A lot of people talk about 'complex trauma.' What does it mean?
No one gets through life unscathed. But what trauma does to our brains is sometimes a result of factors outside of our control. This is especially true for children.
When a fragile, growing brain endures chronic stress or multiple traumas, it can have devastating consequences on cognitive and emotional well-being throughout a person’s lifetime.
We spoke with Dr. Lauren Ng, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles and director of the Treatment and Research for the Underserved with Stress and Trauma (TRUST) Lab, about “complex trauma," the result of difficult childhood experiences compounded on a developing brain.
What is the difference between trauma and complex trauma?
Complex trauma the sum of many different factors, usually occurring in childhood, which presents very differently than a one-off traumatic event.
Ng explains, “Complex trauma is often (but not always) associated with childhood maltreatment and multiple forms of adversity. In this situation a child may have had many chronic stressors over a life course, overlaid with a sort of developmental trauma in a sense that it’s occurring at a time when the child is expected to develop very critical cognitive and emotional development skills like emotion regulation and problem-solving.”
Ng further explains, “The impact on the brain and body is far different from both the chronic stress situation as well as the developmental trajectory for where that particular individual is time in comparison to let's say a 25-year-old, who overall has had a fairly stable and healthy developmental trajectory before a car accident. It could be a severe car accident, but that 25-year-old has the benefit of having had their brain and body develop in a stable and healthy way. In this case, we would anticipate better-coping strategies, a better ability to regulate their emotions and their physiological reactions, in addition to better social support and resources that they can draw upon.”
Are there risk factors for experiencing more trauma than others?
While no one is immune to experiencing traumatic life events, Ng explains that some communities are at higher risk than others. Those communities may have risk factors that can lead to more trauma and when trauma does occur, certain areas may have fewer resources to cope with trauma.
Ng outlines some of the systemic factors that can lead to people experiencing more trauma in the first place:
Discrimination against historically marginalized communities.
Policy decisions that make certain areas more unsafe.
Sub-standard housing that’s vulnerable to natural disasters.
Everyday stressors like unequal access to quality education or food insecurity.
Ng also describes some of the barriers to treatment for these communities, “People seeking mental health services, in general, are going to have a really hard time finding them in part because there’s just not enough mental health providers. There are not enough clinics and those mental health providers and clinics tend to be clustered in higher-income areas.” She also describes some additional difficulties, such as:
Not being able to afford payments for treatment.
Differences in insurance and what's covered.
Lack of time to seek treatment.
A lack of providers that come from the same communities as the patients they are treating.
How can you help people suffering from trauma?
Ng says that the best way to help people through a tough time or as they grapple with trauma is to be positive social support. She explains a few ways to show the person that you care about them:
Show that you believe them.
Show that you are available.
Show that you will treat them the same way you treated them before.
Treat the person with kindness and respect.
“It goes a long way, showing that you’re there for them and that they can talk if they want to talk. That it’s OK, and that there’s no shame associated with whatever particular thing happened. A lot of survivors carry a lot of shame, blame and guilt. You know that it’s inaccurate, so being able to be that person who can reflect that can be very helpful.”
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is complex trauma? How it differs from other trauma, how to help
