See if this definition I’m putting forward makes sense to you. It’s made sense for me and helped me better understand what people mean when they talk about trauma either personally or generally.
Trauma is the worldviews, beliefs, and behaviors we create or develop after an event.
Harrison Obiorah
I think this definition holds for most, if not all, situations since we typically don’t categorize an event as traumatic until later in life—when we find we dislike and want to change worldviews, behaviors, or beliefs we didn’t previously have. Also keep in mind that what one person thinks is traumatic may differ from what another person thinks is traumatic. I argue then that “trauma” is just a label we use to describe an event that led to the creation of worldviews, beliefs, and behaviors we typically dislike and would like to change or eliminate.
The connection between trauma and anxiety
I’m going to put forward that anxiety from trauma makes sense because we probably created anxiety-causing beliefs after the event as a way to protect ourselves in some way. For example, we may be using anxiety as a warning signal so we remain super alert if something similar is or may happen to us. New found anxiety from trauma represents just one of the ways we use anxiety which I’ve covered more extensively here.
