The Importance Of Traumatic Experiences

The word “trauma” can associate various meanings and emotions in a person. Many factors are at play during traumatic experiences and have a say in the reaction of the individual emotionally, physically, spiritually, and developmentally overall. Early on, a child undergoes a wealth of neural connections that are either reinforced by repetitious experiences, making the connections strong and quick, or those connections fall to waste, as the interaction is never repeated. This shows the importance that a vivid traumatic experience can have on the development of a child as it becomes re-experienced in a variety of ways.
When traumatic experiences reinforce those neural pathways involved, the likelihood for more adaptive behaviors is reduced (N.C. …show more content…
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2016) lists these experiences to include; sexual abuse or assault, physical abuse or assault, emotional abuse or psychological maltreatment, neglect, serious accident or illness, victim or witness to domestic violence, victim or witness to community violence, historical trauma, school violence, bullying, natural or manmade disasters, forced displacement, war or terrorism, military trauma, victim or witness to extreme personal or interpersonal violence, traumatic grief or separation, and system-induced trauma including retraumatization. As discussed earlier, trauma intertwines development neurologically, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Trauma can result in a wide variety of experiences depending on the culture and how each individual has developed in these areas. As the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (2009) explains it, “culture and trauma have a profound bidirectional influence on each other. Culture shapes attitudes towards traumatic experiences (e.g., sexual abuse, illness, accidents, physical abuse) as well as how children and families respond to—and recover from—trauma