Trauma & Recovery

The severe shock and injury of trauma may occur to one or several parts of yourself at the same time, including your body, your mind (emotions and thoughts), and your relationships with other people. Trauma is often experienced as assault and neglect from other people, including family members. The words trauma and violence and abuse are often used to mean the same thing.

Trauma can happen to anyone at any stage of life—including infants, children, adolescents, young adults, adults, and elders. Traumatic events may occur in many forms. Some examples of sources of trauma include the following:

• Interpersonal relationships (e.g., family violence, family neglect, school violence, neighborhood violence, school bullying, workplace bullying, sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape)
• Group relationships (e.g., racism, sexism, ageism, classism, homophobia, and employer and employee conflicts)
• Physical illness
• Mental illness
• Addiction to alcohol, tobacco, opioids/opiates, and other drugs
• Natural disasters (e.g., fires, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes)
• Armed violence and conflicts (e.g., active shooters, police raids, riots, gang fights, war, genocide)
• Institutional policies and practices (e.g., forced restraints in psychiatric hospitals and children’s residential programs; forced restraints in hospital emergency rooms and surgery suites; forced restraints during arrest, incarceration, and in jails and prisons)

Recovery is the ability to develop and return to a state of personal wellness, balance, and stability (homeostasis). Recovery is a concept that applies to your physical health (body), mental and emotional health (mind), and social well-being (relationships). It also applies to managing an addiction to alcohol, tobacco, opiates/opioids, and other drugs.

Recovery includes the ability to reclaim a sense of self and self-determination. It includes reclaiming your identity as an important person with feelings, thoughts, perceptions, value, and a personal history and story that shapes who you are. Recovery is always possible. It is an individual process. There are many different paths that each person might take. Recovery is an ability that all people can develop and maintain at any stage of life.

Researchers have discovered that people often experience recovery when they have at least one safe, stable, committed, and trusting relationship with another person in their family or community. For infants, children, and adolescents, this person will be an adult who can model (or demonstrate) self-regulation of emotions, impulses, and urges.