Busting Myths and Clarifying Misinformation About Trauma: What You Need to Know Before Seeking Treatment for Your Trauma

5 Questions with licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Megan Johnson.

Hi there!

I am thrilled to share this month’s installment of 5 Questions with you. “Trauma” is now a regular part of conversation, and often thrown around pretty cavalierly. I shared a post here on instagram where I break down how dangerous this can be. So what really is trauma? Does everyone have it? How do we heal from it?

Today we have an expert helping us unpack this. Dr. Megan Johnson is a licensed clinical psychologist in Los Angeles with over 10 years of clinical experience treating trauma and trauma-related disorders. She received her training by helping veterans and other trauma survivors begin to feel in control of their lives again. (She’s also happens to be a bravo fan, mom, and one of the smartest clinicians I’ve been lucky to meet through instagram! I appreciate her so much.)

Welcome Megan! Am I right in that we are seeing “trauma” everywhere?

Trauma has become somewhat of a buzzword in the wellness space in recent years, and while bringing this topic out of the shadows from which it once resided is destigmatizing and normalizing for trauma survivors, there has also been a proliferation of misinformation in recent years. As a clinical psychologist and trauma specialist, I’m here to clear up the myths and address some of the common misinformation I see in the trauma and mental health space.

Let’s start by asking what really is the definition of trauma? Can everything be considered trauma?

Not everything is trauma. One of the biggest misconceptions I encounter about trauma is the definition of what it is. The study of trauma and PTSD is a relatively new field with a proliferation of research exploding in the wake of the Vietnam War. When the field really took off, a lot of investigation centered around traumas such as military combat, child abuse, and sexual violence, which gave the unintended impression to some that these are the only events that count as trauma. We know now there are a variety of experiences from car crashes to natural disasters, and neglectful parenting to terrorist acts that can all create trauma reactions in people. The definition of trauma is broadening, which on the whole is a good thing.

But we also need to be careful to keep the pendulum from swinging too far in the other direction to the point where we label everything as traumatic.

With an effort to understand trauma and deliver trauma-informed care becoming more mainstream, some have become too liberal in the use of the term and begun classifying minor inconveniences such as spilling your morning coffee or having an argument with your partner as traumatic. While the definition of trauma is broader than just combat, physical abuse and sexual violence, not every stressful experience is trauma. Afterall, if everything is trauma, than nothing is trauma.

Can you share with us how to define trauma?

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5^th edition, text revision) defines events that might lead to post-traumatic symptomatology as any circumstance in which you are exposed to “actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence as well as witnessing or hearing about such events.” This is a great start in defining trauma, but clinically speaking, it is much more nuanced. There are an endless number of human experiences that can fit this definition, and what is more important than what happened is a person’s reaction to the circumstance. We also know that two people can experience the exact same event, and one person might experience it as traumatic and another person will be able to cope with it.

Thus, whether something is traumatic depends not only on the event itself, but the characteristics of the person it happened to. With this in mind, the best way I have found to define trauma is anything that happens too much, too quick, or too soon in a way that overwhelms a person’s nervous system and leads to chronic dysregulation.

We are hearing so much about “trauma responses,” almost as if anything and anything is a trauma response. Can you help us understand this better?

In the same vein, not every personality trait or human behavior is a trauma response.

Your love of routine or your anxiety in relationships might have developed as responses to trauma you encountered; or they might just be parts of your personality. It’s important that we do not over-pathologize normal human behaviors and attribute our humanity to the effects of trauma. The reality is, we all have methods for responding to stress.