Trauma is the response to a disturbing or painful experience. We’ve all been through some type of trauma in our lives. Many times when we hear trauma, we think of situations like car accidents, attacked at gun point, rape, mass shootings, natural disasters, and domestic violence. However, traumas can also occur from break ups with significant others, losing a loved one, undergoing surgery, living in an unstable environment, experiencing discrimination, racism, and exposure to unkindness.
In this age, social media has exposed many of us to a lot more trauma especially with the repeated shootings and mal-treatment of Black men and women. With the recent verdict from Breonna Taylor’s case, many people might be re-traumatized. It can be difficult to live in a society that undermines the value of some lives while denying that they are doing it. Anyone could feel unsafe living in a place where those who are supposed to uphold justice seem to turn a blind eye to obvious cases of injustice. It can be emotionally exhausting for anyone who cares about these issues.
When we talk about trauma especially in the Black American community, there are three concepts that I find important to highlight.
1. Post-traumatic slave syndrome (PTSS)
After doing 12 years of qualitative and quantitative research, Dr. Joy DeGruy developed the theory Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS). She explains that many of the behaviors in Black American communities in the US are adaptive survival ways due to being oppressed for multiple generations post slavery without adequate opportunities to heal. I see a lot of similarities between African Americans and many immigrants (including Africans) in the behaviors she describes. Even though the latter didn’t go through slavery, we went through colonization and immigration while also experiencing continuous discrimination. Watch her explain PTSS in the short video below.
2. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Many of us have heard of post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD for short. Not everyone who has experienced trauma develops PTSD. For someone to have PTSD, they need to have been exposed to a traumatic event directly, witnessed the event happening to someone, have endured repeated exposure to trauma details, OR the incident had to have involved the accidental or violent death of a loved one. Additionally, there are four criteria that an individual needs in order to have PTSD:
- Re-experiencing symptoms e.g. flashbacks or nightmares
- Avoidance of cues that remind them of the trauma
- Negative changes in their mood or thinking
- Hyper-arousal or always feeling on edge
Multiple factors including increased experience of discrimination and racism can increase the likelihood of experiencing PTSD in the Black community. This also includes systemic racism which has continuously placed Black Americans in worse conditions. For example, Black populations in the US have experienced the most deaths (twice as many) from the Covid-19 pandemic. This could possible increase trauma and PTSD in this community from the loss of loved ones.
3. Post traumatic growth (PTG)
This is where the good news comes in. Some research showed that up to 70% of people who experience traumas develop Post traumatic growth (PTG). The researchers who coined this term found that people can acquire positive change as a result of the traumatic event including spiritual change, gaining personal strength, having more meaningful relationships, seeing new possibilities in their lives, and having a richer appreciation of life.
It is important to note that according to the research, the growth doesn’t occur directly after the trauma. It is people’s struggle with the traumatic event that is essential to determine the degree of PTG. This implies that there is some wrestling that happens after trauma. We ask why, we wonder what we could have done differently, we wish it never happened, we ask for things to be better. Through our struggling, we grow into seeing life differently and building deeper relationships with others. This is what PTG is all about. It gives me hope that no matter how much trauma we go through, something good can come out of it even though the process is painful. Actually the concept of PTG is not new for it is all over the Bible, but that’s a topic for another day.
Trauma is not new to the human race and certainly not to Black people everywhere. However, we can get through our traumas by support from friends, taking care of ourselves, reducing stress, doing art, and getting involved in community activities (this article has more great suggestions). Sometimes, we need help from a mental health professional which you can find on my resource page. You can also read this post I wrote to answer 10 frequently asked questions about psychotherapy.
