When people talk about trauma, they usually think war veterans and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
But what happens when there is no “post”? When the threat of danger is ongoing with no end in sight? When it’s not bombs on the battlefield, but bullets in your neighborhood? When home isn’t a safe place to rest?
When we are under stress or scared, our bodies enter “fight or flight” mode, pumping us full of the chemicals that get us ready to run and protect ourselves. But these chemicals are only meant to be in our bodies fo short periods of time.
When the threat of danger is a normal part of life it negatively impacts our physical health and state of mind.
It can make it hard to focus and even harder to sleep. Some people feel paranoid, like they’re always on go, ready to jump at anything. Others feel depressed or nothing at all. Trauma from normalized danger can also cause learning difficulties and dramatically increase the risk of developing chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, stroke—even early death.
Unfortunately, these are normal reactions to circumstances that shouldn’t be; unfair and unjust social conditions that make African American and Latino adults 4 times more likely to have suffered traumatic events in childhood.