How to Overcome Medical Trauma
Medical trauma is defined as the psychological or physiological response to a traumatic experience in a medical setting. Some of the reasons why people develop a medical injury may include a frightening or painful experience, such as a complicated birth or a serious illness; encountering a medical error, such as a failed operation or harmful treatment; or being fired or humiliated while seeking medical care.
“Any medical procedure could be traumatic if you didn’t know what was going on,” said Melissa Goldberg-Mintz , psychologist and author of Has Your Child Been Injured?: How to Know and What to Do. Do to promote healing and recovery . “Pain can be a big element. It can be really scary.”
In his practice, Goldberg-Minz sees many people who have developed medical trauma due to complicated births and children who have developed medical trauma because they did not know what was happening. “When they are so small, we try to explain and prepare them as best as we can, but when they are small, it can be hard to understand,” Goldberg-Mintz said.
Trauma can develop after an adverse event
Trauma may develop after an adverse event. “Things can happen very quickly and it can be scary and painful,” Goldberg-Mintz said. For many people, this feeling of loss of control, combined with fear and pain, is so terrible. However, while trauma may develop after such an event, it does not always occur.
Instead, in the first few weeks after the event, it is quite normal to have a wide range of emotions about what happened, such as fear, sadness, or anger. “In the early stages, what I hear most often is that it seems very surreal, but not in a good way,” said Jennifer Kowalski, licensed professional consultant for Thriveworks . “There is a very clear ‘before and after’ event where life has changed dramatically forever.”
In the weeks following what happened, there is often a period when the body and brain adjust. “You may have to figure it out a bit over time,” Kowalski said. “Your brain has an amazing way of coping when it hides a little. Your body may worry, you may cry, you may shake, but you do not quite understand the reality of the situation. Little by little it starts to seep in. These are the earliest stages and this is where it really needs to be fought.”
The problem is that these emotions persist and begin to interfere with living a full life. “You want the help you need in this moment, otherwise you keep thinking about it, you get stuck in this moment and you can’t necessarily process what happened,” Kowalski said.
Avoidance is part of the trauma response.
Part of the response to trauma is avoidance. “It’s your body’s natural response that it wants to keep you safe,” Goldberg-Mintz said. In the context of a medical injury, this can be complicated, as visiting a doctor is not an everyday event, and avoiding planned preventive care can have a long-term negative effect. “It’s much easier to avoid medical situations,” Goldberg-Minz said.
When it comes to avoidance, the main strategy for dealing with such fears is stepwise exposure therapy, where the person finds ways to gradually confront these fears in a controlled setting.
“They need to feel challenged but safe,” Kowalski said. For example, it could be driving to a doctor’s office and parking, sitting in a waiting room, or visiting telemedicine. Other strategies include discussing the different scenarios that might come up in the doctor’s office and coming up with coping strategies such as practicing deep breathing during the injection.
It also helps to hire a trusted family member or friend to help you deal with such situations. “If things get scary or go wrong, it might be someone who can be more objective and protect you in that situation,” Goldberg-Mintz said.
When to Seek Therapy
It can be helpful for people who have had a medical injury to talk about their experiences. For some people, talking to a family member or trusted friend may be enough; for others, it may be necessary to seek professional help. “When it gets to the point where it seriously affects your life, then it really qualifies as post-traumatic stress disorder,” Goldberg-Mintz said.
In terms of therapy, some of the most common types of treatment for PTSD include stepwise exposure therapy, EMDR, and cognitive behavioral therapy. Staged exposure therapy works by exposing a person to a traumatic trigger in a safe and controlled environment. With EMDR (eye movement desensitization and processing), “they found that when we move our eyes in a certain way, our brain can apply a different way of thinking to traumatic memories,” Kowalski said. Meanwhile, cognitive behavioral therapy helps people process and reframe their experiences. “It’s about finding the right way to deal with what happened and digest it,” Kowalski said.