All of life is filled with problems to be solved, challenges to be met, and skills to be acquired. These are key circumstances that bring about stress. While stress can be a good tool for learning, it can also manifest itself in a more drastic form known as trauma.

There are optimal levels of stress that make for an interesting, challenging and rewarding life. In the course of living, manageable levels of stress allow us to “exercise our brains” as we work to bring about good solutions. When circumstances become rather overwhelming, people often use the phrase “I’m burned out,” implying they have experienced too much stress in which their coping abilities aren’t sufficient. At the opposite end of the spectrum, you might hear a person express “I’m rusting out,” which equates to someone feeling bored and not challenged to the level of his or her abilities.

Then there is trauma, which is the extreme form of stress. It is also an obstacle to normal human development. Webster defines trauma as “a wound to living tissue caused by an external agent.” Simply put, it is damage done to a body (inside or on the surface) by something outside of and apart from the body.

Psychological trauma is a deep insult to our psyche resulting from emotional distress or physical injury. In today’s world we can experience trauma, witness it directly, see it in the media, or experience a “near miss” that leaves us hurting or fearful. We can lose confidence in the future when we become a victim of incidents such as a crime, severe cruelty, a serious accident, physical injury, or abusive relationships.

Emotional trauma causes shock, anger, grief and fear. After a traumatic experience, most people feel depressed and violated. They experience excess fatigue, headaches, insomnia and vigilance for a brief period of time, but none of these responses are indicative of an emotional disorder.

While most of these symptoms will go away in a week or two, exercise, deep breathing, physical activity and relaxation will help reduce the emotional anguish. Often the support of one’s faith, spiritual life, family and friends carry a person through the distressing period.

Much of the need for stress relief stems from the feelings of loss of control for one’s own well being and security. When we realize that we will have to adapt alone in our life to the changes wrought by trauma, we move on, putting the traumatic experience in our remote memory.

For others, though, some symptoms from the trauma will remain. The severity of the trauma, frequency of the event, feelings of betrayal, proximity to the incident, and any special or unique meanings ascribed to the event all play a part as to how long trauma symptoms remain.

When a person continues to experience and relive the event with flashbacks, dreams, intrusive memories and thoughts, almost as if the event or experience is reoccurring, one should seek help. When we are having trouble putting trauma behind us, we have reactions to things that resemble the traumatic event.

An example of this would be a person who has been caught in and survived a house fire, then for years finds themselves deeply overwhelmed and fearful each time they hear a siren. Or a person involved in a car accident that remains afraid to get behind the wheel of a car. Strong physical stress reactions can occur long after the original trauma. If this occurs, one should consult a mental health professional or primary care physician.

Trauma can also foster avoidance of thoughts, feelings, people, places and activities so that lives become overly restricted and emotions are numbed. This can occur in instances where people have experienced abusive relationships that lead to a deep fear of trusting, loving or becoming emotionally close to another person. They then become isolated and alone, keeping others at “arm’s length” and finding reasons to terminate future relationships once personal feelings and attachment begin to occur. Heightened arousal response and hyper vigilance become ways of coping so as to not be victimized again.

Eventually, people succumb to irritability, anger, verbal outbursts and jumpiness. Few people will have all of these reactions and few people will have long lasting stress symptoms. But when they do, counseling and medications are available to help lessen overwhelming feelings and relieve the distress.