Chapter 5: Normalized Trauma

from the book "RootEd: How Trauma Impacts Learning and Society" by S.R. Zelenz

“It is not the trauma itself that is the source of illness but the unconscious, repressed, hopeless despair over not being allowed to give expression to what one has suffered and the fact that one is not allowed to show and is unable to experience feelings of rage, anger, humiliation, despair, helplessness, and sadness.” - Alice Miller

Introduction

When we consider childhood trauma, we often think of physical violence or sexual abuse. Trauma is so normalized in our society, that we don’t often consider the impact of many other factors that cause long-term trauma such as car accidents, divorce, verbal abuse, or spanking. Many may think that verbal abuse and spanking aren’t abuse. They consider it discipline. As discussed in the previous chapter, the brain is designed to respond to threats, so physical violence (such as spanking) or verbal abuse (such as being yelled at) are triggers to rewire the brain to adapt to these experiences as fight or flight triggers. This eventually creates res…