Single Incident Trauma
What are the short-term impacts of trauma?
When you experience trauma, you are often in fear, confused, and feeling helpless and trapped, in the moment. Your stress response is triggered, and you become agitated or shut down. You may also feel sad, angry, distressed, or anxious. Many people with trauma experiences cope well and quickly become calm again. For some people, their nervous system continues to react after the threat has passed.
What is the difference between complex trauma and the trauma from a one-off incident?
We call trauma which happens with one off events: single incident trauma. Single incident trauma is often associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). People can experience single incident trauma from a bushfire, flood, sexual or physical assault in adulthood, or from fighting in a war. While people with experiences of complex trauma may also experience PTSD, complex trauma often causes greater impacts than those of PTSD alone.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
After a one-off event, some people will experience ongoing fear and panic. This can develop into Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Symptoms of PTSD include reliving of the trauma with flashbacks or nightmares, difficulty sleeping or concentrating, feeling emotionally numb, and/or avoiding reminders of the trauma.
It is known that 5% to 10% of people will experience PTSD at some period in their lives. It’s more common in women than men and in people with certain jobs such as soldiers in active combat or first responders. PTSD is often recognised with single incident when a person experiences violence or the threat of violence, including sexual violence.
It can also be part of complex trauma as well. For most people, after a one-off event, trauma-related symptoms subside. If they go on for longer than 2-4 weeks, it is best to seek help from a doctor or counsellor, to see if it is PTSD and for support and treatment.
Blue Knot Helpline and Redress Support Services are specialist services.
Our counsellors provide empathetic, informative and empowering support for adult survivors of childhood trauma (Blue Knot Helpline) and adult survivors of institutional child sexual abuse engaging with redress (Redress Support Services)
Call 1300 657 380
