Psychological Trauma

Trauma is not a mental illness. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, a relatively serious and stubborn form of trauma, is technically classified as a mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

One reason for this classification is to assure that military veterans and others who suffer from trauma qualify for health care insurance. Trauma can also trigger, exacerbate or combine with mental illnesses such as major depression, generalized anxiety or even schizophrenia.

Nevertheless, classifying responses to trauma as a mental illness is problematic because it suggests that trauma is abnormal or pathological. It is like classifying a broken bone as a disease. A broken bone is not a disease. It is a wound – the normal and natural result of an extraordinary shock to the body. Trauma is likewise a wound – the normal and natural result of an extraordinary shock to the mind and spirit.

Just as a broken bone may need to be set, intervention may be helpful or necessary to bring about healing from trauma. Long-term or recurring symptoms, such as nightmares, the inability to resume daily activities after the typical period of shock and grief, and secondary complications, such as substance abuse, are all indications that intervention is needed. Even so, it is important to keep in mind the distinction between being wounded, which is what trauma is, and being ill or mentally ill.

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