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The Beginnings of Johnny Depp & Amber Heard’s Relationship Detailed in Court

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https://www.realsimple.com/health/mind-mood/emotional-health/what-is-little-t-trauma

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There is nothing small about this type of trauma-here's what it means and how it can affect you.

Understand how you process and respond to trauma

Trauma is a very personal experience and not everyone may react to trauma in the same way. Take the pandemic as an example. COVID-19 shutting down the world was a collective global trauma, filled with both big "T" and little "t" traumas for many people, running the gamut: losing loved ones, working on the hospital frontlines, losing a job, and being cut off from their social sphere, adapting to a new work cadence, and a general lack of certainty and answers.

Why were some people able to work through the trauma more easily than others? Dr. Moutier likens it to a patient with heart disease. The basic preventive "prescription" for anyone to take care of their heart may include getting regular exercise and watching what you eat, but for someone with heart disease, you may need to do all of those things plus implement some additional therapies.

"We're all predisposed to understand trauma," explains Haylie Yakrus, a mental health clinician from Berman Psychotherapy in Atlanta. "It may be genetic, [environmental] (i.e., [whether or not you felt] safe and protected), or a traumatic experience when we were [children]."

But certain triggers may affect individuals completely differently-or not at all. Sometimes a little "t" trauma can immediately cause an individual to enter that fight-or-flight, high-stress, mode with real physiological symptoms, while it may barely phase the individual next to them.

Much of how intensely you're affected by little "t" stressors depends on how resilient you are. "There is a direct correlation between the resilience reservoir and how we process the trauma," Dr. Moutier says. People who tend to have more emotional resilience (the capacity to cope and bounce back in the face of adversity)-or a bigger "resiliency reservoir," as Dr. Moutier puts it-are better equipped to deal with trauma, particularly those on a smaller, less life-threatening scale. And if you're exhausted and not taking care of yourself, the trauma may have an unintended bigger impact on you.

Some of it is genetic-certain people are born with the ability to recover more quickly or let things roll off their backs more easily-but there's a huge spectrum, and many are not as lucky. The promising news is that filling that resilience reservoir can sometimes be as simple as getting the sleep, hydration, nutrition, and exercise you need.
RELATED: Sleep, Exercise, and Diet Are the Wellness Trifecta-but One Is Most Important for Mental Health, Study Finds

In order to heal from trauma, you have to validate it

Are you just tired from a long day, or is something more serious going on here? How do you know when your body is reacting to a little "t" trauma in a way you need to address? Look inward and validate what's happening.

The physical manifestations of trauma come in many forms. It can be anything from losing your temper easily to having migraines, sweating, and increased heart rate, or obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Yakrus gives the example: "If you just went through a divorce or bad breakup and you refuse to date, that could actually be a reaction to the trauma."

Coming out of the pandemic, if you notice you're incessantly cleaning until your fingers turn raw, that may be a direct correlation to the trauma of this past year.

Noticing patterns and acknowledging that they might stem from something deeper is important, and validating the need to prioritize your mental health is a huge first step. Whether it's talking with a friend, a therapist, or journaling about your experiences.

It's hard to put your finger on when you're in the midst of the fall-out of a smaller trauma, but "by putting it out there, you realize how it's truly significant," Dr. Moutier says. And before you write off self-care as an ineffective luxury-think again. Understand that a lack of taking care of yourself-whatever that means to you, your mind, and your body "can have dire ramifications for your physical and mental health," Dr. Moutier adds.

RELATED: It's Probably Time for a Self Check-in-Here's How to Do It

The ways to cope with little "t" trauma

Follow a comforting, helpful routine.
Once you recognize the trauma, create self-care outlets that work for you and continue to use them. Consistent breaks, moments of self-compassion, and making small, healthy decisions for you are crucial for working through it. "Keeping up with a consistent routine is key, and so is a form of release," Yakrus says. This could be as simple as splurging on the better brand of coffee, taking a long, hot shower, and going for a leisurely walk with a friend to talk.

Schedule non-negotiable time on your calendar to do something that fills up that resiliency reservoir: things that make you happy, fulfilled, accomplished, satisfied, connected-things that give you something to wake up for and look forward to: a sewing class, a yoga session, a great book, or baking.
Know when you need a mental health day.
Yakrus insists we need to start normalizing mental health days from work in the same way we do for sick days. Coming out of a global pandemic, she reminds us that "we should normalize that what we just went through was a collective trauma. As life resumes, we need to take time to ground ourselves, to take a breath, and recognize there is added anxiety [leftover]."
Talk to a therapist.
You can practice all the self-care in the world, but there are still times when you need more than a bubble bath or a cup of tea. Sometimes you need someone (who knows what they're doing) to hold you accountable, who isn't yourself or a friend-and that's where therapy comes in. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a common starting point for working through trauma and a great step toward breaking free of trauma-triggered behaviors.

Dr. Moutier also points to EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) as another treatment option, which can be used to "help the brain file these memory files to a new place in the brain that isn't so charged up."

"In America, we [tend to] grow up thinking that things happen to us, but we aren't powerless," says Dr. Moutier. If we retrain our brain, we can actually start to work through the trauma and alleviate the physiological symptoms we feel. The good news is that with some work and consistency, trauma is something people can work through, and even come out stronger and more resilient on the other side.

RELATED: 8 Apps for Anxiety and Depression That Can Help You Manage Your Mood

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We Need to Talk About Little "t" Trauma-Here's What It Looks Like and How to Process It

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There is nothing small about this type of trauma-here's what it means and how it can affect you. Understand how you process and respond to trauma Trauma is a very personal experience and not everyone may react to trauma in the same way. Take the pandemic as an example.

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Little t trauma or small “t” are often the kind of trauma that is overwhelming and is not seen as traumatic. These can both affect the mind and body because these are unprocessed traumas that we just let go. Small “t” traumas are the ones we should watch more because it can be as simple as getting fired on a job, losing a pet, getting a divorce or financial problems. Especially today as we are still facing the pandemic, everything is different from two years ago. A lot of people had lost their jobs, their business, their loved ones, their houses and sadly themselves too.