Categories of Traumatic Experience – by David Campell

We’ve covered single incidents of trauma exposure in our Trauma Series to date.   But, as we know other kinds of traumas can be repeated and enduring such as domestic violence, military combat, or living in a war zone.  These can have an even more pervasive effect than a single incident trauma since the mind/body may not have time to settle before the next threat occurs.   

An even more insidious form of trauma is that which occurs during the critical developmental years of a child, thought to be 0-6 yrs of age [3].  When an event in childhood is overwhelming it elicits the same survival circuit as in adults.  But for a child, an experience of overwhelm does not require the same magnitude of threat that it would take for an adult to feel overwhelmed, due to their vulnerability and lack of survival resources. 

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