is to demonstrate just how many traumas one human could be subjected to or experience, and why I therefore argue that our mental distress is normal and justified - and not an illness. This list will also serve to show you how diverse and multi-layered trauma and your own experiences can be.
This list isn’t exhaustive. If I attempted to make a ‘complete list of traumas’, I would certainly fail.
But just consider for a moment how many of these you have lived through. They all add up. Being human is not easy, and trauma is all around us.
This is why we must adopt trauma-informed approaches to every level of human society and development.
Possible Traumas
(List complied by Dr Jessica Taylor for the purposes of education and consideration only, this is not a diagnostic or exhaustive list)
Losing a loved one (death)
Watching/experiencing the progressive or terminal illness of a loved one
Family breakdown
Being neglected as a child
Being sexually abused as a child
Being physically abused as a child
Being emotionally or psychologically abused as a child
Being stabbed or shot
Being burned
Being choked or strangled
Being hit, slapped, kicked or punched
Being thrown down stairs or across a room
Getting lost as a child, at a large event or venue
Having a near death experience or near miss experience
Choking on something and not being able to breathe
Being assaulted or raped as a child
Being forced to do something sexually to another person you didn’t want to do
Being bullied at school
Being forced into child marriage
Being trafficked
Being smuggled into/out of a country
Being sent to live with someone else
Being sent to boarding school
Being forced to have therapy you didn’t want
Being abused by your partner or ex-partner
Being controlled using death threats or suicide threats
Being financially controlled or abused
Having a serious accident in childhood
Being injured in childhood
Undergoing surgeries or medical treatments in childhood
Being discriminated against as a child
Parents divorcing as a child
One parent leaving and becoming estranged as a child
One or more parents being put in prison
Parent dying in childhood
Being removed from your parents by social care
Being forcibly medicated or sedated
Being placed in foster or adoption placements as a child
Being given alcohol or drugs as a child
Being split from your siblings
A beloved pet dying or having to be put to sleep
Being arrested as a child
Being stopped and searched by police as a child
Being in a road traffic accident
Seeing a dead body or relative in childhood
Witnessing a crime or incident
Witnessing abuse of others
Witnessing or escaping a house fire
Witnessing or escaping a disaster
Developing a fear or phobia
Being forced to do something you didn’t want to do
Being blackmailed
Being sexually harassed
Moving frequently
Being made homeless
Sofa surfing
Being spiked
Watching a very scary or graphic film, imagery or media
Witnessing or escaping an act of terrorism
Being threatened
Being followed or stalked
Being socially isolated
Getting divorced or separating
Subjected to racist abuse or marginalisation
Subjected to homophobic abuse or marginalisation
The realisation of mortality and becoming scared of death and end of life
Being subjected to classism discrimination
Struggling with body image
Living in poverty
Being subjected to ableism or marginalisation
Living or moving away from your children
Being threatened by bailiffs
People forcing their way into your home for debt recovery
Loan sharks
Being displaced due to war or political/economic unrest
Not being believed when you disclose abuse
Being forced to go to court
Being deported
Having citizenship removed
Having to give up a beloved pet due to accommodation issues
Living somewhere you do not know the language and you are not from
Being accused of things you know you haven’t done
Being blamed for someone’s suicide
Witnessing a suicide or self harm of someone else
Working in an occupation where you encounter traumatic scenes every day (emergency services)
Working in an occupation where you are expected to injure and kill others (military)
Being bullied at work
Being wrongfully convicted of a crime you did not commit
Being put down and told you are worthless
Losing your home due to eviction or repossession
Being isolated from your family
Being groomed
Death of your child
Being underestimated and ignored
Experiencing an injustice
Being diagnosed with a terminal illness
Becoming disabled or developing disabilities
Witnessing murder or manslaughter
Almost drowning or drowning
Having a miscarriage
Having a termination
Not being able to have a termination of an unwanted pregnancy
Birth trauma (from the process of giving birth)
Being abused by your siblings
Being abused by your own children as they age (teens and adult children)
Having a stillbirth
Having a premature baby who then needs considerable treatment
Living in a country that is at war or threatening/responding to threats of war
Needing organ transplant or blood transfusion
Having private images or videos of yourself shared publicly or with others
Having your secrets or private information shared publicly or with others
Being blamed for being abused or harmed by others
