Hi All
This week I’m
carrying on with looking at trauma, focusing more on the effects of it. If you don’t
want to read the whole thing (because as always I’ve ended up with a mini essay
- there’s just too much interesting things in my head I want to talk about)
then that’s fine, I’d just like to ask that you do please skip to the last two
paragraphs and read them as there is some really important stuff in there that
I feel extremely passionate about. Thank you so much to everyone for reading
and to the people who donate, makes me feel like all this running is worth it.
And speaking of running, here’s my quick update.
Training this week’s
been pretty much the same as last week. The weathers warmed up a bit which is
nice however the days have been pretty busy so it’s been hard to fit in runs. I
ended up skipping some in the end just because there wasn’t enough time in the
day. Hopefully it won’t have an effect overall but I think I’ll run extra hard
in the week to come just in case. Since I’m back at home now in the countryside
after the end of the uni term I’m looking forward to getting to run in clean
air and beautiful views again. However it does mean I can’t run at my usual
time of 7pm since the lanes get to pitch black by about half 5/6ish so that’ll
be this weeks challenge although I have to say, it doesn’t really seem like
much of a tragedy to me. Now, on with the blog post before I start rambling
even more.
What are the effects of trauma?
One of the better
known effects of trauma is possible development of Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD). The development of PTSD following trauma is not a given, it
depends largely on the type of trauma and the severity of the persons response
to the trauma, according to Courtois and Gold roughly 18-25% of individuals who
have experienced a trauma event go on to develop PTSD. However, when the trauma
experienced is particularly severe or reoccurring then this percentage
increases significantly and, in the case of children rises to almost the reverse
of the original percentage.
Unfortunately PTSD
is not the only mental illness that trauma is associated with, there are many
other disorders associated to varying degrees with trauma. These include –
Dissociation, Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Anxiety Disorders, Substance Abuse,
Psychosis, Personality Disorders, and Physical Illness. It needs to be made
clear here that suffering trauma does not mean that the individual is going to
get all these mental illnesses, it just means they are more at risk of
developing them if other factors are in the right (or wrong) place. However,
just having to deal with one of these illnesses alone is hard enough and adding
trauma on top to exacerbate or possibly even bring in another illness is just
not needed, especially when help is available.
Why is this important?
As shown above, the
list of disorders related to trauma is extensive and basically covers all
aspects of psychological ill health. In most aspects of mental ill health,
having experienced past trauma will either exacerbate the illness or sometimes
even be a direct cause of the illness. This means that treating trauma is of
the utmost importance.
Currently in the UK
receiving mental health care is not easy. While the NHS does try to provide
care for everyone, waiting lists are long – often months- and a lot can happen
in a few months. If individuals want
help straight away then they have to be able to pay fees - £70 an hour type
fees - and many people don’t have that kind of money. Furthermore support
offered by general counselling is not enough, therapists need to be trained in
handling trauma in order to avoid further damaging the patient and also to
protect themselves from the effects of working so closely with victims of
trauma.
This means that the ability of the TRC to provide FREE and
TRAINED care for trauma victims is an immense help. However in order to do this
they need a lot of money. It costs thousands of pounds a month just to keep the
centre open and since they give the service free this means all their money
comes from fundraising events like the one I’m training for right now. It’d be
really appreciated if you could just give even a little bit. The work the TRC
does really is life changing and it is needed; there’s such a high demand for
affordable care and so little offered. Everywhere people are calling for psychological
care. Researchers, Practitioners, Politicians, Counselling Associations,
Doctors, Normal People…almost everybody is calling for more affordable mental
healthcare in the UK and that is what the TRC gives! But unfortunately we live
in a world that runs on money and in order for them to carry on they need
money. Really really need money so PLEASE give.
Here’s
the APA reference for the article I got the info from again- Courtois, C. A., &
Gold, S. N. (2009). The need for inclusion of psychological trauma in the
professional curriculum: A call to action. Psychological
Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 1(1), 3. doi:10.1037/a0015224
And the trc website - http://www.trc-uk.org/
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