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Self-harm and Complex Trauma
***Trigger Warning***
This article includes an honest discussion about self-harming behavior, a topic that is highly triggering to some. Caution is advised.
Self-harm is something people do when they are so overwhelmed by emotions that they do not know what to do. Indeed, self-harming behavior does bring a measure of ease, lessening the immediate overpowering thoughts and emotions, but it also causes significant distress and can be fatal.
This article, the second in our series on self-harm, will talk about complex trauma and other ways than self-harm to feel better in the moment.
What is Complex Trauma?
Complex trauma is the exposure to many interrelated traumatic experiences usually occurring in childhood. Exposure to these traumatic events often causes many problems for the survivors as they have had to adapt to surviving traumatic events.
The traumatic events that are complex trauma are longstanding and recur and are inflicted by someone else during the person’s formative attachment relationship years. Too often, children are exposed to familial dysfunction, with their parents or guardians being the ones to perpetrate abuse against them.
People who have survived complex trauma have a mixed bag of outcomes as adults, often…
