What is Trauma?

Trauma is an emotional response to a stressful, upsetting, or life-threatening event or series of events. Trauma is not just about what happened, but how it was experienced and dealt with. Trauma happens when our coping abilities are stretched thin by what is happening to us.

A traumatic experience doesn’t have to be a major event. What matters is how the experience made you feel. Trauma is experienced differently from person to person. We can also be traumatized by things we see happening around us. Trauma isn’t a sign of weakness-it’s a natural response to going through something really hard.

An easy way to think about trauma is to use the 3 E’s.

• Event- This is the situation or experience that is physically or emotionally harmful or life-threatening. Example: a cancer diagnosis.
• Experience- This means how the event felt to you and what it meant for you. Example: “I’m scared. Does this mean I’m going to die?”
• Effects- These are the lasting ways the event and the experience impact your life. Example: “I’m not sleeping because I keep hearing those words…you have cancer.”

Trauma can have short, long, and late effects that may impact your mental, physical, emotional, social, or spiritual well-being.

• Short-term: what happens in the time right after the event. Example: Many appointments with your cancer team, telling my kids, taking a leave from work, and treatment planning.
• Long-term: the impact of the event in the 6-12 months after. Example: Surgery scars, losing my job, side effects from treatment, loneliness.
• Late effects: can happen years after a traumatic experience. Example: Worried about annual scans to check for recurrence.

What are some of the symptoms of trauma?

Trauma can affect you in many different ways. Here are some common things to be aware of:

• Emotional symptoms: feeling worried, sad, angry, numb, and overwhelmed. You may feel on edge, have mood swings, or find it hard to enjoy things you used to.
• Physical symptoms: trouble sleeping, feeling tired, body aches, sweating, racing heart, stomach problems. Your body may feel tense, achy, or off for no clear reason.
• Cognitive symptoms: feeling foggy, having a hard time concentrating, memory problems, nightmares, flashbacks, and having a hard time making decisions.
• Behavioral symptoms: increased use of alcohol, tobacco, or other substances, avoiding people, places, or situations that remind you of the event, isolating yourself from others, being easily startled, feeling irritable or on edge, loss of interest in activities, and not being able to keep up with daily tasks.

How Trauma Affects Your Health

Trauma isn’t just about emotions; it can affect your whole body and your overall health. Over time, this trauma can increase stress, impact the immune system, and make it harder to cope with treatment or survivorship. Caregivers may also feel increased stress when supporting someone with cancer. This can have a big impact on caregiver well-being, too. That’s why recognizing trauma and learning ways to cope with it are important parts of your cancer treatment.

Cancer and Trauma

For many people, a cancer diagnosis is a traumatic experience. If you’ve been through other difficult or traumatic events in the past, the stress of cancer can feel even harder to manage. These experiences can affect how safe, supported, or in control you feel during cancer care. You might find it difficult to trust your providers, speak up about your needs, or feel like a full partner in your care. That’s why understanding trauma matters. When you can name what you’re going through, it can be the first step toward feeling more empowered, connected, and supported during this challenging time. Taking care of your emotional safety and well-being is an important part of your cancer care.