Today's article is meant to grow from a conversation we started in October on fatphobia-inspired trauma. If it's meaningful, go back and read that 201 (or what you wrote in response to it) in alongside this one.
What separates the experience of a single negative event - or several negative events - from the development of trauma? Well, trauma leaves a mark on our lives, bodies and brains.
The book Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services notes, "How an event affects an individual depends on many factors, including characteristics of the individual, the type and characteristics of the event(s), developmental processes, the meaning of the trauma, and sociocultural factors." According to the book, the effects of trauma can include changes in neurology: difficulty regulating emotions, numbness, somatization (bodily symptoms of emotional distress), hypervigilance, and difficulty sleeping.
