C-Force: The Many Unrecognized Impacts of Trauma

It is entirely possible that I have recently been overdoing it in focusing too much on psychological threats to public health. For example, the many reports of the debilitating effects rampant fear and anger are said to pose to public health and safety that I touched on last week. According to the experts, these emotions, when heightened, increase stress, and increased stress can lead to a traumatic response.

"Not everyone who experiences a stressful event will develop trauma," according to a recent report by Medical News Today, but it is an important subject for discussion. "Some people will develop (trauma) symptoms that resolve after a few weeks, while others will have more long-term effects."

By now, we all should at least be familiar with the concept of trauma. After all, according to the American Psychological Association, we remain "a nation recovering from collective trauma."

"The national public health emergency around COVID-19 officially ended on May 11, 2023," an APA report reads. "While the return to 'normal' has been celebrated by many, results from the most recent Stress in America survey paint a different picture." Says APA chief executive Arthur C. Evans Jr., "The COVID-19 pandemic created a collective experience among Americans. While the early-pandemic lockdowns may seem like the distant past, the aftermath remains."

"When reviewing this year's survey data, APA psychologists widely agreed there is mounting evidence that our society is experiencing the psychological impacts of a collective trauma," the APA report reads.

According to Stress in America research findings, "data suggests the long-term stress sustained since the COVID-19 pandemic began has had a significant impact on well-being, evidenced by an increase in chronic illnesses -- especially among those between the ages of 35 and 44, which increased from 48% reported in 2019 to 58% in 2023."

What is considered trauma? According to Medical News Today, "Psychological trauma is a response to an event a person finds highly stressful." The response can cover a wide range of physical and emotional symptoms. Categories include "acute trauma," which "results from a single stressful or dangerous event"; "chronic trauma," which "results from repeated and prolonged exposure to highly stressful events"; and "complex trauma," resulting "from exposure to multiple traumatic events."

There is also a form called secondary trauma, or vicarious trauma. "With this form of trauma, a person develops trauma symptoms from close contact with someone who has experienced a traumatic event. ... Family members, mental health professionals, and others who care for those who have experienced a traumatic event are at risk of vicarious trauma. The symptoms often mirror those of PTSD," according to Medical News Today.

No matter how you look at it, the experience of trauma can potentially have a long-term effect on a person's well-being. A case can be made that it represents a more present and powerful force than we may realize. More than exposure to bad deli meat, bird flu, the latest COVID-19 variant or dengue fever, it just might represent a widespread and present threat to public health that deserves our full attention.

As Dutch psychiatrist, author, researcher and educator Dr. Bessel van der Kolk explains in a Time magazine profile, "When you get traumatized, you live in a very narrowed reality, and your fear and your rage really determine your reaction to everything." Van der Kolk adds that he, according to Time, "doesn't understand why the medical community doesn't take childhood trauma more seriously." According to a Cleveland Clinic report, traumatic events "can affect a child's mental and physical health for years to come -- and even into adulthood."

"Psychologist Kate Eshleman, PsyD, says that often, children can move on from traumatic events and thrive. But they may need a helping hand," the Cleveland Clinic report reads. "Kids see the world differently than adults do and can experience distress from things that might not seem so scary to grown-ups, says Dr. Eshleman. Events like chronic bullying at school, the death of a family member or divorce can also traumatize a child."

"Sometimes, adults minimize the significance of a traumatic event such as bullying," Eshleman says. It's important to hear what your child is saying and to validate your child's experience.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, most school systems are leaning into extra instruction time and tests to catch kids up in reading and math. As van der Kolk explains to Time magazine, that's all wrong. "The main thing you learn in school is to be a member of a group, to collaborate, to have fun and to create things together," he says. "So I would focus on theater groups, I would focus on athletics, because the pandemic really made people physically very isolated and alienated from each other."

According to Time, van der Kolk adds that he also "doesn't understand why leaders still send citizens to war without factoring in how it will deplete their capacity to live normally for decades."

World-renowned psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey A. Lieberman, in a Dec. 2018 editorial for the Psychiatric Times, wrote that "more than 2 million troops have already been deployed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. ... Almost a third of all service-persons in these ongoing conflicts suffer from some clinically significant mental condition. ... The unique psychological dangers faced by our military personnel take their toll and make re-entry into civilian life difficult."

Lieberman's editorial was a call to action for "better and more accessible mental health services."

"It has long been known that war produces overwhelming psychological stress that can indelibly alter a person's brain function and mental state," he writes. Despite the long history of post-traumatic stress disorder -- previously known as "soldier's heart," "shellshock" and "battle fatigue" -- there has been limited progress in the scientific understanding and ability to treat PTSD. Why hasn't more been done to address the psychological wounds of war and its aftereffects?

"Trauma can have long-term effects on the person's well-being," the Medical News Today report reminds us. "If symptoms persist and do not decrease in severity, it can indicate that the trauma has developed into the mental health disorder called post-traumatic stress disorder."

It is a forecast from which we, as civilians, are not exempt.

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Follow Chuck Norris through his official social media sites, on Twitter @chucknorris and Facebook's "Official Chuck Norris Page." He blogs at http://chucknorrisnews.blogspot.com. To find out more about Chuck Norris and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.