You’ve told yourself that what you experienced “was no big deal” or “others had it worse.”

Or maybe you even believe you’re being dramatic, exaggerating your reaction to what happened.

You may feel that it's a waste of time to “hash it out” with a therapist. You should be over it by now, right?

Trauma refers to anything that overwhelmed your capacity to cope.

Transgenerational trauma refers to a type of trauma that does not end with the individual. Instead, it lingers and gnaws through one generation to the next. Families with a history of unresolved trauma, depression, anxiety, and addiction may continue to pass maladaptive coping strategies and distrustful views of life on to the next generation.

No one can know exactly what you experienced but the idea of opening up to someone else and getting “pity” in return just makes you feel crappier. And what’s worse, if you open up, you risk feeling embarrassed and guilty or like a burden, so you find it’s just best to keep it all to yourself. 

Maybe you feel like the fact that you’re still wrestling with this experience makes you somehow inadequate or a failure.

You’re not

Maybe you feel like this event shouldn’t be making you feel the way you feel because it wasn’t a life-threatening experience...

trauma doesn’t have to be a single catastrophic life-threatening experience for it to be considered traumatic and distressing to your brain and body.