Reframing Trauma

In psychology, trauma can be defined as the reaction to a deeply distressing or disturbing experience. In medicine, trauma is defined as a physical injury.

Common examples of trauma experiences include physical and sexual abuse, verbal or emotional abuse, childhood neglect, intimate partner violence, accidents or disasters, illness, incarceration etc. Further, there are several ways in which these traumatic events are experienced (e.g. see source, source). These include the direct experience of single (acute trauma) or multiple (repetitive trauma) traumatic events either as an adult or as a child (developmental trauma). Further, trauma can be experienced through close individuals (vicarious), particular groups or populations (historical trauma, collective trauma) as well as generations (intergenerational trauma). 

Trauma also creates systemic biological and cellular changes. For example, it can change our gut bacteria environment, which has implications for obesity (source). In cases of acute trauma, some can experience PTSD, which creates neurobiological abnormalities which alters the function of various biological systems, this too has implications for obesity (source). The link between obesity and trauma also provides a wide ecological scope to understand the different determinants of a disease that is complex and not just a “lifestyle choice”. 

Systemic Trauma & Structural Violence

Norwegian sociologist, Johan Gultang, introduced the term structural violence in the 1960’s to describe the outputs of racism, classism, sexism, and other marginalisations (source). He defined structural violence as an “avoidable impairment of fundamental human needs” (source).