Overall, when examining the connections between emotions and trauma, researchers have found that trauma can negatively impact a person’s emotional life. We will discuss these research findings below.
Before we begin any discussion about the effects of trauma, it is important to remind ourselves that healing and resilience are possible. Many factors can prevent these effects from occurring in the first place, and many factors can lead to their healing if they have occurred.
Our purpose here is to learn about potential ways trauma can adversely impact people, so that we can then use this knowledge to create trauma-informed, healing ministries.
If you begin to feel overwhelmed at any point when reading this article, please pause and seek guidance from a trained mental health professional, a trusted friend, or a mentor.
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Trauma and Understanding One’s Emotions
One of the first steps to experiencing and regulating emotions in healthy ways is being able to feel and name one’s feelings.
Trauma can make this first step more difficult by potentially causing a person to feel emotionally numb and to experience alexithymia, which is a term for difficulty naming and expressing one’s emotions (Source: The Body Keeps the Score). These difficulties can lead to problems with emotion regulation.
Trauma and Negative Emotions
Trauma can increase the amount of negative emotions a person feels, especially if they are diagnosed with PTSD. One of the criteria that can lead to a PTSD diagnosis is consistently feeling emotions like fear, anger, guilt, and shame (1).
Feeling these negative emotions so constantly can lead to more difficulties following trauma and may lead to risky behaviors in an attempt to regulate them.
Trauma and Difficulties With Emotion Regulation
Trauma can lead to difficulties with regulating emotions in healthy ways, especially in those who end up developing PTSD (2).
For example, difficulties with accepting emotions, an important part of emotion regulation, are strongly related to PTSD symptoms (3).
Additionally, these problems with regulating emotions can lead to constantly thinking about one’s trauma, which can then worsen PTSD (4).
Conclusion
Trauma can lead to lots of difficulties in the realm of emotions, particularly with being able to feel and name emotions, feeling more negative emotions, and regulating one’s emotions in healthy ways, all of which can lead to other difficulties.
There is hope for healing and resilience following exposure to trauma. If you or someone you know may be suffering from these adverse effects of trauma, please visit the healing resources page to begin your healing journey.
To learn more about the effects of trauma, visit this page. I also recommend picking up a copy of The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk to learn more.