Being forced/expected to care for/nurse someone who abused you
Identifying a body in a morgue/hospital
Becoming pregnant from rape
Being attacked by an animal
Accidentally killing someone (for example, where you are the driver of a train/truck and someone jumps in front of you to end their life)
Working in a slaughterhouse or in an occupation which requires you to kill animals
Losing your faith, beliefs or religion
Being the parent of a child who has been sexually abused or raped by others
Living in a hostel or refuge
Being sectioned and forcibly treated against your wishes
Having a surgery procedure that goes wrong
Being subjected to medical abuse, malpractice or negligence
Having a seizure or multiple seizures
Having a heart attack
Having a stroke or TIA
Being trapped somewhere
Falling from a great height
Being injured and having no way to contact/call for help
Living in a dangerous environment
Falling into deep water or strong currents
Witnessing a raid
Being victim blamed
Being detained/questioned by authorities
Being tortured
Being abused in a cult or group environment
Being imprisoned by someone
Starving or becoming extremely malnourished due to not being able to eat or not having enough food
Saving someone else’s life
Resuscitating someone else
Failing to resuscitate someone else
Attending/cleaning/examining the scene of a violent death or crime
Being sold into sex trade
Being sold into slave labour
Being kept as a slave
Supporting or caring for someone who is violent and abusive
Being burgled
Being isolated or neglected due to favouritism (especially between siblings where other siblings are treated well)
Losing money, wealth or status suddenly
Living in a capitalist society where you worth is based on performance and money
Being constantly in a state of distress at work, in personal life or relationships
Being lonely
Wanting something you cannot have or will never be able to achieve
Being stopped from achieving or attaining something important or vital to you
Being ridiculed or humiliated
Being subjected to honour abuse or violence
Being blamed for bringing dishonour or shame on your family or community
Being publicly punished
Being publicly humiliated or ridiculed for your sexual preferences, identity or private consensual sex life
Developing serious allergies or having serious anaphylaxis responses to an allergen
Having a serious adverse reaction to a medication
Being put under immense pressure to succeed or ‘make something of yourself’
Failing at something you expected to succeed in
Being forced to forgive an abuser
Being forced or expected to take part in restorative justice with your perpetrator or bully
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As you can see, this list could go on and on and on. For infinity. Trauma is broad and specific. It is global, and it is personal.
I managed to write out 166 in less than an hour. Just to see what I could do off the top of my head. I expect I have missed thousands.
Many of us will have experienced or been subjected to several, maybe 10 or 20 or 100 of these. Many of us will have been subjected to one or two of them, but over and over again. Some people have been abused or assaulted or harassed hundreds of times, for example.
Trauma is therefore a human experience, and many of us will have many layers of trauma that will have changed the way we think, feel, behave and relate to others.
What would Jess say?
So to answer the question of whether I believe that all disorders and mental illnesses could be attributed to trauma, the answer is yes.
I don’t think this should be as controversial as it is made out to be. Humans react to their surroundings and experiences - and with billions of traumatised humans living on this planet, we are bound to see patterns of trauma responses, coping mechanisms and power dynamics being replicated and utilised.
In my view, it is more useful to see the scale and breadth of possible trauma than to suggest that our trauma responses and coping mechanisms are simply symptoms of mental illnesses, diseases and disorders. To do this individualises and isolates people further.
The list above is yet more evidence of why the so-called ‘ACEs’ framework is flawed and useless. We cannot attempt to capture or quantify human suffering (in childhood or in adulthood), and then use a ‘score’ to predict their outcomes.
There will be hundreds of you reading this who have been subjected to so many traumas in your life that you are not even sure how or why you are still here. And yet, you are. But there are others who are not with us anymore, or have not been able to overcome or work through their trauma, and have less experiences than you.
Trauma is not a number. It’s not a score. It’s not a category. It’s a lifetime of experiences and abuses.
With more and more peer reviewed evidence in psychiatry and psychology pointing towards human trauma and distress, I hope we can start to reject the medicalisation and pathologisation of human suffering.
I’m proud to be a voice that seeks to challenge the medicalisation of human experience - we will never make progress in the direction we are heading currently. We must return to examining the human experience, and that includes human distress and trauma.