Trauma and Emotions

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Overall, researchers have found that trauma can negatively impact a person’s emotional life, particularly by increasing the amount of negative emotions one experiences and causing difficulties regulating emotions. 

Before we begin, it is essential to remember that just because someone has experienced trauma does not mean they are doomed to develop these outcomes. And if a person has developed a particular negative outcome due to trauma exposure, they are not necessarily doomed to have it forever. Healing and resilience are possible, and many factors can prevent these outcomes from happening in the first place, and many factors can lead to their healing if they have occurred.

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 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. (link to trauma and actions)

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).

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, please visit the following pages:

• Trauma Statistics
• Trauma and Actions
• Trauma and Friendships
• Trauma and the Mind
• Trauma and the Body
• Trauma and the Soul
• Trauma and Vocations
• Effects of Trauma by Gender
• Resources to Learn More About the Effects of Trauma