Military members can endure trauma at any moment during their service connection. Examples of trauma in the military can include accidents during physical training, transportation to and from military bases, sexual abuse and harassment, and combat exposure. This blog post highlights how military trauma can impact one’s life in the present and future from an online trauma therapist.
Different Types of Military Trauma
Two ways to classify trauma include big T and little t traumas. Big T and little t trauma can occur anytime throughout someone’s military career. Big T traumas threaten one’s life or well-being, or when someone directly observes a horrific event. These events can include firefights, explosions, vehicle attacks, sexual abuse, or witnessing atrocities associated with war. These events directly jeopardize one’s safety and sense of self. These experiences can then cause Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) if not treated by a trauma therapist near you.
Whereas small t traumas are those experiences that do not meet the PTSD threshold but still impact a person’s nervous system and mind. Some examples of small t traumas include bullying, verbal harassment, demeaning statements, and/or not being chosen for a specialized group you tried for. Although small t traumas may not cause PTSD symptoms, they can negatively influence one’s mood, thoughts about self, and self-esteem.
 Vicarious Trauma in the Military
Witnessing a traumatic event may be enough to create a trauma response in someone’s life. Vicarious trauma occurs from either a one-time exposure or chronic exposure to raw, intense, and disturbing situations. Click here to read more about vicarious trauma. Examples of military roles that could create vicarious trauma are salvage experts, search and rescue teams, or surgeons. Constantly being exposed to these details can lead to vicarious trauma and PTSD symptoms if untreated.
Adaptation to Trauma Exposure
Throughout evolution, the human body has developed amazing coping skills to manage trauma and trauma symptoms. These include the following:
- Avoidance Patterns – substance use and chronic businesses.
- Numbness of Emotions and Sensations – tracking these throughout the body becomes too painful.
- Escape Tendencies – leaving situations that feel threatening.
- Dissociation – disconnecting from reality due to stress.
- Compartmentalization – stuffing experiences and emotions down.
These strategies work very well in the short-term. However, in the long-term, these techniques can create great challenges in people’s life.
Two Ways to Heal from Military Trauma
If trauma symptoms or PTSD are causing too many issues in your life, there’s good news. You can heal. Two powerful forms of bottom-up therapy (read more about bottom-up therapy approaches by clicking this link) are Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy and Somatic Experiencing (SE) therapy. Both forms of trauma psychotherapy are effective in healing the body and nervous system, which become dysregulated from trauma experiences. EMDR and SE therapies are both evidence-based with research supporting how they treat and heal trauma.
Expert Online Trauma Therapist
People’s lives seem to move faster and faster every day. That’s why I offer virtual trauma therapy for those seeking to heal. The antidote for trauma recovery is to slow the body down so it can heal. This is done by using one or both forms of trauma therapy mentioned above. If you or someone you know is looking for an expert online trauma therapist, submit a form online by following this link or by calling 720.295.6703 to start the process. Start healing now!
