Trauma isn’t something that needs to be compared or measured against someone else’s experience.

Patients I have worked with frequently say things like, “I’m not sure if this counts as trauma,” usually followed by a detailed story and then, “I know it could have been worse.” Like many mental health conditions, trauma is stigmatized within our society.

Trauma can come from a single event or build up over time through repeated experiences. It might be something you went through yourself, witnessed, or even learned about happening to someone else. Its effects can show up in many ways: physical health, emotional regulation, thinking patterns, and sleep. Over time, trauma can lead to negative self-talk, guilt, or self-blame. Many people also find themselves pulling away from others or feeling disconnected.

There are a range of treatment options that can help. These include medication, therapies like EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), somatic approaches, and emerging integrative treatments like ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. Strong evidence supports the effectiveness of many of these in symptom reduction.

A simple analogy often helps put this into perspective: someone who drowns in six feet of water is just as dead as someone who drowns in twenty. The event that triggers a trauma response does not need to be extreme by someone else’s standards to have a real impact. No one is more or less deserving of care, support, or treatment.