Cafe Chaos: Where Trauma is the Special of the Day Every Day

Joy Ingram, Workshop Facilitator, RAFT (Resilience for Advocates through Foundational Training)

As advocates, we are programmed to help others. We walk full speed ahead into other people’s crises without a second thought as to how it affects us. We graciously take on the vicarious trauma that comes with being empathetic. We experience compassion fatigue and exhaustion due to the stress and strains of other people’s problems and the flawed systems in which we work. This can lead to exhaustion, overwhelm, and in some cases, burnout. 

However, there are other factors that can contribute to these, and other types of mental anguish and we don’t even realize it. What are these factors? Often it is our own unrecognized trauma. Unrecognized trauma refers to previous traumatic experiences that people haven’t acknowledged and therefore haven’t processed. This often leads to various negative impacts on their mental, emotional, and physical well-being. This can happen when trauma is denied, repressed, or simply not viewed as a traumatic experience. 

Not recognizing or treating your trauma doesn’t erase, undo, or heal it. Just like not treating a physical injury or disease (heart disease, diabetes, a broken bone) doesn’t mean you don’t have it, nor does it help you control or cure it.