Trauma: Hidden Epidemic

Trauma:  Hidden Epidemic
By Gary Reece, Ph.D.

     Loss, disappointment, failure and grief are normal and natural accompaniments to the human experience.   Bereavement, the response we have to grief and loss is also familiar to most of us. However common loss is, few of us have learned how to deal with it well. There are many types of loss. There are losses that occur due to normal passages in life, changing jobs, losing jobs, divorces, children leaving home, aging etc.  These also leave scars and contribute to the cumulative effect of life stress.  With each primary loss there are also secondary losses.
      Some losses are the unavoidable results of the human life cycle.  To live is to experience loss.  Most losses are survivable and individuals move through them and restore balance to their lives.  It is estimated by one expert that there are approximately 2 million deaths a year in which 8 to 10 people are affected.  This means that there are as many as 16-20 million new mourners every year.  This expert also notes that at least 1/3 of these individuals will suffer the consequences of complicated mourning, or in other words fail to fully recover from the loss.
      There is another class of loss, however, which presents even greater risks and challenges: Traumatic Loss. In the past decade we have experienced an amazing number  of catastrophes. These catastrophic events have left survivors by the millions with traumatic effects from which they might never recover.  Several come to mind.  We can start with 911, then in random order others spring to mind, Oklahoma City, Colombine, Katrina Hurricane, Joplin Missouri tornado, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami and Haiti earthquake.  Then add wars and civil unrest to the discussion:  the Mid East events: Libya, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the genocide in Africa and global terrorism.
This is what I believe constitutes the hidden epidemic, with the epidemic comes its hidden victims.   I think it is because perhaps we don’t think of these as traumatizing events because they are so ordinary, frequent,  and on such a massive scale.  But think of the definition of Trauma.  DSM IV “The person develops characteristic symptoms following exposure to an extreme traumatic stressor  involving direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury or other threats to one’s physical integrity or witnessing an event that involves death, injury or a threat to another person or one’s family or close associates. And the person’s response must involve intense fear, helplessness or horror.  To put it more succinctly,  it is an overwhelming event producing helplessness and terror.  These events are now serial and complex which compounds the effect.
     Clearly all of these events fit the definition, and then add to the list all of the children living in refugee camps, and all of our returning veterans who have experienced events way beyond the definition of trauma and we have an epidemic of unprecedented proportions.  We are in danger of having a whole generation of  victims of severe trauma.
     This is the new age, the new reality affecting our consciousness and perhaps blunting our sensitivities. Can it be possible that through the process of unconscious accommodation that we have become desensitized?   Is this the new normal?
     While the actual experiences of trauma and mourning and its inherent demands have not changed over time, what has changed is the context in which they now occur.  This changed environment is charged with the potential for complicated grief and mourning: unhealed wounds.  The reason for this is quite simple; conditions creating complicated mourning have become more prevalent and wide spread.  Unnatural and violent death is now occurring with less of a social context in which it can be integrated.  The social conditions under which we exist are characterized by increased violence, accidents, terrorism, disaster, holocausts, plane crashes and natural disasters.   The result is victims living side by side, unaware of their wounds. We live in anonymous neighborhoods. Our whole social milieu and dynamic has changed.  Indifference to violence and increased homicide rates in all of our urban areas might reflect this new malaise.        The fort Hood rampage is symptomatic of this unseen trauma effect.
     The loss of the extended family, single parent families, anonymous neighborhoods, and urbanization result in the loss of the experience of community.  Add to this the loss of mental health resources, and the result is more wounded people with fewer resources and opportunities to successfully transition life’s many challenges.
     Lack of resources, lack of awareness, lack of community, and a lack of knowledge regarding the potential harm of living with unhealed wounds leaves many people accommodating to their wounds and living with addictions, depression, fractured personalities, failed relationships, physical health problems, self-destructive behavior, suicide, violence, child abuse and unfulfilled potential.
     I have devoted my entire career as a psychologist to studying and treating trauma and bereavement.  I have experienced many different forms of traumatic loss and participated in many workshops and community disaster responses.  I have also worked with hundreds of victims of trauma.  What I am left with is the awareness of the challenge of raising community awareness, educating individuals to their condition and trying to create opportunities for addressing their wounds.
     One thing I have discovered  in my career is the certainty that it is the quality of the recovery environment which in the long term determines the outcome of recovery. If it embodies the necessary conditions for healing then the outcome is much more favorable.  These conditions are found in the best forms of human community.  Communities bound together by compassion, empathy, intimacy, and trust: and they must also be intentional and bound together by commitment to common values.
     One recent experience led me to understand and appreciate the role a Covenantal Community can play in the healing of persons.  I was called by the Rector of local Church to see if there was anything I could do to help them deal with the sudden loss of two of their most loved members due to sudden death.  I consulted with the Rector and we planned an experience to help the entire community deal with their loss. We gathered in the fellowship hall; shared a meal, and I talked about loss and bereavement and I encouraged them to talk about what they were experiencing.  It was a good time of feelings being expressed, stories told, and sharing of wounds.  Following this experience we went into the sanctuary and took communion.  After the experience, the Rector and I reviewed our experience together.  She stated, “This was the most seamless expression I have ever had of what the original church must have been like.”  That and other experiences like it left me with the conviction that these kinds of shared experience present a wonderful opportunity by the very nature of their structure, values, and founding purpose to be an intentional healing community. At times like this I am  reminded of a quote by Scott Peck:  “It is only in and through community that the world will be saved.”
I will write more about complicated bereavement and PTSD in my next blog.  For those interested you can contact me through my e mail:  gwrphd@verizon.net.  My book:  Trauma  Loss and Bereavement is available by contacting me.