It is totally understandable to react with shock or unease to an unexpected event that you were not prepared for such as when a loved one gets seriously ill, or you are in a car accident. You may connect the word trauma to an experience like this. Other common events associated with the word trauma could be war, assault, or abuse. You would be correct in thinking that these things embody the word trauma, but it only represents a small percentage of what is actually experienced as traumatic in our lives.

You’ve likely heard the terms trauma, trauma-informed, PTSD and trauma responses. The words fight, flight or freeze are used a lot in our culture to describe how we respond to different traumatic events. Learn how they might play out in your life or the life of a friend who has survived a traumatic event(s).