Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event. An immediate response to an accident, violence, and other frightening events is normal and expected. Some people continue to feel traumatized for months, and even years, later. Unresolved trauma is a significant mental health issue. It’s important to identify, recognize, and get professional counseling to overcome trauma.

What Are the Consequences of Failing to Address Trauma?

Carrying unresolved trauma is bad for mental health and overall wellness. Not coping effectively with trauma puts you at risk for developing a mental illness, like depression, an anxiety disorder, or PTSD. It also increases the risk for physical health problems, like insomnia and heart disease.

Ultimately, underlying trauma affects every area of your life, which means that it can negatively impact relationships. Trauma in relationships makes it impossible to have a healthy, fulfilling connection with someone.

How Unresolved Trauma Manifests

Many people either ignore past traumas or try to face them without ever truly coming to a resolution. When you carry that around with you, it manifests in many ways. Some of the signs you might be repressing trauma include:

• Addiction. If you have a traumatic past, you might turn to drugs or alcohol to self-medicate and to escape the bad feelings it triggers.
• Avoidance. People with trauma tend to avoid anything that reminds them of the past. They also avoid intense emotions and conflict.
• Insomnia. Traumatic memories can make it difficult to sleep at night.
• Eating disorders. Unresolved trauma can leave you powerless. Strict eating rules can provide that sense of control.
• Anxiety attacks. Anxiety or panic attacks that occur in otherwise ordinary situations could indicate underlying trauma.
• Self-harm. People with trauma sometimes engage in self-harm to distract from negative thoughts and bad memories.
• Low self-esteem. People with trauma carry a lot of guilt and shame. This can impact your self-esteem, self-confidence, and sense of self-worth.
• Bad relationships. Any kind of trauma, but particularly attachment trauma, can lead to poor choices in relationships. For instance you might turn to someone who perpetuates the abuse you suffered in the past.
• PTSD. Unresolved trauma puts you at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder, which is characterized by intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, and emotional instability.
• Dissociation. The definition of dissociate in psychology is being detached and distant from your identity, thoughts, sense of self, or memories. If you dissociate, you might have amnesia, feel dead or empty inside, or feel like you are outside your body. A traumatic past is a common trigger for dissociation.

Get Professional Help to Break the Cycle

There are many reasons people avoid getting help for trauma. You feel guilty dredging up the past or have a fear of conflict. But it’s important to take steps to process it. Seek out a therapist with experience treating trauma.

Support professional mental health care with positive habits, like meditation. Meditations benefit all aspects of health, but you can also find those that target trauma specifically. Try this Healing Yoga Nidra for Trauma to aid the healing process and improve your sleep at the same time.