Many people suffer from trauma, and frequently it has long-lasting effects. Trauma occurs when people are in situations that are emotionally and\/or physically painful, distressing, or overwhelming.\u00a0 When we have suffered a trauma, we may feel as if we are frozen, and, at times may struggle with managing day-to-day routines.\u00a0 It may lead to long-term health and mental health struggles.<\/p>\n
For the majority of us, trauma results from an experience that occurs outside of the normal daily experience.\u00a0 Examples include the loss of a job, loss of a loved one, being the victim of a crime, receiving a cancer diagnosis, natural disasters like floods, hurricanes, fires, etc.\u00a0Some trauma comes from continuing experiences over time, like witnessing or experiencing domestic or sexual violence, child abuse, and being exposed to violence in war conditions.\u00a0It is the human experience to suffer from varying degrees of trauma throughout our lives.\u00a0 However, as individuals we all react to and manage these events differently.<\/p>\n
Between 1995 and 1997 the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the insurance group, Kaiser\u00a0Permanente,\u00a0joined together to study 17,000 people to assess connections between early childhood trauma and later life health and wellbeing.\u00a0This was called the Adverse Childhood Experiences Survey (ACES).\u00a0 The ACES findings suggest that certain experiences are major risk factors for the leading causes of illness and death as well as poor quality of life in the United States. It is critical to understand how some of the worst health and social problems in our nation can arise as a consequence of adverse childhood experiences. The financial and social costs of trauma include medical, mental health, substance abuse, employment, law enforcement, corrections, and more.\u00a0 The financial costs conservatively estimate into the billions of dollars every year. As we realize the connections between trauma and its impact, we can work together to improve efforts towards prevention and recovery.<\/p>\n
If you or someone you love has experienced trauma and you are worried, depressed or overwhelmed, there is help in the community.\u00a0You can reach out to the\u00a0Tioga\u00a0County Department of Mental Hygiene (687-4000) or A New Hope Center (687-6866).<\/p>\n
By Francis J. Bialy, executive director of A New Hope Center and Donna Corbin, director of The Southern Tier Services Office for Glove House, Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Many people suffer from trauma, and frequently it has long-lasting effects. Trauma occurs when people are in situations that are emotionally and\/or physically painful, distressing,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\n