To me, trauma seems to be behind any distress or suffering. And it’s a simple formula:
Trauma -> beliefs, identifications, velcro (as protection, to find a sense of safety) -> distress.
Trauma can come from small or big events, and from ongoing or one-time events. In any case, the mind responds to the event by creating trauma, and it does so through forming beliefs, identifications, and velcro. It does so to protect the (imagined) self and to find a sense of safety. These beliefs, identifications, and velcro then produce suffering and distress. When life rubs up against beliefs, as it inevitably does, suffering is typically the result.
I am using a very broad definition of trauma here. For instance, someone tells us we are chubby when we are little and this creates a deficiency story of being chubby, which in turn can lead to a lot of distress later in life. An apparently innocent comment can be experienced as traumatic, the mind responds by creating deficiency stories, beliefs, and identifications, and this creates distress.
And the reason it was experienced as traumatic in the first place is that some beliefs, velcro, and identifications were already in place. Perhaps initially just from copying adults and others around us.
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Initial notes……
- is trauma behind most or all distress?
- trauma -> velcro, beliefs, identifications so can feel more safe -> distress
- trauma can be small and/or ongoing, and still create an effect – velcro, beliefs, protection, distress