“The Inescapable Presence of Trauma”
Trauma is as common as the air we breathe nowadays. It has become inescapable. Anyone and everyone either has a trauma they are dealing with or knows of someone who has a trauma they are dealing with.
Homelessness. Mental Illness. Educational Inequity. Political Attacks. Natural Disaster. These are breeding grounds for performances of trauma. In the age of social media and high impact news reporting, the average human is absorbing information and images at a much more rapid rate. This begs the question of how trauma is being handled as well.
Writer Marie-Claire Chapret, in her 2022 article for Harper’s Bazaar, “Has Our Consumption of Trauma On Social Media Made Us More Empathetic Or Desensitised Us?”, writes, “Doomscrolling, the process by which we spend an excessive amount of screen time absorbing negative news, something more easily enabled by social media which, unlike our more traditional forms of news updates, feel constantly accessible.” Anything and everything has become immediately accessible, including trauma.
What about the interrelationship between witnessing a form of trauma, through the news for example, and how that becomes intertwined with one’s own trauma? What does this do to one’s own capacity to be empathetic as well as maintain a healthy mind and perspective? Individuals who are parents of children across all education levels deal with the byproducts of an education system imploding from outdated methodologies. These parents are also dealing with the arrested development some of their children are experiencing due to the oversaturation of trauma. This, in combination, with navigating the ongoing pitfalls of the workplace, sets a peculiar scene of conversation at the family dinner table.
Recognizing the interrelationship of trauma and bringing this awareness to the forefront could help create an environment where individuals are not easily beset. However, what about in the case of trauma dumping? Writers Ayesha Hana Shaji and McKenna Watson, in their 2022 article for The Shorthorn, “The Tough Truth Of Trauma Dumping On Social Media On Social Media”, writes, “today’s conversation is vocal, constant and ever-evolving as individuals are transparent about their mental health in professional environments…but this transparency isn’t always the best thing…instead of having meaningful conversations, people have shifted too far to an extreme and often oversaturate or exploit the topic, which can ironically result in a decline in mental health.”
Moreover, in an age where it is more common than ever to voice one’s concern through a mental health circle, team building exercise, or even a simple conversation at the dinner table. But what does it say about the state or environment as a whole when the shift goes from having an every so often conversation about trauma to an every day occurrence?
