Trauma Response Quiz

Each individual has their own unique level of resilience, which impacts how they will respond to a trauma. Some may cycle through the emotional event in a few weeks with few problems, while others may take months before they recover. If you are struggling with a protracted trauma response, consider taking this short quiz.

What is Trauma Response?

Trauma response is a measurement of how well you are managing the after effects of experiencing a trauma. A traumatic event is a shocking experience that causes psychological and emotional suffering.

Recovery from a traumatic event may look different for each person. Factors that impact trauma response include the individual’s level of coping skills, personality traits, temperament, and mental health history.

Examples of trauma include:

Sudden death of a close loved one
Sexual or physical abuse or assault
Violent events, such as combat experience, criminal assaults, or terrorism
A serious car accident
Natural disasters
Childhood Trauma abuse, neglect, or abandonment
Diagnosis of a life-threatening illness, major surgery
Personal events, such as divorce
Witnessing suicide or murder

Symptoms of Trauma

Trauma can manifest in several different types of symptoms, including behavioral, psychological, and physical. Recovering from mental trauma will involve therapies that will assist the individual in restoring equilibrium across this spectrum of symptoms.

Psychological symptoms of trauma:

Mental confusion
Intense fear
Memory loss
Nightmares, flashbacks
Feelings of helplessness
Emotional detachment
Irritability
Emotional numbness
Feelings of guilt or shame
Symptoms of depression

Behavioral symptoms of trauma:

Withdrawing from friends and family
Angry outbursts
Substance abuse
Compulsive behaviors
Hyper-arousal, jumpy
Avoiding people, places, or situations that trigger memories of event

Physical symptoms of trauma:

Insomnia
Being hyper-alert
Vague aches and pains
Changes in eating and sleeping habits
Extreme fatigue
Sexual dysfunction

Treatment for Trauma Disorder

Mental health professionals access a range of therapies to assist individuals in overcoming the effects of trauma. Some therapies that can help the trauma response include:

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. TFCBT helps the individual overcome trauma by reshaping the thoughts associated with the trauma. TFCBT guides the individual to express their feelings about the traumatic experience. The therapist can then show them how those thoughts have led to withdrawal, guilt, loneliness, anxiety, and other negative emotion states. By discussing the negative thoughts, and then reframing them in a more positive light, the trauma loses its potency.
Exposure Therapy. This is a short-term therapy that helps individuals become less sensitive to the memories of the trauma. By discussing the event within a safe environment, the impact of the trauma response is gradually reduced over time.
Psychodynamic Therapy. This is a long-term form of therapy that examines childhood experiences, including any childhood history of trauma. The insights gained through psychodynamic therapy can help the individual resolve past childhood trauma, as well as to improve dysfunctional adult relationships in the present.