What is considered trauma is a hotly debated issue, affecting how people who experience PTSD are treated and how they respond to pandemics, police killings, and more.
health
March 30, 2022
Daniel Stoll
childbirth. traffic accident. racial abuse. Many of us feel that we have experienced something traumatic. There is no need to look back over the past few years. Many psychologists believe the pandemic has sparked a mental health crisis as cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are projected to surge beyond the illness and death brought on by covid-19. I warned you that
However, a reference to medical textbooks shows that such experiences are generally not considered traumatic. may meet the criteria. But there is a constant stream of news about deadly mysterious illnesses, unemployment, social isolation and life under lockdown. “People have called the pandemic traumatic, but it’s not,” says George Bonanno of Columbia University in New York.
Bonanno argues that we may be overestimating its impact because we tend to view things as trauma. His research shows that, over time, most of us recover from even the most frightening experiences. However, some believe that the strict medical definition needs to be expanded to cover a broader set of human experiences.
This explosive debate, reignited by the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, and continuing when war is high on the news agenda, has great implications. Ultimately, our understanding of what trauma is and what experiences qualify is whether people are undergoing unnecessary diagnosis and treatment for PTSD, or whether they are getting the treatment they need. Decide if you are living with symptoms that you can’t do.
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