Professor Katriona O'Sullivan

And if you are loved, treated, supported and helped to integrate that experience quite quickly after it happens, then

the consequence of that in your life is going to be quite small.

That's what research shows us.

So what happens with trauma, like the definition of trauma, so I think it's a really important conversation to have, is like what is trauma?

Because we just throw the words around.

Oh, my God, I failed on exams.

Trauma.

Yeah, overused.

And it kind of diminishes people's experiences of trauma when they overuse it that way, I think.

So say, for example, as a child, if you experience a violent situation,

what happens with a child with a violent situation is their brain is not capable of integrating that information into their existing cognitions so what happens is this really shocking thing emotionally physically mentally exists outside of their cognition so we're really efficient people our brains are efficient and it takes information in and it tries to match it but when the information doesn't match and like we're flooded with these fear chemicals and these

really horrific things are happening in our brains we don't process that information and that then is what causes the traumatic response so you're you're distracted your concentration isn't affected your heart rate is because you're reliving the situation because it hasn't integrated

But if you meet someone immediately after a trauma, a child has some violent incident and they meet a psychologist, a therapist, their parents, and they help them to integrate that information, the consequences are less.

But there's different types of trauma.

So in my case, my trauma wasn't a one-off.

So you have one-off situations and then you have trauma that is long-lasting and continual.

That was mine.

And being inflicted on you by the people who are supposed to love you.

So in my case, I had trauma, but I also had attachment issues and I also had relationship difficulties.

And so mine is like big T trauma.